Brainwashing : reality or myth? / Massimo Introvigne.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Introvigne, Massimo, author.

Series:

Cambridge elements. Elements in new religious movements 2635-232X

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Brainwashing.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (75 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2022.

Summary:

The events of January 6, 2021 gave new currency to the idea of brainwashing. Some claimed that Trump's followers had been brainwashed, while others insisted that a 'deep state' had brainwashed most Americans into accepting a rigged election. Scholars who explain that brainwashing theories have long been rejected by most academics and courts of law find it difficult to be heard. Brainwashing nevertheless remains a convenient explanation of how seemingly normal citizens convert to unusual religious or political ideologies. This Element traces its origins to the idea that conversion to deviant beliefs is due to black magic. A more scientific hypnosis later replaced magic and the Cold War introduced the supposedly infallible technique of brainwashing. From the 1960s, new religious movements, more commonly called cults, were accused of using brainwashing. Most scholars of religion reject the theory as pseudoscience, but the controversy continues to this day.

Contents:

Cover

Title page

Copyright page

Brainwashing: Reality or Myth?

Contents

Introduction

1 Free Will, Black Magic, and Hypnosis

The Search for Free Will

Black Magic and Persuasion, West and East

Secularizing Black Magic: Conversion through Mesmerismand Hypnosis

2 Brainwashing and Cold War Propaganda

Theories of Nazi Mind Control

Stalinist Mind Control

Edward Hunter, the Inventor of Brainwashing

Brainwashing and Menticide: Joost Meerloo

A Brainwashing Manual

The Manchurian Candidate

Brainwashing and American POWs in the Korean War

The CIA's Brainwashing Experiments: MK-ULTRA

3 The Scientific Study of Communist Brainwashing: Lifton and Schein

Erik Erikson and Totalism

Robert Jay Lifton: Totalism and Thought Reform

Edgar Schein and Coercive Persuasion

4 The Cult Wars

Brainwashing Meets Religion: William Sargant

"Only Cults Brainwash": Margaret Thaler Singer

The Cult Wars

Brainwashing in American Courts: From Molko to Fishman

Have Brainwashing Theory, Will Travel: US Experts Abroad

5 Conclusion: Old Wine in New Bottles

References.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 29 Jun 2022).

ISBN:

1-009-03412-X

1-009-03432-4

1-009-02956-8

OCLC:

1338837439