Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism

Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism

Mind Reading: Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism

Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism by Robert Jay Lifton, M.D.

ISBN: 0-8078-4253-2

Published by: The University of North Carolina Press

Pages 3-5

What is “Brainwashing”?

When confronted with the endless discussion on the reminded of the Zen Buddhist maxim: “The more we talk about it, the less we understand it.” The confusion begins with the word itself, so new and yet already so much a part of our everyday language. It was first used by an American journalist, Edward Hunter, as a translation of the colloquialism hsi nao (literally, “wash brain”) which he quoted from Chinese informants who described its use following the Communist takeover.

“Brainwashing” soon developed a life of its own. Originally used to describe Chinese indoctrination techniques, it was quickly applied to Russian and Eastern European approaches, and then to just about anything which the Communists did anywhere (as illustrated by the statement of a prominent American lady who, upon returning from a trip to Moscow, claimed that Russians were “brainwashing” prospective mothers in order to prepare them for natural childbirth). Inevitably, the word made its appearance closer to home, sometimes with the saving grace of humor (New Yorker cartoons of children “brainwashing” parents, and wives “brainwashing husbands), but on other occasions with a more vindictive tone – as when Southern segregationists accused all who favor racial equality (including the United States Supreme Court) of having been influenced by “left-wing brainwashing”; or equally irresponsible usages by anti-fluoridation, anti-mental health legislation, or anti-almost anything groups leveled against their real or fancied opponents.

Then there is the lurid mythology which has grown up about it: the “mysterious oriental device,” or the deliberate application of Pavlov’s findings on dogs. There is also another kind of myth, the claim that there is no such thing, that it is all just the fantasy of American correspondents.

Finally, there is the more responsible – even tortured – self-examination which leads professional people to ask whether they in their own activities might not be guilty of “brainwashing”: educators about their teaching, psychiatrists about their training and their psychotherapy, theologians about their own reform methods. Opponents of these activities, without any such agonizing scrutiny, can more glibly claim that they are “nothing but brainwashing.” Other have seen “brainwashing” in American advertising, in large corporation training programs, in private preparatory schools, and in congressional investigations. These misgivings are not always without basis, and suggest that there is a continuity between our subject and many less extreme activities; but the matter is not clarified by promiscuous use of the term.

Behind this web of semantic (and more than semantic) confusion lies an image of “brainwashing” as an all-powerful, irresistible, unfathomable, and magical method of achieving total control over the human mind. It is of course none of these things, and this loose usage makes the word a rallying point for fear, resentment, urges toward submission, justification for failure, irresponsible accusation, and for a wide gamut of emotional extremism. One may justly conclude that the term has a far from precise and a questionable usefulness; one may even be tempted to forget about the whole subject and return to more constructive pursuits…

… The Western world has heard mostly about “thought reform” as applied in a military setting: the synthetic bacteriological warfare confessions and the collaboration obtained from United Nations personnel during the Korean War. However, these were merely export versions of a thought reform program aimed, not primarily at Westerners, but at the Chinese people themselves, and vigorously applied in universities, schools, special “revolutionary colleges,” prisons, business and government offices, labor and peasant organizations. Thought reform combines this impressively widespread distribution with a focused emotional power. Not only does it reach one-fourth of the people of the world, but it seeks to bring about in everyone it touches a significant personal upheaval.

Whatever its setting, thought reform consists of two basic elements: confession, the exposure and renunciation of past and present “evil”; and re-education, the remaking of a man in the Communist image. These elements are closely related and overlapping, since they broth bring into play a series of pressures and appeals – intellectual, emotional, and physical – aimed at social control and individual change.

If you enjoyed reading this, you may also enjoy this brainwashing recording available as an mp3 download titled “Venom.”