Brainwashing
Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) 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].
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".[4] 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;[5]
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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