Hazing, ragging and fagging

Domain XVI · Historical, discredited & harmful · 1700 · England, India and North America

What it is

Hazing, ragging and fagging are not therapies. They are group practices in which newcomers or juniors are subjected to humiliation, abuse, danger or servitude as a condition of joining, belonging or staying. Hazing is the usual North American term (college fraternities and sororities, athletic…

Format

• Hazing work is not a manualised therapy; session number, length and format follow the client's needs and the setting. The phases below organise the psychotherapist's work; the historical phases are given in outline for context.
• Processing and repair. Goal: work with shame, fear, anger, loyalty binds, guilt and moral injury; restore sleep and routine; rebuild belonging outside the abusive group. Move on when symptoms ease and the client can think about the group without overwhelming shame or compulsive loyalty.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Ragging in India. Following Supreme Court orders in University of Kerala v. Council, Principals' Colleges, Kerala and others (SLP 24295 of 2006, order of 16 May 2007, and a later order of 8 May 2009 in Civil Appeal 887 of 2009), the UGC issued binding 2009 Regulations.
• Version followed: hazing, ragging and fagging as set out in the US federal definition in the Stop Campus Hazing Act (signed 23 December 2024, amending the Clery Act); the University Grants Commission (UGC) Regulations on Curbing the Menace of Ragging in Higher Educational Institutions, 2009 (India); the working definition and findings of Allan and Madden's National Study of Student Hazing (2008); and, for fagging,…
• The UGC Regulations define ragging broadly, from rude or demeaning treatment of a fresher to forced humiliating acts, extortion, physical and sexual abuse, online insults and anything that harms a student's mental health or self-confidence, whether or not the perpetrator intends sadistic pleasure or a show of power.

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• How do you and the practitioner understand what is happening, in spiritual or cultural terms? Is that a source of comfort, worry, or both?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• drinking framed as group duty. Working when use and sleep stabilise.
• pressure to keep matters "in house". Working when the concern is formally recorded and acted on.
• dissociation, flooding. Working when the client can describe triggers and links without overwhelm.
• withdrawal, avoidance of campus or base. Working when the client re-engages with ordinary settings.
• the client fearing that disclosure will identify the group. Working when practical pressures reduce.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.