Brainwashing
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Brainwashing[a] is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. 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,[1] as well as to change their attitudes, values, and beliefs[2][3].
The term brainwashing was first used in English around 1950,[4][5] most likely as a direct translation of the Mandarin Chinese 洗腦 (xǐnǎo; lit. "to wash the brain") used in Maoist China to refer to re-education.[4][5]
The popular concept of brainwashing was influenced by the 1959 novel The Manchurian Candidate and its later film adaptation in which an unwitting American is "reprogrammed" to assassinate a major politician.
Origin
Research by the U.S. government
For 20 years, starting in the early 1950s, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the United States 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 LSD".[6] 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.[7]
Notes
- ↑ Also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control; sometimes equated with thought reform or forced re-education.
References
- ↑ Campbell, Robert Jean (2004). Campbell's Psychiatric Dictionary. USA: Oxford University Press. p. 403.
- ↑ Corsini, Raymond J. (2002). The Dictionary of Psychology. Psychology Press. p. 127.
- ↑ Kowal, D.M. (2000). "Brainwashing". In Love, A.E. (ed.). Encyclopedia of Psychology. Vol. 1. American Psychological Association. pp. 463–464. doi:10.1037/10516-173.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "brainwashing, n.". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 11 Dec 2023.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "'Brainwashing': A History". Merriam-Webster. 5 Jul 2018. Retrieved 11 Dec 2023.
- ↑ https://www.npr.org/2019/09/09/758989641/the-cias-secret-quest-for-mind-control-torture-lsd-and-a-poisoner-in-chief
- ↑ https://www.npr.org/2019/09/09/758989641/the-cias-secret-quest-for-mind-control-torture-lsd-and-a-poisoner-in-chief