Mind control
Mind control (also known as brainwashing, coercive persuasion or thought control) means trying to control other people's beliefs and behaviours.
In this process, a person or group persuades others to change their basic beliefs and values.[1] They may use unethical methods and manipulation, which often harms the people being manipulated.[2]
The term has been applied to any tactic which damages an individual's control over their own thinking, behaviour, emotions, or decision-making.
Theories about brainwashing and mind control were originally developed to explain how totalitarian regimes indoctrinated prisoners of war using propaganda and torture.
History
[change | change source]According to some authors, ideas about mind control can be found in all stages of human history.[3]
Korean War
[change | change source]According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word "brainwashing" first appeared in a Miami News article on 7 October 1950.
The article's author, Edward Hunter, worked as a journalist and a United States intelligence agent during the Korean War. He wrote a series of books and articles about Chinese brainwashing.[4]
The Chinese term 洗腦 (xǐ năo, literally "wash brain")[5] originally described methods used by Mao Zedong's regime in China. Their purpose was to change a person's mindset so they became a "right-thinking" member of the new Chinese social system.[6]
Unlike in earlier wars, a relatively high percentage of American GIs defected to the enemy side after becoming prisoners-of-war. Hunter and others thought that brainwashing explained this.
Two former prisoners of war, British radio operator Robert W. Ford[7][8] and British Army Colonel James Carne, claimed the Chinese tried to brainwash them during their imprisonment.
In a famous case, an American prisoner of war named Frank Schwable was tortured until he falsely confessed that he participated in germ warfare.[9]
Cults and the shift of focus
[change | change source]After the Korean War, mind control theories shifted in focus from politics to religion. New religious movements started to emerge in the 1960s.[10] More and more young people converted and joined them. Some of these converts suddenly changed their beliefs and behaviors; in some cases, they neglected or broke contact with their loved ones. People in the anti-cult movement said these sudden converts had been brainwashed.[11][12][13]
The media quickly began to report this theory.[14] Social scientists sympathetic to the anti-cult movement, who were usually psychologists, developed more sophisticated models of brainwashing.[12] While some psychologists were agreed with these theories, most sociologists doubted that mind control could explain why people converted to new religious movements.[15]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ Kowal D.M. 2000. Brainwashing. In A.E. Kazdin (ed) Encyclopedia of psychology, vol. 1 (pp. 463-464). American Psychological Association. doi:10.1037/10516-173
- ↑ Langone, Michael. "Cults: Questions and Answers". www.csj.org. International Cultic Studies Association. Archived from the original on 2016-08-03. Retrieved 2009-12-27.
Mind control (also referred to as 'brainwashing,' 'coercive persuasion,' 'thought reform,' and the 'systematic manipulation of psychological and social influence') refers to a process in which a group or individual systematically uses unethically manipulative methods to persuade others to conform to the wishes of the manipulator(s), often to the detriment of the person being manipulated.
- ↑ Sargant, William 1957. Battle for the mind: a physiology of brain-washing. London: Heinemann. Especially: Chapter 8 Brainwashing in ancient times, by Robert Graves.
- ↑ Marks, John (1979). "8. Brainwashing". The search for the Manchurian Candidate: the CIA and mind control. New York: Times Books. ISBN 0-8129-0773-6. Retrieved 2008-12-30.
In September 1950, the Miami News published an article by Edward Hunter titled '"Brain-Washing" tactics force Chinese into ranks of Communist Party.' It was the first printed use in any language of the term "brainwashing," which quickly became a stock phrase in Cold War headlines. Hunter, a CIA propaganda operator who worked under cover as a journalist, turned out a steady stream of books and articles on the subject.
- ↑ Chinese English Dictionary
- ↑ Taylor, Kathleen (2006). Brainwashing: the science of thought control. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 336. ISBN 978-0-19-920478-6.
- ↑ Ford RC (1990). Captured in Tibet. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-581570-X.
- ↑ Ford RC (1997). Wind between the worlds: captured in Tibet. SLG Books. ISBN 0-9617066-9-4.
- ↑ New York Times: "Red germ charges cite 2 U.S. Marines," February 23, 1954, accessed February 16, 2012
- ↑ Barrett D.V. 2001. The new believers: a survey of sects, cults and alternative religions . London: Cassell. [1]
- ↑ Melton, J. Gordon (1999). "Brainwashing and the cults: the rise and fall of a theory". CESNUR: Center for Studies on New Religions. Retrieved 2009-06-15.
In the United States at the end of the 1970s, brainwashing emerged as a popular theoretical construct around which to understand what appeared to be a sudden rise of new and unfamiliar religious movements during the previous decade, especially those associated with the hippie street-people phenomenon.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Bromley, David G. (1998). "Brainwashing". In William H. Swatos Jr. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Religion and Society. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira. pp. 61–62. ISBN 978-0-7619-8956-1.
- ↑ Barker, Eileen: New religious movements: a practical introduction. London: Her Majesty's Stationery office, 1989.
- ↑ Wright, Stewart A. (1997). "Media coverage of unconventional religion: Any 'Good News' for minority faiths?". Review of Religious Research. 39 (2): 101–115. doi:10.2307/3512176. JSTOR 3512176.
- ↑ Barker, Eileen (1986). "Religious movements: cult and anti-cult since Jonestown". Annual Review of Sociology. 12: 329–346. doi:10.1146/annurev.so.12.080186.001553.