Brainwashing
Brainwashing is any form of mental conditioning under torture, starvation, sleep deprivation, or hypnotism to coerce captives either to make propaganda statements or to perform some other act not in keeping with one's loyalties or moral code.
History of the term
The first modern use of the word was by CIA operative Edgar Hunter. He used it to describe "re-education" practices used on prisoners of war by the Communist Chinese during the Korean War[1].
The term later appeared in the context of religious conversion to the Unification Church, and the controversial services of Ted Patrick, who called himself a "deprogrammer." However, an investigation by the American Psychological Associations in the 1980s ended with the conclusion that "mind control" (as applied to religious conversion of volunteers) was not a scientific]]ally viable theory.[2]
References in popular culture
- The Manchurian Candidate - POW programmed to commit murder on signal [3]
- The Family Man - "Promise you won't kidnap me and my brother and plant stuff in our brains?" [1]
External Links
- How Brainwashing Works by Julia Layton (good description of how Communists abused their prisoners of war, and some interesting speculation on "doomsday" cults)
See Also
Notes
- ↑ Hunter E, "'Brain-Washing' Tactics Force Chinese into Ranks of Communist Party," Miami News, September 24, 1950. Cited by John Marks, "The Search for the Manchurian Candidate", ch. 8 ("Brainwashing"), in The Psychedelic Library. <http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/marks8.htm>
- ↑ Molko and Leal v. Unification Church, brief amicus curiae of the American Psychiatric Association, No. SF 25038, Court of Appeal No. A020935, San Francisco Superior Court No. 769-529. Hosted at Center for Studies of New Religions. <http://www.cesnur.org/testi/molko_brief.htm>
- ↑ "The story was about a joint Soviet-Chinese plot to take an American soldier captured in Korea, condition him at a special brainwashing center located in Manchuria, and create a remote-controlled assassin who was supposed to kill the President of the United States." The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control, by John Marks