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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 [[persuade]] or sway [[public opinion]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brainwash|title=Brainwash Definition & Meaning|date=22 July 2023
==China and the Korean War==
{{See also|Thought reform in China}}
The Chinese term ''xǐnǎo'' (洗腦, "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" (''xǐxīn'', 洗心) 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 8. Brainwashing|chapter-url=http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/lsd/marks8.htm|quote=In September 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>
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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
==Legal cases and the "brainwashing defense"==
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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>
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[[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>
Her 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> 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>
[[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>
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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==
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{{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>
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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>
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[[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=
}}
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>
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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>
[[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="lefanu">{{cite news| last =Le Fanu| first =James| title =Make up your mind| work =[[The Daily Telegraph]]| date =20 December 2004| url =https://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2004/12/19/botay19.xml&sSheet=/arts/2004/12/19/bomain.html| access-date = 2008-11-02 }}{{dead link|date=July 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</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 =
==In popular culture==
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* {{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=
* {{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}}
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