The term “brainwashing” was first used in the 1950s by American journalist Edward Hunter, who reported on the treatment of American soldiers in Chinese prison facilities during the Korean War. Brainwashing techniques have been documented way back in the “Egyptian Book of the Dead” and are used by abusive spouses and parents, self-proclaimed psychics, cult leaders, secret societies, revolutionaries, and dictators, to manipulate and get other people into their place. under their control. This technique does not require fantastic weapons or exotic powers, but involves an understanding of human psychology and the desire to exploit it. By understanding these techniques, you can learn how to protect yourself and others from brainwashing.
Step
Part 1 of 3: Identifying Brainwashing Tactics
Step 1. Understand that people who are trying to brainwash tend to prey on the weak and vulnerable
Not everyone is a target for mind control, but at different times certain people are more susceptible to various forms of brainwashing. Expert manipulators know what to look for, they target people who are going through difficult times or undergoing changes that may or may not result from their own actions. Potential candidates include:
- People who have lost their jobs and are afraid to face the future.
- Newly divorced people, especially bitter divorces.
- Those who suffer from chronic diseases, especially those that are not understood.
- Those who have lost a loved one, especially when they were very close and had few other friends.
- Young people who are away from home for the first time. This was a particular favorite for sect leaders.
- One particular hunting tactic is to find enough information about a person and his or her beliefs, and to explain the tragedy that person has experienced in a way that aligns with his beliefs. This was later developed to explain the thorough history of the belief, and at the same time modify it in the brainwasher's interpretation.
Step 2. Be wary of people trying to isolate you or someone you know from outside influences
Because people who experience personal tragedies or major life changes tend to feel lonely, expert brainwashers work by amplifying those feelings of loneliness. This isolation takes several forms.
- For young people belonging to a cult, isolation meant preventing them from coming into contact with friends and family.
- For couples who are in violent relationships, isolation can mean never keeping the victim out of sight or allowing them contact with friends and family.
- For prisoners in enemy prisons, it meant isolating prisoners from others while torturing them subtly or openly.
Step 3. Beware of attacks on the victim's self-esteem
Brainwashing only works when the brainwasher is in a superior position to the victim. This means that the victim must be destroyed, so they can reshape the victim based on their image. This can be done mentally, emotionally, or even physically for long enough to conquer the target physically and emotionally.
- Mental torture may start with lying to the victim and then continue to embarrass them or intimidate them. This form of torture can be carried out with words or gestures ranging from disapproving expressions to invading the victim's personal space.
- Emotional torture is certainly not the same, but it can start with verbal insults, then continue with force, spitting, or more inhumane treatment such as stripping the victim to be photographed or just to be seen.
- Physical torture includes leaving the victim to starvation, cold, lack of sleep, and possibly beatings, mutilations and other acts that are not acceptable to society…. Physical abuse is commonly perpetrated by abusive parents and spouses, and also in prisons and “re-education” facilities.
Step 4. Watch out for people who try to give the impression that being “part of the group” is more attractive than just being part of the outside world
Along with weakening the victim's defenses, it is important for the brainwasher to provide an alternative that seems more attractive than the victim knew prior to contact with the brainwasher. This can be done through various methods:
- Allows contact only with people who have also been brainwashed. This creates a kind of peer pressure that encourages new victims to want to be like them and be accepted into the new group. This method can be further strengthened by touching, discussion sessions, group sex, or by more restrictive means such as uniforms, controlled diets, or other rigid rules.
- Repetition of messages through various means ranging from singing or chanting the same phrase over and over again, usually emphasizing certain sentences or keywords.
- Imitate the rhythm of the human heartbeat through the leader's speech or musical accompaniment. This impression can be enhanced by lighting that is not too dim or too bright and a room temperature that allows relaxation.
- Never let the victim have time to think. This may be by not allowing the victim any time alone, or bombarding the victim with repeated lectures on topics that are beyond their comprehension, but prevent them from asking questions.
- Introduces an “us vs them” mentality where the leader is right and the outside world is wrong. The goal is to gain blind obedience, in which the victim will surrender their money and life to the brainwasher for his own ends.
Step 5. Recognize that brainwashes often offer rewards for “turning around” victims
Once the victim is damaged and happy with the situation, he can then be trained. This can last from a few weeks to years, depending on the washing conditions.
This extreme form of brainwashing is known as “Stockholm Syndrome”, in which in 1973 two bank robbers in Sweden held four hostages for 131 hours. After the hostages are rescued, they discover that they are the same as the kidnappers, to the point where one of the female hostages becomes engaged to the kidnapper and the other sets up a legal defense fund for the criminals. Patty Hearst, who was kidnapped by the “Symbionese Liberation Army” (SLA) in 1974, is also considered a victim of “Stockholm Syndrome”
Step 6. Discover new ways of thinking in the victim's brain
Most retraining is done through some teaching technique that emphasizes reward and punishment, the same way that was used to weaken the victim the first time. Positive experiences are used to reward victims for thinking as the brainwasher intended, while negative experiences are used to punish the last vestiges of disobedience.
One form of appreciation is to give the victim a new name. This is commonly associated with cults, but the SLA did this to Patty Hearst too when she gave her the name "Tania"
Step 7. Wash and repeat
Although brainwashing can be effective and thorough, most brainwashes feel the need to test the depth of their control over the subject. Controls can be tested in a number of ways, depending on the purpose of the brainwashing. This test aims to determine how much force needs to be added to keep the victim's brain washed clean.
- Extorting money is one way of testing control, and also to enrich the brainwasher. Rose Marks used control over writer Jude Deveraux to swindle him up to $17 million in cash and property, while at the same time destroying the writer's career.
- Another way is to commit a criminal act, either with or for the brainwasher. Patty Hearst who accompanied the SLA in one of their robberies is one example.
Part 2 of 3: Identifying Brainwashed Victims
Step 1. Look for signs of a mix of fanaticism and dependence
Victims of brainwashing will appear focused on the group and/or its leader to the point of obsession. At the same time, they seem unable to solve problems without the help of the group or leader.
Step 2. Find someone who is always obedient
Victims of brainwashing will agree without asking what their group or leader dictates, regardless of the difficulty of following the process or the consequences of that action. They may also withdraw from people who do not share their interest in the brainwashing.
Step 3. Look for signs of withdrawal from life
Brainwashed victims tend to be lethargic, withdrawn, and don't show their former personality before being brainwashed. This can be seen clearly in the victims of cults and violent relationships.
Some victims may harbor anger within themselves, leading to depression and a number of physical disturbances, possibly even suicide. Others may vent anger on the person they perceive as the cause of the problem, usually through verbal or physical confrontation
Part 3 of 3: Rinsing Clean Brainwashing
Step 1. Make the subject aware that he or she has been brainwashed
This awareness is usually accompanied by denial and misery, as the subject begins to question everything after a long period of not questioning anything. Gradually, the subject will realize how he has been manipulated.
Step 2. Expose the subject to ideas as opposed to brainwashing
Expose them to a number of options, without overwhelming them with too many choices at once, to provide a new, broader perspective that can be a start in challenging the beliefs the brainwasher has instilled.
- Some of these opposing ideas may contain their own form of manipulation. In such cases, the most helpful way is to seek unbiased ideas.
- A stronger form of exposure like this is forcing the subject to relive the brainwashing process by acting it out one more time, but this time giving him the option to fight back. This type of therapy requires a therapist who is skilled in psychodrama techniques.
Step 3. Encourage the subject to make their own decisions based on the new information
Initially, the subject may be anxious about having to make decisions on their own or embarrassed to make “wrong” decisions now or in the past. But with practice, this anxiety will go away.
Tips
It is possible for the victim to recover from the effects of brainwashing without the help of others. 1960s research by psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton and psychologist Edgar Schein showed that some prisoners of war who were exposed to Chinese brainwashing techniques did turn to communism, and some of them abandoned the belief on their own after being released from prison
Warning
- Although some forms of hypnosis may be used in brainwashing, hypnosis is not the same as brainwashing. Brainwashing uses a superficial system of rewards and punishments to influence the victim, and the goal is always to weaken the target person's self-defense. Hypnosis usually begins by relaxing the target, goes deeper into the psyche, and usually does not involve rewards and punishments. Regardless of the depth, hypnosis usually works faster on the subject than brainwashing
- Certain specialists called reprogramming experts were employed during the 1980s by parents to forcibly rescue their children from cults. They use techniques similar to brainwashing itself to instill opposing doctrines on “saved” subjects. However, this method of reprogramming proved ineffective as it required brainwashing to continue to be strong, and kidnapping the targets made them charged with criminal acts.
