Editing Brainwashing

{{Short description|Concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled}}
{{Redirect-several|dab=no|Brainwashing (disambiguation)|Mind control (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2015}}
[[File:Mural sobre calle San Juan - Florencio Varela.JPG|thumb|Mural depicting the "brainwashing" effects of television in  [[Florencio Varela, Buenos Aires|Florencio Varela]], [[Argentina]]]]
{{Behavioural influences}}

'''Brainwashing''', also known as '''mind control''', '''menticide''', '''coercive persuasion''',  '''thought control''', '''thought reform''', and '''forced re-education''', is the controversial theory that purports that the human mind can be altered or controlled against a person's will by manipulative psychological techniques.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/brainwashing | title=Brainwashing &#124; Cults, Indoctrination, Manipulation &#124; Britannica }}</ref> Brainwashing is said to reduce its subject's ability to think critically or independently, to allow the introduction of new, unwanted thoughts and ideas into their minds,<ref>{{cite book|title=Campbell's Psychiatric Dictionary|author=Campbell, Robert Jean|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=USA|year=2004|page=403}}</ref> as well as to change their attitudes, values, and beliefs.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Dictionary of Psychology|author=Corsini, Raymond J.|publisher=Psychology Press|year=2002|page=127}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Kowal, D.M.|year=2000|contribution=Brainwashing|editor=Love, A.E.|title=Encyclopedia of Psychology|volume=1|pages=463–464|publisher=American Psychological Association|doi=10.1037/10516-173|isbn=1-55798-650-9 }}</ref>

The term "brainwashing" was first used in English by [[Edward Hunter (U.S. journalist)|Edward Hunter]] in 1950 to describe how the [[Chinese government]] appeared to make people cooperate with them during the [[Korean War]]. Research into the concept also looked at [[Nazi Germany]] and present-day [[North Korea]], at some criminal cases in the United States, and at the actions of [[Human trafficking|human traffickers]]. 

In the late 1960s and 1970s, the CIA's [[MKUltra]] experiments failed with no operational use of the subjects. [[Scientific]] and [[legal]] debate followed, as well as media attention, about the possibility of brainwashing being a factor when [[lysergic acid diethylamide]] (LSD) was used,<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Religion|volume=2|publisher=Gyan Publishing House|year=2005}}</ref> or in the conversion of people to groups which are considered to be [[cult]]s.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Wright|first=Stuart|title=Media coverage of unconventional religion: Any "good news" for minority faiths?|journal=Review of Religious Research|date=December 1997|volume=39|issue=2|pages=101–115|doi=10.2307/3512176|jstor=3512176}}</ref>

Brainwashing has become a common theme in popular culture, especially in [[science fiction]].<ref>{{cite book|author=O'Brien, Terry|title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2005|editor=Westfahl, Gary|volume=1}} {{ISBN?}}</ref> In casual speech, "brainwashing" and its verb form, "brainwash", are used [[Literal and figurative language|figuratively]] to describe the use of [[propaganda]] to sway [[public opinion]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brainwash|title=Brainwash Definition & Meaning|date=22 July 2023|publisher=Merriam-Webster Dictionary|access-date=23 November 2022|archive-date=23 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221123204547/https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brainwash|url-status=live}}</ref>

==China and the Korean War==
{{See also|Thought reform in China}}
The Chinese term {{translit|zh|xǐnǎo}} ({{lang-zh|t=洗腦|s=洗脑|first=t}} {{lit|wash brain}})<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=%E6%B4%97%E8%85%A6|title=Word dictionary – 洗腦 – MDBG English to Chinese dictionary|website=mdbg.net|access-date=31 January 2011|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304191659/http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=%E6%B4%97%E8%85%A6|url-status=live}}</ref> was originally used by early 20th century Chinese intellectuals to refer to modernizing one's way of thinking.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mitchell |first1=Ryan |title=China and the Political Myth of 'Brainwashing |journal=Made in China Journal |date=July–September 2019 |volume=3 |url=https://madeinchinajournal.com/2019/10/08/china-and-the-political-myth-of-brainwashing |access-date=1 June 2024 |archive-date=1 June 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240601072751/https://madeinchinajournal.com/2019/10/08/china-and-the-political-myth-of-brainwashing/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The term was later used to describe the coercive [[persuasion]] used under the [[Maoist]] government in China, which aimed to transform "reactionary" people into "right-thinking" members of the new Chinese social system.<ref>{{cite book|last=Taylor|first= Kathleen|author-link= Kathleen Taylor (biologist)|title=Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=D3tYeMLc4hQC|access-date=2010-07-02|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, UK|isbn=978-0199204786|page=5}}</ref> The term [[pun]]ned on the [[Taoist]] custom of "cleansing/washing the heart/mind" ({{lang-zh|c=洗心|p=xǐxīn}}) before conducting ceremonies or entering holy places.<ref group=lower-alpha>'''Note:''' ''xīn'' can mean "heart", "mind", or "centre" depending on context. For example, {{lang|zh-Latn|{{ill|xīn zàng bìng|zh|心脏病|vertical-align=sup}}}} means [[Cardiovascular disease]], but {{lang|zh-Latn|{{ill|xīn lǐ yī shēng|zh|心理医生|vertical-align=sup}}}} means [[psychologist]], and {{lang|zh-Latn|{{ill|shì zhōng xīn|zh|市中心|vertical-align=sup}}}} means [[Central business district]].</ref>

The earliest known English-language usage of the word "brainwashing" in an article by a journalist [[Edward Hunter (U.S. journalist)|Edward Hunter]], in ''Miami News'', published in 1950.<ref name="Crean">{{Cite book |last=Crean |first=Jeffrey |title=The Fear of Chinese Power: an International History |date=2024 |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Academic]] |isbn=978-1-350-23394-2 |edition= |series=New Approaches to International History series |location=London, UK |pages=82}}</ref> Hunter was an [[Anti-communism|anticommunist]] and was alleged to be a [[CIA]] agent working undercover.<ref name=MarksJohn1979>{{cite book|last=Marks|first=John|author-link=John D. Marks|title=The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and mind control|url=https://archive.org/details/searchformanchur00john|access-date=2008-12-30|year=1979|publisher=Times Books|location=New York|isbn=978-0812907735|chapter=Chapter&nbsp;8. Brainwashing|chapter-url=http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/marks8.htm|quote=In September&nbsp;1950, the ''[[The Miami News|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", Hunter, a CIA propaganda operator who worked undercover as a journalist, turned out a steady stream of books and articles on the subject. }}</ref> Hunter and others used the Chinese term to explain why, during the [[Korean War]] (1950–1953), some American [[prisoners of war]] (POWs) cooperated with their Chinese captors, and even in a few cases [[List of American and British defectors in the Korean War|defected to their side]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Michael|last=Browning|title=Was kidnapped Utah teen brainwashed?|work=[[Palm Beach Post]]|location=Palm Beach|issn=1528-5758|date=2003-03-14|quote=During the Korean War, captured American soldiers were subjected to prolonged interrogations and harangues by their captors, who often worked in relays and used the "good-cop, bad-cop" approach – alternating a brutal interrogator with a gentle one. It was all part of "Xi Nao" (''washing the brain''). The Chinese and Koreans were making valiant attempts to convert the captives to the communist way of thought.}}</ref> British radio operator [[Robert W. Ford]]<ref>{{cite book|author=Ford, R.C.|author-link=Robert W. Ford|title=Captured in Tibet|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|location=Oxford [Oxfordshire]|year=1990|isbn=978-0195815702}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author-link=Robert W. Ford|author=Ford, R.C.|title=Wind between the Worlds: Captured in Tibet|publisher=SLG Books|year=1997|isbn=978-0961706692|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/windbetweenworld00ford }}</ref> and British army Colonel [[James Carne]] also claimed that the Chinese subjected them to brainwashing techniques during their imprisonment.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/02/23/83712037.pdf|title=Red germ charges cite 2 U.S. Marines|date=23 February 1954|access-date=16 February 2012}}</ref>

The U.S. military and government laid charges of brainwashing in an effort to undermine confessions made by POWs to war crimes, including [[Allegations of biological warfare in the Korean War|biological warfare]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Stephen|last1=Endicott|first2=Edward|last2=Hagerman|title=The United States and Biological Warfare: Secrets from the early Cold War|url=https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesbiol00endi |url-access=registration |publisher=Indiana University Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0253334725}}</ref> After Chinese radio broadcasts claimed to quote [[Frank Schwable]], Chief of Staff of the [[1st Marine Aircraft Wing|First Marine Air Wing]] admitting to participating in germ warfare, United Nations commander General [[Mark W. Clark]] asserted: "Whether these statements ever passed the lips of these unfortunate men is doubtful. If they did, however, too familiar are the mind-annihilating methods of these Communists in extorting whatever words they want ... The men themselves are not to blame, and they have my deepest sympathy for having been used in this abominable way."<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1953/02/24/93602632.pdf|title=Clark denounces germ war charges|date=24 February 1953|access-date=16 February 2012}}</ref>

Beginning in 1953, [[Robert Jay Lifton]] interviewed American servicemen who had been POWs during the [[Korean War]] as well as priests, students, and teachers who had been held in prison in China after 1951. In addition to interviews with 25 Americans and Europeans, Lifton interviewed 15 Chinese citizens who had fled after having been subjected to indoctrination in Chinese universities. (Lifton's 1961 book ''[[Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China]]'', was based on this research.)<ref>{{cite book|author=Wilkes, A.L.|title=Knowledge in Minds|page=323|publisher=Psychology Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0863774393}}</ref> Lifton found that when the POWs returned to the United States their thinking soon returned to normal, contrary to the popular image of "brainwashing."<ref name="Home_by_Ship">{{cite journal|title=Home by Ship: Reaction patterns of American prisoners of war repatriated from North Korea|journal=American Journal of Psychiatry|date=April 1954|first=Robert J.|last=Lifton|volume=110|issue=10|pages=732–739|pmid=13138750|doi=10.1176/ajp.110.10.732}}</ref>

In 1956, after reexamining the concept of brainwashing following the Korean War, the U.S. Army published a report entitled ''Communist Interrogation, Indoctrination, and Exploitation of Prisoners of War'', which called brainwashing a "popular misconception". The report concludes that  "exhaustive research of several government agencies failed to reveal even one conclusively documented case of 'brainwashing' of an American prisoner of war in Korea."<ref>{{cite book|author=U.S. Department of the Army|title=Communist Interrogation, Indoctrination, and Exploitation of Prisoners of War.|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|id=Pamphlet number 30-101|date=15 May 1956|location=Washington, DC|url=http://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fau%3A32574/datastream/OBJ/view/Communist_interrogation_indoctrination__and_exploitation_of_prisoners_of_war.pdf|pages=17, 51|access-date=7 March 2019|archive-date=4 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804001206/http://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fau%3A32574/datastream/OBJ/view/Communist_interrogation_indoctrination__and_exploitation_of_prisoners_of_war.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

==Legal cases and the "brainwashing defense"==
[[File:Hearst-hibernia-yell.jpg|200 px|alt=|thumb|Bank robbery by [[Patty Hearst]] and [[Symbionese Liberation Army]] members<ref name="Famous Pictures Magazine">{{cite web|date= May 14, 2013|url= http://www.famouspictures.org/patty-hearst/|title= Patty Hearst|publisher= Famous Pictures Magazine|access-date= January 21, 2016|last= Lucas|first=Dean}}</ref>]]
The concept of brainwashing has been raised in defense of criminal charges. The 1969 to 1971 case of [[Charles Manson]], who was said to have brainwashed his followers to commit murder and other crimes, brought the issue to renewed public attention.<ref>''Minds on Trial: Great Cases in Law and Psychology'', by Charles Patrick Ewing, Joseph T. McCann pp. 34–36</ref><ref>''Shifting the Blame: How Victimization Became a Criminal Defense'', Saundra Davis Westervelt, Rutgers University Press, 1998. p. 158</ref>

In 1974, [[Patty Hearst]], a member of the wealthy [[William Randolph Hearst|Hearst family]], was [[Kidnapping|kidnapped]] by the [[Symbionese Liberation Army]], a left-wing militant organization. After several weeks of captivity, she agreed to join the group and took part in their activities. In 1975, she was arrested and charged with bank robbery and the use of a gun in committing a felony. Her attorney, [[F. Lee Bailey]], argued in her trial that she should not be held responsible for her actions since her treatment by her captors was the equivalent of the alleged brainwashing of Korean War POWs (see also [[Diminished responsibility]]).<ref name="Regreligion">''Regulating Religion: Case Studies from Around the Globe'', James T. Richardson, Springer Science & Business Media,  2012, p. 518 {{ISBN?}}</ref> Bailey developed his case in conjunction with psychiatrist [[Louis Jolyon West]] and psychologist [[Margaret Singer]]. They had both studied the experiences of Korean War POWs. (In 1996, Singer published her theories in her best-selling book ''[[Cults in Our Midst]]''.<ref name="refocus.org">[http://www.refocus.org/singerne.html ''Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150202034934/http://www.refocus.org/singerne.html|date=2 February 2015}}, Margaret Thaler Singer, Jossey-Bass, publisher, 2003, {{ISBN|0787967416}}</ref><ref name="clarke">{{Cite book|last1=Clarke|first1=Peter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DouBAgAAQBAJ|title=Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements|last2=Clarke|first2=Reader in Modern History Fellow Peter|date=2004|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1134499700}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Hilts|first=Philip J.|date=9 January 1999|title=Louis J. West, 74, Psychiatrist Who Studied Extremes, Dies|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/09/us/louis-j-west-74-psychiatrist-who-studied-extremes-dies.html|access-date=31 December 2016|archive-date=15 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231215032513/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/09/us/louis-j-west-74-psychiatrist-who-studied-extremes-dies.html|url-status=live}}</ref>) Despite this defense, Hearst was found guilty.<ref name="Regreligion" />

In 1990, [[Steven Fishman]], who was a member of the [[Church of Scientology]], was charged with [[mail fraud]] for conducting a scheme to sue large corporations via conspiring with minority stockholders in shareholder class action lawsuits. Fishman's attorneys notified the court that they intended to rely on an [[insanity defense]], using the theories of brainwashing and the expert witnesses of Singer and [[Richard Ofshe]] to claim that the Church of Scientology had practiced brainwashing on him, which left him unsuitable to make independent decisions.

The court ruled that the use of brainwashing theories is inadmissible in expert witnesses, citing the [[Frye standard]], which states that scientific theories utilized by expert witnesses must be generally accepted in their respective fields.<ref>{{cite news|title=United States v. Fishman (1990)|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/743/713/2593631/|newspaper=Justia Law|access-date=26 November 2019|archive-date=19 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190419065120/https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/743/713/2593631/|url-status=live}}</ref> Since then, United States courts have consistently rejected testimony about mind control or brainwashing on the grounds that these theories are not part of accepted science under the Frye standard.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Anthony |first1=Dick |last2=Robbins |first2=Thomas |date=1992 |title=Law, social science and the 'brainwashing' exception to the first amendment |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bsl.2370100103 |journal=Behavioral Sciences & the Law |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=5–29 |doi=10.1002/bsl.2370100103 |access-date=2023-03-13 |archive-date=13 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313224058/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bsl.2370100103 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 2003, the brainwashing defense was used unsuccessfully in defense of [[Lee Boyd Malvo]], who was charged with murder for his part in the [[D.C. sniper attacks]].<ref>''Mental Condition Defences and the Criminal Justice System: Perspectives from Law and Medicine'', Ben Livings, Alan Reed, Nicola Wake, Cambridge Scholars Publishing,  2015, p. 98 {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref name="Oldenburg">Oldenburg, Don (2003-11-21). [http://www.crimlaw.org/defbrief269.html "Stressed to Kill: The Defense of Brainwashing; Sniper Suspect's Claim Triggers More Debate"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501144721/http://www.crimlaw.org/defbrief269.html|date=1 May 2011}}, ''[[The Washington Post]]'', reproduced in ''Defence Brief'', issue 269, published by Steven Skurka & Associates</ref>  Allegations of brainwashing have also been raised by plaintiffs in child custody cases.<ref>[[Richard Warshak|Warshak, R. A.]] (2010). ''Divorce Poison: How to Protect Your Family from Bad-mouthing and Brainwashing''. New York: Harper Collins.</ref><ref>Richardson, James T. ''Regulating Religion: Case Studies from Around the Globe'', Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers 2004, p. 16, {{ISBN|978-0306478871}}.</ref>

[[Thomas Andrew Green]], in his 2014 book ''Freedom and Criminal Responsibility in American Legal Thought'', argues that the brainwashing defense undermines the law's fundamental premise of [[free will]].<ref>''Freedom and Criminal Responsibility in American Legal Thought'', Thomas Andrew Green, Cambridge University Press, 2014, p. 391 {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>''LaFave's Criminal Law,'' 5th (Hornbook Series), Wayne LaFave, West Academic, 18 March 2010, pp. 208–210 {{ISBN?}}</ref> In 2003, forensic psychologist [[Dick Anthony]] said that "no reasonable person would question that there are situations where people can be influenced against their best interests, but those arguments are evaluated based on fact, not bogus expert testimony."<ref name="Oldenburg" />

==Anti-cult movement==
{{Main|Anti-cult movement}}

[[File:Philip_Zimbardo_(cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Phillip Zimbardo]]]]
In the 1970s and 1980s, the anti-cult movement applied the concept of brainwashing to explain seemingly sudden and dramatic [[religious conversion]]s to some [[new religious movement]]s (NRMs) and other groups that they considered [[cults]].<ref name="BromleyEncy">{{cite book|chapter=Brainwashing|last=Bromley|first= David G.|year=1998|pages=61–62|title=Encyclopedia of Religion and Society|editor=William H. Swatos Jr.|publisher=AltaMira|location=Walnut Creek, CA|isbn=978-0-7619-8956-1}}</ref><ref>Barker, Eileen: ''New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction''. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1989.</ref>  News media reports tended to accept their view<ref name="Wright">{{cite journal|author=Wright, Stewart A.|year=1997|title=Media Coverage of Unconventional Religion: Any 'Good News' for Minority Faiths?|journal=Review of Religious Research|volume=39|issue=2|pages=101–115|doi=10.2307/3512176|jstor=3512176}}</ref> and [[social scientists]] sympathetic to the anti-cult movement, who were usually [[psychologists]], developed revised models of mind control.<ref name="BromleyEncy" /> While some psychologists were receptive to the concept, sociologists were, for the most part, skeptical of its ability to explain conversion.<ref name="BarkerAReview">{{cite journal|author=Barker, Eileen|year=1986|title=Religious Movements: Cult and Anti-Cult Since Jonestown|journal=Annual Review of Sociology|volume=12|pages=329–346|doi=10.1146/annurev.so.12.080186.001553}}</ref> Critics of [[Mormonism]] have accused it of brainwashing its adherents.<ref name="Helfrich 2021 p. 15">{{cite book | last=Helfrich | first=R. | title=Mormon Studies: A Critical History | publisher=McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers | year=2021 | isbn=978-1-4766-4511-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tFlXEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 | access-date=2023-06-15 | page=15 | archive-date=14 October 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231014211739/https://books.google.com/books?id=tFlXEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 | url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Philip Zimbardo]] defined mind control as "the process by which individual or collective freedom of choice and action is compromised by agents or agencies that modify or distort perception, motivation, affect, cognition or behavioral outcomes,"<ref name="Zimbardo 2002">{{cite journal|last=Zimbardo|first=Philip G.|author-link=Philip Zimbardo|date=November 2002|title=Mind Control: Psychological Reality or Mindless Rhetoric?|journal=Monitor on Psychology|url=http://www.icsahome.com/articles/mind-control-zimbardo|access-date=2016-06-02|quote=Mind control is the process by which individual or collective freedom of choice and action is compromised by agents or agencies that modify or distort perception, motivation, affect, cognition or behavioral outcomes. It is neither magical nor mystical, but a process that involves a set of basic social psychological principles. Conformity, compliance, persuasion, dissonance, reactance, guilt and fear arousal, modeling, and identification are some of the staple social influence ingredients well-studied in psychological experiments and field studies. In some combinations, they create a powerful crucible of extreme mental and behavioral [[Psychological manipulation|manipulation]] when synthesized with several other real-world factors, such as charismatic, authoritarian leaders, dominant ideologies, social isolation, physical debilitation, induced phobias, and extreme threats or promised rewards that are typically deceptively orchestrated, over an extended time period in settings where they are applied intensively. A body of social science evidence shows that when systematically practiced by state-sanctioned police, military or destructive cults, mind control can induce false confessions, create converts who willingly torture or kill 'invented enemies,' and engage indoctrinated members to work tirelessly, give up their money—and even their lives—for 'the cause.'|archive-date=4 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160704120313/http://www.icsahome.com/articles/mind-control-zimbardo|url-status=dead}}</ref> and he suggested that any human being is susceptible to such manipulation.<ref name="Zimbardo 1997 14">{{cite journal|last=Zimbardo|first=P|author-link=Philip Zimbardo|url=http://www.csj.org/studyindex/studycult/study_zimbar.htm|page=14|title=What messages are behind today's cults?|journal=Monitor on Psychology|year=1997|access-date=1 October 2009|archive-date=2 May 1998|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19980502070642/http://csj.org/studyindex/studycult/study_zimbar.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Benjamin Zablocki]], late professor of sociology at [[Rutgers]] university said that the number of people who attest to brainwashing in interviews (performed in accordance with guidelines of the [[National Institute of Mental Health]] and [[National Science Foundation]]) is too large to result from anything other than a genuine phenomenon.<ref name="zablocki-p194-201">{{cite book|last=Zablocki|first=Benjamin|title=Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field|year=2001|publisher=U of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-8188-9|pages=194–201}}</ref> He said that in the two most prestigious journals dedicated to the [[sociology of religion]] there have been no articles "supporting the brainwashing perspective," while over one hundred such articles have been published in other journals "marginal to the field."<ref name="Zablocki1998">{{cite journal|title=TReply to Bromley|journal=Nova Religio|date=April 1998|first=Benjamin.|last=Zablocki|volume=1|issue=2|pages=267–271|doi=10.1525/nr.1998.1.2.267}}</ref> He concluded that the concept of brainwashing had been [[blacklisted]].<ref name="Zablocki1997">{{cite journal|journal=Nova Religio|date=October 1997|first=Benjamin.|last=Zablocki|volume=1|issue=1|pages=96–121|doi=10.1525/nr.1997.1.1.96|title=The Blacklisting of a Concept: The Strange History of the Brainwashing Conjecture in the Sociology of Religion }}</ref><ref name="Zablocki1998" /><ref>Phil Zuckerman. ''Invitation to the Sociology of Religion''. Psychology Press, 24 July 2003 p. 28 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

[[Eileen Barker]] criticized the concept of mind control because it functioned to justify costly interventions such as [[deprogramming]] or exit counseling.<ref name="Rusher">[https://web.archive.org/web/20050415093632/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_v38/ai_4580948 Review], [[William Rusher]], ''[[National Review]]'', 19 December 1986.</ref> She has also criticized some mental health professionals, including Singer, for accepting expert witness jobs in court cases involving NRMs.<ref name="BarkerJoke">{{cite journal|author=Barker, Eileen|year=1995|title=The Scientific Study of Religion? You Must Be Joking!|journal=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion|volume=34|issue=3|pages=287–310|doi=10.2307/1386880|jstor=1386880}}</ref>  Barker's 1984 book, ''[[The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing?]]'',<ref>[[Eileen Barker]], ''The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing?'', [[Blackwell's|Blackwell Publishers]], Oxford, United Kingdom, {{ISBN|0-631-13246-5}}.</ref> describes the religious conversion process to the [[Unification Church]] (whose members are sometimes informally referred to as ''[[Moonie (nickname)|Moonies]]''), which had been one of the best-known groups said to practice brainwashing.<ref name="Barker2012">[http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/03/my-take-moons-death-marks-end-of-an-era/ Moon's death marks end of an era] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829065856/http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/03/my-take-moons-death-marks-end-of-an-era/ |date=29 August 2019 }}, [[Eileen Barker]], [[CNN]], 3 September 2012, Although Moon is likely to be remembered for all these things—mass weddings, accusations of brainwashing, political intrigue and enormous wealth—he should also be remembered as creating what was arguably one of the most comprehensive and innovative theologies embraced by a new religion of the period.</ref><ref name="usatoday2012-09-02a">{{cite news|url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-09-02/unification-church-rev-moon-dies/57537454/1|title=Unification Church founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon dies at 92|author=Hyung-Jin Kim|work=USA Today|issn=0734-7456|date=2 September 2012|access-date=2 September 2012|quote=The Rev. Sun Myung Moon was a self-proclaimed messiah who built a global business empire. He called both North Korean leaders and American presidents his friends but spent time in prisons in both countries. His followers around the world cherished him, while his detractors accused him of brainwashing recruits and extracting money from worshippers.|archive-date=29 September 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120929230011/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/story/2012-09-02/unification-church-rev-moon-dies/57537454/1|url-status=dead}}</ref> Barker spent close to seven years studying Unification Church members and wrote that she rejects the "brainwashing" theory because it does not explain why many people attended a recruitment meeting and did not become members nor why so many members voluntarily disaffiliate or leave groups.<ref name="Rusher" /><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20060618211708/http://web.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/diskus/chryssides.html New Religious Movements – Some Problems of Definition] [[George Chryssides]], ''Diskus'', 1997.</ref><ref>[http://faculty.arec.umd.edu/cmcausland/RALi/The%20Market%20for%20Martyrs.pdf The Market for Martyrs] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111212356/http://faculty.arec.umd.edu/cmcausland/RALi/The%20Market%20for%20Martyrs.pdf|date=11 January 2012 }}, [[Laurence Iannaccone]], [[George Mason University]], 2006, "One of the most comprehensive and influential studies was ''The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing?'' by Eileen Barker (1984). Barker could find no evidence that Moonie recruits were ever kidnapped, confined, or coerced. Participants at Moonie retreats were not [[deprived of sleep]]; the lectures were not "trance-inducing" and there was not much chanting, no drugs or alcohol, and little that could be termed a "frenzy" or "ecstatic" experience. People were free to leave, and leave they did. Barker's extensive enumerations showed that among the recruits who went so far as to attend two-day retreats (claimed to beMoonie's most effective means of "brainwashing"), fewer than 25% joined the group for more than a week, and only 5% remained full-time members one year later. And, of course, most contacts dropped out before attending a retreat. Of all those who visited a Moonie center at least once, not one in two hundred remained in the movement two years later. With failure rates exceeding 99.5%, it comes as no surprise that full-time Moonie membership in the U.S. never exceeded a few thousand. And this was one of the most successful New Religious Movements of the era!"</ref><ref>Oakes, Len "By far the best study of the conversion process is Eileen Barker's ''The Making of a Moonie [...]''" from ''Prophetic Charisma: The Psychology of Revolutionary Religious Personalities'', 1997, {{ISBN|0-8156-0398-3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Storr |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Storr |title=Feet of clay: a study of gurus |year=1996 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=0-684-83495-2}}</ref> 

[[James Richardson (sociologist)|James Richardson]] said that if the new religious movements had access to powerful brainwashing techniques, one would expect that they would have high growth rates, yet in fact, most have not had notable success in recruiting or retaining members.<ref name="Richardson1985">{{cite journal|title=The active vs. passive convert: paradigm conflict in conversion/recruitment research|journal=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion|date=June 1985|first=James T.|last=Richardson|volume=24|issue=2|pages=163–179|doi=10.2307/1386340|jstor=1386340}}</ref> For this and other reasons, sociologists of religion including [[David G. Bromley|David Bromley]] and [[Anson Shupe]] consider the idea that "cults" are brainwashing American youth to be "implausible."<ref name="brain_wash">{{cite web|url=http://www.religioustolerance.org/brain_wa.htm|title=Brainwashing by Religious Cults|work=religioustolerance.org|access-date=23 November 2004|archive-date=19 April 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419010810/http://www.religioustolerance.org/brain_wa.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Thomas Robbins (sociologist)|Thomas Robbins]], [[Massimo Introvigne]], [[Lorne Dawson]], [[Gordon Melton]], [[Marc Galanter (psychiatrist)|Marc Galanter]], and [[Saul Levine]], amongst other scholars researching NRMs, have argued and established to the satisfaction of courts, relevant professional associations and scientific communities that there exists no generally accepted scientific theory, based upon methodologically sound research, that supports the concept of brainwashing.<ref>Richardson, James T. 2009. "Religion and The Law" in ''The Oxford Handbook of the Sociology of Religion''. Peter Clarke. (ed) Oxford Handbooks Online. p. 426</ref>

In 1999, [[forensic psychologist]] [[Dick Anthony]] criticized another adherent to this view, [[Jean-Marie Abgrall]], for allegedly employing a [[pseudo-scientific|pseudoscientific]] approach and lacking any evidence that anyone's [[worldview]] was substantially changed by these coercive methods. He claimed that the concept and the fear surrounding it was used as a tool for the anti-cult movement to rationalize the persecution of minority religious groups.<ref>{{cite journal| doi=10.1023/A:1022081411463| volume=12| issue=4| title=Pseudoscience and Minority Religions: An Evaluation of the Brainwashing Theories of Jean-Marie Abgrall| journal=Social Justice Research| pages=421–456|year = 1999|last1 = Anthony|first1 = Dick| s2cid=140454555 }}</ref> Additionally, Anthony, in the book ''[[Misunderstanding Cults]]'', argues that the term "brainwashing" has such [[Sensationalism|sensationalist]] [[connotation]]s that its use is detrimental to any further scientific inquiry.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field |title-link=Misunderstanding Cults |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-8020-8188-9 |editor-last=Zablocki |editor-first=Benjamin |editor-link=Benjamin Zablocki |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=pJ9Nmc25xNAC&q=sensationalist+connotations&pg=PA21 21] |language=en |chapter=Introduction: Finding a Middle Ground in a Polarized Scholarly Arena |editor-last2=Robbins |editor-first2=Thomas |editor-link2=Thomas Robbins (sociologist)}}</ref>

In 2016, Israeli anthropologist of religion and fellow at the [[Van Leer Jerusalem Institute]] Adam Klin-Oron said about then proposed "anti-cult" legislation: 
{{Blockquote|In the 1980s there was a wave of 'brainwashing' claims, and then parliaments around the world examined the issue, courts around the world examined the issue, and reached a clear ruling: That there is no such thing as cults…that the people making these claims are often not experts on the issue. And in the end courts, including in Israel, rejected expert witnesses who claimed there is "brainwashing."<ref>[http://www.timesofisrael.com/will-israels-first-anti-cult-legislation-harm-religious-freedom] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019202350/http://www.timesofisrael.com/will-israels-first-anti-cult-legislation-harm-religious-freedom/ |date=19 October 2017 }}, ''[[Times of Israel]]''</ref>}}

==Scientific research==
[[File:ProjectMKULTRA Senate Report.pdf|thumb|1977 United States Senate report on [[Project MKUltra]], the [[Central Intelligence Agency]]'s program of research into brainwashing]]

===Research by the U.S. government===
{{Main|Project MKUltra}}

For 20 years, starting in the early 1950s, the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) and the [[United States Department of Defense|U.S. Department of Defense]] conducted secret research, including [[Project MKUltra]], in an attempt to develop practical brainwashing techniques; These experiments ranged "from [[electroshock]] to high doses of [[Lysergic acid diethylamide|LSD]]".<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url = https://www.npr.org/2019/09/09/758989641/the-cias-secret-quest-for-mind-control-torture-lsd-and-a-poisoner-in-chief|title = The CIA's Secret Quest for Mind Control: Torture, LSD and A 'Poisoner in Chief'|newspaper = NPR.org|access-date = 20 July 2021|archive-date = 28 June 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210628081520/https://www.npr.org/2019/09/09/758989641/the-cias-secret-quest-for-mind-control-torture-lsd-and-a-poisoner-in-chief|url-status = live}}</ref> The full extent of the results are unknown. 

The director [[Sidney Gottlieb]] and his team were apparently able to "blast away the existing mind" of a human being by using torture techniques;<ref name=":0" /> however, reprogramming, in terms of finding "a way to insert a new mind into that resulting void",<ref name=":0" /> was not so successful.<ref name="Anthony">{{cite journal|author=Anthony, Dick|year=1999|title=Pseudoscience and Minority Religions: An evaluation of the brainwashing theories of Jean-Marie|journal=Social Justice Research|volume=12|issue=4|pages=421–456|doi=10.1023/A:1022081411463|s2cid=140454555 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eh.doe.gov/ohre/roadmap/achre/chap3_4.html|title=Chapter 3, part 4: Supreme Court Dissents Invoke the Nuremberg Code: CIA and DOD Human Subjects Research Scandals|work=Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments Final Report|access-date=24 August 2005|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041109061412/http://www.eh.doe.gov/ohre/roadmap/achre/chap3_4.html|archive-date=9 November 2004}} "MKUltra, began in 1950 and was motivated largely in response to alleged Soviet, Chinese, and North Korean uses of mind-control techniques on U.S. prisoners of war in Korea."</ref>

Controversial psychiatrist [[Colin A. Ross]] claims that the CIA was successful in creating programmable so-called "[[The Manchurian Candidate|Manchurian Candidates]]" even at the time.<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://doi.org/10.1300/J229v02n03_08|doi = 10.1300/J229v02n03_08|title = Book Review|journal = Journal of Trauma & Dissociation|year = 2001|volume = 2|issue = 3|pages = 123–128|s2cid = 220439052}}</ref> The CIA experiments using various psychedelic drugs such as LSD and [[Mescaline]] drew from previous [[Nazi human experimentation]].<ref>''The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control'': By John Marks.  P 93 (c)1979 by John Marks Published by Times Books {{ISBN|0-8129-0773-6}}</ref>

In 1979, [[John D. Marks]] wrote in his book ''The Search for the Manchurian Candidate'' that until the MKUltra program was effectively terminated in 1963, the agency's researchers had found no reliable way to brainwash another person, as all experiments at some stage always ended in either amnesia or catatonia, making any operational use impossible.<ref name="MarksJohn1979" />

A bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee report, released in part in December 2008 and in full in April 2009, reported that U.S. military trainers who came to [[Guantánamo Bay]] in December 2002 had based an interrogation class on a chart copied from a 1957 Air Force study of "Chinese Communist"  brainwashing techniques used to elicit false confessions from American POWs during the Korean War.

The report showed how the Secretary of Defense's 2002 authorization of the aggressive techniques at Guantánamo led to their use in [[Afghanistan]] and in [[Iraq]], including at [[Abu Ghraib]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Chaddock|first=Gail Russell|url=https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2009/0422/report-says-top-officials-set-tone-for-detainee-abuse|title=Report says top officials set tone for detainee abuse|work=[[The Christian Science Monitor]]|date=April 22, 2009|access-date=2020-01-03|archive-date=4 January 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200104062314/https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2009/0422/report-says-top-officials-set-tone-for-detainee-abuse|url-status=live}}</ref>

===American Psychological Association Task Force===
{{Main|APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control}}

In 1983, the [[American Psychological Association]] (APA) asked Singer to chair a [[taskforce|task force]] called the APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Techniques of Persuasion and Control (DIMPAC) to investigate whether brainwashing or coercive persuasion did indeed play a role in recruitment by NRMs. The Task Force concluded that:<ref>{{cite report|last1=Singer|first1=Margaret|last2=Goldstein|first2=Harold|last3=Langone|first3=Michael|last4=Miller|first4=Jesse S.|last5=Temerlin|first5=Maurice K.|last6=West|first6=Louis J.|author-link1=Margaret Singer|author-link3=Michael Langone|author-link4=Jesse S. Miller|author-link5=Maurice K. Temerlin|author-link6=Louis Jolyon West|title=Report of the APA Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Techniques of Persuasion and Control|url=https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/report-of-the-task-force-on-deceptive-and-indirect-techniques-of-persuasion-and-control/817154|via=[[Baylor University]]|date=November 1986|access-date=4 January 2023|archive-date=4 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230104155621/https://digitalcollections-baylor.quartexcollections.com/Documents/Detail/report-of-the-task-force-on-deceptive-and-indirect-techniques-of-persuasion-and-control/817154|url-status=live}}</ref> {{blockquote|Cults and [[large group awareness training]]s have generated considerable controversy because of their widespread use of deceptive and indirect techniques of persuasion and control. These techniques can compromise individual freedom, and their use has resulted in serious harm to thousands of individuals and families. This report reviews the literature on this subject, proposes a new way of conceptualizing influence techniques, explores the ethical ramifications of deceptive and indirect techniques of persuasion and control, and makes recommendations addressing the problems described in the report.
}}However, On 11 May 1987, the APA's Board of Social and Ethical Responsibility for Psychology (BSERP) rejected the DIMPAC report because the report "lacks the scientific rigor and evenhanded critical approach necessary for APA imprimatur" and concluded that "after much consideration, BSERP does not believe that we have sufficient information available to guide us in taking a position on this issue."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/8393/Apa_english.htm|title=APA Memorandum to Members of the Task Force on DIMPAC|access-date=2008-11-18|author=American Psychological Association Board of Social and Ethical Responsibility for Psychology (BSERP)|date=1987-05-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000311210731/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/8393/Apa_english.htm|archive-date=March 11, 2000|quote=BSERP thanks the Task Force on Deceptive and Indirect Methods of Persuasion and Control for its service but is unable to accept the report of the Task Force. In general, the report lacks the scientific rigor and evenhanded critical approach necessary for APA imprimatur.}}</ref>

==Other areas and studies==
[[File:Joost-a-m-meerloo.jpg|thumb|right|150px|[[Joost Meerloo]]]]
[[Joost Meerloo]], a Dutch psychiatrist, was an early proponent of the concept of brainwashing. "Menticide" is a [[neologism]] he coined meaning "killing of the mind". Meerloo's view was influenced by his experiences during the German occupation of his country during the Second World War and his work with the Dutch government and the American military in the [[interrogation]] of accused [[Nazi war criminals]]. He later emigrated to the United States and taught at [[Columbia University]].<ref>''The Oxford Handbook of Propaganda Studies'', Jonathan Auerbach, Russ Castronovo, Oxford University Press, 2014, p. 114 {{ISBN?}}</ref> His best-selling 1956 book, ''The Rape of the Mind'', concludes by saying: 
{{blockquote|The modern techniques of brainwashing and menticide—those perversions of psychology—can bring almost any man into submission and surrender. Many of the victims of thought control, brainwashing, and menticide that we have talked about were strong men whose minds and wills were broken and degraded. But although the totalitarians use their knowledge of the mind for vicious and unscrupulous purposes, our democratic society can and must use its knowledge to help man to grow, to guard his freedom, and to understand himself.<ref>{{cite web|author=Meerloo, Joost|url=http://www.lermanet.com/scientology/mc-ch1.html|title=The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing|year=1956|publisher=World Publishing Company|author-link=Joost Meerloo|access-date=24 February 2015|archive-date=29 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429163525/http://www.lermanet.com/scientology/mc-ch1.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
}}

Russian historian [[Daniel Romanovsky]], who interviewed survivors and eyewitnesses in the 1970s, reported on what he called "[[Nazi]] brainwashing" of the people of [[Belarus]] by the occupying Germans during the [[Second World War]], which took place through both mass [[propaganda]] and intense re-education, especially in schools. Romanovsky noted that very soon, most people had adopted the Nazi view that the Jews were an inferior race and were closely tied to the [[Soviet]] government, views that had not been at all common before the German occupation.<ref>''Nazi Europe and the Final Solution'', David Bankier, Israel Gutman, Berghahn Books, 2009, pp. 282–285.</ref><ref>''Gray Zones: Ambiguity and Compromise in the Holocaust and its Aftermath'', Jonathan Petropoulos, John Roth, Berghahn Books,  2005, p. 209 {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>''The Minsk Ghetto 1941–1943: Jewish Resistance and Soviet Internationalism'', Barbara Epstein, University of California Press, 2008, p. 295 {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>''Bringing the Dark Past to Light: The Reception of the Holocaust in Postcommunist Europe'', John-Paul Himka, Joanna Beata Michlic, University of Nebraska Press, 2013, pp. 74, 78 {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.angelfire.com/sc3/soviet_jews_exodus/English/Interview_s/InterviewRomanovsky.shtml|title=Interview|publisher=Angelfire.com|access-date=2019-08-05|archive-date=7 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807194100/http://www.angelfire.com/sc3/soviet_jews_exodus/English/Interview_s/InterviewRomanovsky.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>*{{citation|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oU6WielZ_VoC&pg=PA276|chapter=The Soviet Person as a Bystander of the Holocaust: The case of eastern Belorussia|first=Daniel|last=Romanovsky|page=276|title=Nazi Europe and the Final Solution|editor-first=David|editor-last=Bankier|editor2-first=Israel|editor2-last=Gutman|year=2009|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=978-1845454104}}
*{{cite journal|title=The Holocaust in the Eyes of Homo Sovieticus: A Survey Based on Northeastern Belorussia and Northwestern Russia|journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies|year=1999|volume=13|issue=3|pages=355–382|doi=10.1093/hgs/13.3.355|last1=Romanovsky|first1=D.}}
*{{citation|first=Daniel|last=Romanovsky|chapter=Soviet Jews Under Nazi Occupation in Northeastern Belarus and Western Russia|title=Bitter Legacy: Confronting the Holocaust in the USSR|editor-first=Zvi|editor-last=Gitelman|year=1997|publisher=Indiana University Press|page=241}}</ref>

[[Italy]] has had controversy over the concept of ''[[plagio]]'', a crime consisting in an absolute psychological—and eventually physical—domination of a person. The effect is said to be the annihilation of the subject's [[freedom]] and [[self-determination]] and the consequent negation of his or her [[personality]]. The crime of plagio has rarely been prosecuted in Italy, and only one person was ever convicted. In 1981, an Italian court found that the concept is imprecise, lacks coherence and is liable to arbitrary application.<ref>Alessandro Usai ''Profili penali dei condizionamenti mentali'', Milano, 1996 {{ISBN|88-14-06071-1}}. {{page?|date=April 2023}}</ref>

Recent scientific book publications in the field of the [[mental disorder]] "[[dissociative identity disorder]]" (DID) mention [[torture]]-based brainwashing by criminal networks and malevolent actors as a deliberate means to create multiple "programmable" personalities in a person to exploit this individual for sexual and financial reasons.<ref>{{Citation|last=Schwartz|first=Rachel Wingfield|title='An evil cradling?' Cult practices and the manipulation of attachment needs in ritual abuse|date=2018-03-22|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429479700-2|work=Ritual Abuse and Mind Control|pages=39–55|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9780429479700-2|isbn=978-0-429-47970-0|access-date=2021-07-11}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Miller|first=Alison|chapter=Becoming Yourself |title=
Becoming Yourself: Overcoming Mind Control and Ritual Abuse|date=2018-05-11|chapter-url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429472251-21|pages=347–370|publisher=Routledge|doi=10.4324/9780429472251-21|isbn=978-0-429-47225-1|access-date=2023-05-25}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Miller|first=Alison|date=2018-05-08|title=Healing the Unimaginable|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780429475467|doi=10.4324/9780429475467|isbn=978-0429475467}}</ref><ref>Alayarian, A. (2018). ''Trauma, Torture and Dissociation: A Psychoanalytic View''. (n.p.): Taylor & Francis. {{ISBN?}}</ref><ref>Schwartz, H. L. (2013). ''The Alchemy of Wolves and Sheep: A Relational Approach to Internalized Perpetration in Complex Trauma Survivors''. US: ''Taylor & Francis.'' {{ISBN?}}</ref> Earlier scientific debates in the 1980s and 1990s about torture-based ritual abuse in cults was known as "[[satanic ritual abuse]]," which was mainly viewed as a "[[moral panic]]."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Goode|first1=Erich|last2=Ben-Yehuda|first2=Nachman|date=1994|title=Moral Panics: Culture, Politics, and Social Construction|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2083363|journal=Annual Review of Sociology|volume=20|pages=149–171|doi=10.1146/annurev.so.20.080194.001053|jstor=2083363|issn=0360-0572|access-date=20 July 2021|archive-date=18 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210718083520/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2083363|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Brain-Washing (book)|''Brain-Washing: A Synthesis of the Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics'']] published by the [[Church of Scientology]] in 1955 about brainwashing.  [[L. Ron Hubbard]] authored the text and alleged it was the secret manual written by [[Lavrentiy Beria]], the [[NKVD|Soviet secret police]] chief, in 1936.<ref>{{Cite book |title=They Never Said It : A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, and Misleading Attributions |author=Paul F. Boller |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |year=1989 |page=5 |isbn=978-0-19-505541-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/theyneversaiditb00boll |url-access=registration |quote=brain washing hubbard 1936.}}</ref> When the FBI ignored him, Hubbard wrote again stating that Soviet agents had, on three occasions, attempted to hire him to work against the United States, and were upset about his refusal,<ref name="atack">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/pieceofblueskysc00atac/ |title=A Piece of Blue Sky: Scientology, Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard Exposed |first=Jon |last=Atack |author-link=Jon Atack |date=1990 |publisher=[[Lyle Stuart|Lyle Stuart Books]] |isbn=081840499X |ol=9429654M |page=140}}</ref> and that one agent specifically attacked him using electroshock as a weapon.<ref>{{cite book
 | title=California. Court of Appeal (2nd Appellate District). Records and Briefs
 | author=California (State)
 | page=33
 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uNbukS--lrEC&q=%22brainwashing%22+hubbard+fbi+communists&pg=PA33
}}</ref>

[[Kathleen Barry]], co-founder of  the [[United Nations]] NGO, the [[Coalition Against Trafficking in Women]] (CATW),<ref name="A Distinctive Style Article">{{cite web|url=http://www.adistinctivestyle.com/i/73080/96|title=A Distinctive Style Article|access-date=21 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021043933/http://www.adistinctivestyle.com/i/73080/96|archive-date=21 October 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="On the Issues Article">{{cite web|url=http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/1995summer/pimping.php|title=On the Issues Article|publisher=Ontheissuesmagazine.com|access-date=2019-08-05|archive-date=28 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180828170242/https://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/1995summer/pimping.php|url-status=live}}</ref> prompted international awareness of human sex trafficking in her 1979 book ''Female Sexual Slavery''.<ref name="Biography at The People Speak Radio">[http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net/2011/kathleen-barry/ Biography at The People Speak Radio] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120615092814/http://www.thepeoplespeakradio.net/2011/kathleen-barry/|date=15 June 2012 }}</ref> In his 1986 book ''Woman Abuse: Facts Replacing Myths,'' Lewis Okun reported that: "Kathleen Barry shows in ''Female Sexual Slavery'' that forced female prostitution involves coercive control practices very similar to thought reform."<ref>
''Woman Abuse: Facts Replacing Myths'', Lewis Okun, SUNY Press, 1986, p. 133</ref> In their 1996 book, ''Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States'', Rita Nakashima Brock and [[Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite]] report that the methods commonly used by [[pimps]] to control their victims "closely resemble the brainwashing techniques of terrorists and paranoid cults."<ref>''Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States'', Rita Nakashima Brock, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, Fortress Press, 1996, p. 166</ref>

In his 2000 book, ''Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism'', Robert Lifton applied his original ideas about thought reform to [[Aum Shinrikyo]] and the [[War on Terrorism]], concluding that, in this context, thought reform was possible without violence or physical coercion. He also pointed out that in their efforts against terrorism, Western governments were also using some alleged mind control techniques.<ref>''Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism'', Owl Books, 2000. {{ISBN?}}</ref>

In her 2004 [[popular science]] book, ''[[Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control]]'', [[neuroscientist]] and [[physiologist]] [[Kathleen Taylor (biologist)|Kathleen Taylor]] reviewed the history of mind control theories, as well as notable incidents. In it, she theorized that persons under the influence of brainwashing may have more rigid [[neurological]] pathways, and that can make it more difficult to rethink situations or to be able to later reorganize these pathways.<ref name="szimhart">{{cite journal| last =Szimhart| first =Joseph| title =Thoughts on thought control| journal =[[Skeptical Inquirer]]| volume =29| issue =4| pages =56–57| date =July–August 2005 }}</ref><ref name="hawkes">{{cite news| last =Hawkes| first =Nigel| title =Brainwashing by Kathleen Taylor| work =[[The Times]]| publisher =Times Newspapers Ltd| date =27 November 2004| url =http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article395436.ece| access-date =2008-11-02| location =London| archive-date =16 June 2011| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20110616100520/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article395436.ece| url-status =live}}</ref>

In 2006 ''[[Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control]]'' ({{ISBN|0-340-83161-8}}) is a non-fiction book published by [[Hodder & Stoughton]] about the evolution of brainwashing from its origins in the Cold War through to today's War on Terror.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article689424.ece|title = TLS - Times Literary Supplement}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/sep/23/featuresreviews.guardianreview9|title = Et cetera: Sep 23|website = [[TheGuardian.com]]|date = 23 September 2006}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Delaney |first=Tim |date=2007 |title=Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control |journal=[[Library Journal]] |language=en-US |volume=132 |issue=4 |pages=95 |issn=0363-0277}}</ref> The author, [[Dominic Streatfeild]],
uses formerly classified documentation and interviews from the CIA.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070815035224/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no1/the-intelligence-officers-bookshelf.html The Intelligence Officer's Bookshelf]</ref>

==In popular culture==
{{Main|Mind control in popular culture}}
[[File:Sinatra and Harvey in Manchurian Candidate NYWTS.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Laurence Harvey]] and [[Frank Sinatra]] in ''[[The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)|The Manchurian Candidate]]'']]
In [[George Orwell]]'s 1949 [[dystopian]] novel ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', the main character is subjected to imprisonment, [[isolation to facilitate abuse|isolation]], and torture to conform his thoughts and emotions to the wishes of the rulers of the book's fictional future [[totalitarian]] society. The torturer, representing the authorities, says to that character, "we make the brain perfect before we blow it out...Everyone is washed clean."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Orwell |first1=George |title=Nineteen Eighty-Four |date=1949 |isbn=978-0451524935}}</ref> Orwell's vision influenced [[Edward Hunter (journalist)|Hunter]] and is still reflected in the popular concept of brainwashing.<ref>{{cite book|author=Leo H. Bartemeier|title=Psychiatry and Public Affairs|date=2011|publisher=Aldine Transaction|page=246}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Clarke, Peter|title=Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements|date=2004|publisher=Routledge|page=76}}</ref>

In the 1950s, some American films were made that featured brainwashing of POWs, including [[The Rack (1956 film)|''The Rack'']], ''[[The Bamboo Prison]]'', ''[[Toward the Unknown]]'', and ''[[The Fearmakers]]''. ''[[Forbidden Area]]'' told the story of [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] secret agents who had been brainwashed through [[classical conditioning]] by their own government so they wouldn't reveal their identities. In 1962, [[The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)|''The Manchurian Candidate'']] (based on the 1959 novel by [[Richard Condon]]) "put brainwashing front and center" by featuring a plot by the Soviet government to take over the United States by using a brainwashed [[sleeper agent]] for political assassination.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sherman, Fraser A.|title=Screen Enemies of the American Way: Political paranoia about Nazis, Communists, Saboteurs, Terrorists and Body Snatching Aliens in Film and Television|date=2010|publisher=McFarland}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Seed|first=David|url=https://archive.org/details/brainwashingfict0000seed/page/51|title=Brainwashing: A study in Cold War demonology|publisher=Kent State University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-87338-813-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/brainwashingfict0000seed/page/51 51]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Steven a.k.a. Superant|title=Mind-control movies and TV|url=http://www.listal.com/list/mind-control-movies-tv|access-date=12 March 2016|website=listal.com|archive-date=12 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312064916/http://www.listal.com/list/mind-control-movies-tv|url-status=dead}}</ref>  

The concept of brainwashing became popularly associated with the research of Russian psychologist [[Ivan Pavlov]], which mostly involved dogs as subjects.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Feeley, Malcolm M.|title=Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State: How the courts reformed America's prisons|author2=Rubin, Edward L.|date=2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=268}}</ref> In [[The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)|''The Manchurian Candidate'']], the head brainwasher is "Dr.&nbsp;Yen Lo, of the Pavlov Institute."<ref>{{cite book|author=Ma, Sheng-mei|title=Asian Diaspora and East-West Modernity|publisher=Purdue University Press|year=2012|page=129}}</ref>

The [[science fiction]] stories of [[Cordwainer Smith]] (pen name of Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (1913–1966), a U.S. Army officer who specialized in [[military intelligence]] and [[psychological warfare]] during the Second World War and the Korean War) depict brainwashing to remove memories of traumatic events as a normal and benign part of future medical practice.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Wolfe, Gary K.|title=Voices for the Future: Essays on major science fiction writers|author2=Williams, Carol T.|publisher=Popular Press|year=1983|editor=Clareson, Thomas D.|volume=3|pages=53–72|contribution=The Majesty of Kindness: The dialectic of Cordwainer Smith}}</ref>

Brainwashing remains an important theme in science fiction. A subgenre is ''corporate mind control'', in which a future society is run by one or more business [[corporations]] that dominate society, using [[advertising]] and [[mass media]] to control the population's thoughts and feelings.<ref>{{cite book|author=Schelde, Per|url=https://archive.org/details/androidshumanoid00sche|title=Androids, Humanoids, and other Science Fiction Monsters: Science and soul in science fiction films|date=1994|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0585321172|pages=[https://archive.org/details/androidshumanoid00sche/page/n180 169]–175|url-access=limited}}</ref> Terry O'Brien commented: "Mind control is such a powerful image that if [[hypnotism]] did not exist, then something similar would have to have been invented: The [[plot device]] is too useful for any writer to ignore. The fear of mind control is equally as powerful an image."<ref>{{cite book|author=O'Brien, Terry|title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|year=2005|editor=Westfahl, Gary|volume=1}} {{ISBN?}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Columns-list|colwidth=24em|
* [[Behavior modification]]
* [[Indoctrination]]
* [[Orwellian]]
* [[Manipulation (psychology)]]
* [[Abusive power and control]]
* [[Psychological warfare]]
* [[Hypnosis]]
* [[Political abuse of psychiatry]]
* [[Reality distortion field]]
* [[Science fiction]]
* [[Coercion]]
* [[Unethical human experimentation in the United States]]
* ''[[Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism]]''
* [[Mind control in popular culture]]
}}
{{clear}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book|author=Lifton, Robert J.|author-link=Robert Jay Lifton|title=Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China|publisher=Norton|location=New York|year=1961|isbn=978-0-8078-4253-9| ref = none}}; Reprinted, with a new preface: University of North Carolina Press, 1989 ([https://archive.org/details/ThoughtReformAndThePsychologyOfTotalism Online] at [[Internet Archive]]).
* {{Cite book|author=Lifton, Robert J.|author-link=Robert Jay Lifton|title=Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism|year=2000|publisher=Owl Books}}
*{{cite web|author=Meerloo, Joost|url=http://www.lermanet.com/scientology/mc-ch1.html|title=The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing|year=1956|publisher=World Publishing Company|author-link=Joost Meerloo|access-date=24 February 2015|archive-date=29 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429163525/http://www.lermanet.com/scientology/mc-ch1.html|url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book|author=Taylor, Kathleen|author-link=Kathleen Taylor (biologist)|title=Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control|year=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press}}
* {{Cite journal|last=Zablocki|first=B.|title=The Blacklisting of a Concept. The Strange History of the Brainwashing Conjecture in the Sociology of Religion|journal=Nova Religio|volume=1|issue=1|pages=96–121|year=1997|doi=10.1525/nr.1997.1.1.96|author-link=Benjamin Zablocki}}
* {{Cite journal|title=Exit Cost Analysis: A New Approach to the Scientific Study of Brainwashing|doi= 10.1525/nr.1998.1.2.216|volume=2|issue=1|pages=216–249|last=Zablocki|first=B|author-link=Benjamin Zablocki|journal=Nova Religio|year=1998}}
* {{Cite journal|author-link=Philip Zimbardo|last=Zimbardo|first=P.|title=Mind Control: Psychological Reality or Mindless Rhetoric?|journal=Monitor on Psychology|date=2002-11-01|url=http://www.icsahome.com/articles/mind-control-zimbardo|access-date=2 June 2016|archive-date=4 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160704120313/http://www.icsahome.com/articles/mind-control-zimbardo|url-status=dead}}

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}

{{Wikiquote}}

{{Wiktionary|mind control}}

*[[:Commons:File:JOHN_L._McCLELLAN,.pdf|Communist Interrogation, Indoctrination, and Exploitation of Prisoners of War 1956]]
*[[Science fiction]]

{{Manipulation (psychology)}}

{{Opposition to NRMs}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Mind control| ]]
[[Category:1950s neologisms]]
[[Category:Anti-cult terms and concepts]]
[[Category:Paranormal terminology]]
[[Category:Popular psychology]]
[[Category:Psychological manipulation]]
[[Category:Psychological abuse]]
[[Category:Propaganda techniques]]