Brainwashing refers to the idea that an individual can get someone to adopt a particular doctrine or belief using purported methods that manipulate action or thought against a person's will, desire, or knowledge.
The term "brainwashing" was first used in English by Edward Hunter in 1950 to describe how the Chinese government appeared to make people cooperate with them during the Korean War. Theories of brainwashing and of mind control were originally developed to explain how totalitarian regimes appeared to systematically indoctrinate prisoners of war through propaganda and torture techniques. These theories were later expanded and modified by psychologists including Margaret Singer and Philip Zimbardo to explain a wider range of phenomena, especially conversions to some new religious movements (NRMs). The suggestion that NRMs use mind control techniques has resulted in scientific and legal debate; with scholars and legal experts rejecting the concept of brainwashing, finding it to be "without scientific merit".
Brainwashing has nonetheless become a common theme in popular culture especially in war stories, thrillers, and science fiction stories. In casual speech, "brainwashing" and its verb form, "brainwash", are used figuratively to describe the use of propaganda and advertising to sway public opinion.
China and the Korean War
The Chinese term ( ) was originally used by early 20th century Chinese intellectuals to refer to "modernizing" one's way of thinking. The term was later used to describe the coercive persuasion used under the Maoist government in China, which aimed to transform "reactionary" people into "right-thinking" members of the new Chinese social system. The term punned on the Taoist custom of "cleansing/washing the heart/mind" () before conducting ceremonies or entering holy places.
The Oxford English Dictionary records the earliest known English-language usage of brainwashing in an article by newspaperman Edward Hunter, in Miami News, published on 7 October 1950. Hunter, an outspoken anticommunist and said to be a CIA agent working undercover as a journalist, wrote a series of books and articles on the theme of Chinese brainwashing, and the word brainwashing quickly became a stock phrase in Cold War headlines. Hunter and others used the Chinese term to explain why, during the Korean War (1950–1953), some American prisoners of war (POWs) cooperated with their Chinese captors, and even in a few cases defected to their side. British radio operator Robert W. Ford and British army Colonel James Carne also claimed that the Chinese subjected them to brainwashing techniques during their imprisonment.
The U.S. military and government laid charges of brainwashing in an effort to undermine confessions made by POWs to war crimes, including biological warfare. After Chinese radio broadcasts claimed to quote Frank Schwable, Chief of Staff of the First Marine Air Wing admitting to participating in germ warfare, United Nations commander General Mark W. Clark asserted: "Whether these statements ever passed the lips of these unfortunate men is doubtful. If they did, however, too familiar are the mind-annihilating methods of these Communists in extorting whatever words they want ... The men themselves are not to blame, and they have my deepest sympathy for having been used in this abominable way."
Beginning in 1953, Robert Jay Lifton interviewed American servicemen who had been POWs during the Korean War as well as priests, students, and teachers who had been held in prison in China after 1951. In addition to interviews with 25 Americans and Europeans, Lifton interviewed 15 Chinese citizens who had fled after having been subjected to indoctrination in Chinese universities. (Lifton's 1961 book Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China, was based on this research.) Lifton found that when the POWs returned to the United States their thinking soon returned to normal, contrary to the popular image of "brainwashing."
In 1956, after reexamining the concept of brainwashing following the Korean War, the U.S. Army published a report entitled Communist Interrogation, Indoctrination, and Exploitation of Prisoners of War, which called brainwashing a "popular misconception". The report concludes that "exhaustive research of several government agencies failed to reveal even one conclusively documented case of 'brainwashing' of an American prisoner of war in Korea."
Legal cases and the "brainwashing defense"
The concept of brainwashing has been raised in defense of criminal charges. The 1969 to 1971 case of Charles Manson, who was said to have brainwashed his followers to commit murder and other crimes, brought the issue to renewed public attention.Minds on Trial: Great Cases in Law and Psychology, by Charles Patrick Ewing, Joseph T. McCann pp. 34–36Shifting the Blame: How Victimization Became a Criminal Defense, Saundra Davis Westervelt, Rutgers University Press, 1998. p. 158
In 1974, Patty Hearst, a member of the wealthy Hearst family, when 19 years old was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a left-wing militant organization. After several weeks of captivity, she agreed to join the group and took part in their activities. In 1975, she was arrested and charged with bank robbery and the use of a gun in committing a felony. Her attorney, F. Lee Bailey, argued in her trial that she should not be held responsible for her actions since her treatment by her captors was the equivalent of the alleged brainwashing of Korean War POWs (see also Diminished responsibility).Regulating Religion: Case Studies from Around the Globe, James T. Richardson, Springer Science & Business Media, 2012, p. 518 Bailey developed his case in conjunction with psychiatrist Louis Jolyon West and psychologist Margaret Singer. They had both studied the experiences of Korean War POWs. (In 1996, Singer published her theories in her best-selling book Cults in Our Midst.Cults in Our Midst: The Continuing Fight Against Their Hidden Menace , Margaret Thaler Singer, Jossey-Bass, publisher, 2003, ) Despite this defense, Hearst was found guilty.
In 1990, Steven Fishman, who was a member of the Church of Scientology, was charged with mail fraud for conducting a scheme to sue large corporations via conspiring with minority stockholders in shareholder class action lawsuits. Fishman's attorneys notified the court that they intended to rely on an insanity defense, using the theories of brainwashing and the expert witnesses of Singer and Richard Ofshe to claim that the Church of Scientology had practiced brainwashing on him, which left him unsuitable to make independent decisions. The court ruled that the use of brainwashing theories is inadmissible in expert witnesses, citing the Frye standard, which states that scientific theories utilized by expert witnesses must be generally accepted in their respective fields. Since then, United States courts have consistently rejected testimony about mind control or brainwashing on the grounds that these theories are not part of accepted science under the Frye standard.
In 2003, the brainwashing defense was used unsuccessfully in defense of Lee Boyd Malvo, who was charged with murder for his part in the D.C. sniper attacks.Mental Condition Defences and the Criminal Justice System: Perspectives from Law and Medicine, Ben Livings, Alan Reed, Nicola Wake, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015, p. 98 Oldenburg, Don (21 November 2003). "Stressed to Kill: The Defense of Brainwashing; Sniper Suspect's Claim Triggers More Debate" , The Washington Post, reproduced in Defence Brief, issue 269, published by Steven Skurka & Associates Allegations of brainwashing have also been raised by plaintiffs in child custody cases.Warshak, R. A. (2010). Divorce Poison: How to Protect Your Family from Bad-mouthing and Brainwashing. New York: Harper Collins.Richardson, James T. Regulating Religion: Case Studies from Around the Globe, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers 2004, p. 16, .
Thomas Andrew Green, in his 2014 book Freedom and Criminal Responsibility in American Legal Thought, argues that the brainwashing defense undermines the law's fundamental premise of free will.Freedom and Criminal Responsibility in American Legal Thought, Thomas Andrew Green, Cambridge University Press, 2014, p. 391 LaFave's Criminal Law, 5th (Hornbook Series), Wayne LaFave, West Academic, 18 March 2010, pp. 208–210 In 2003, forensic psychologist Dick Anthony said that "no reasonable person would question that there are situations where people can be influenced against their best interests, but those arguments are evaluated based on fact, not bogus expert testimony."
Anti-cult movement
In the 1970s and 1980s, the anti-cult movement applied the concept of brainwashing to explain religious conversions to some new religious movements (NRMs) and other groups that they considered cults.Barker, Eileen: New Religious Movements: A Practical Introduction. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1989. News media reports tended to accept their view and social scientists sympathetic to the anti-cult movement, who were usually psychologists, revised models of brainwashing. While some psychologists were receptive to the concept, most sociologists were skeptical of its ability to explain conversion. Some critics of the Latter Day Saint movement have accused it of brainwashing.
Philip Zimbardo defined mind control as "the process by which individual or collective freedom of choice and action is compromised by agents or agencies that modify or distort perception, motivation, affect, cognition or behavioral outcomes." He suggested that any person is susceptible to such manipulation.
Benjamin Zablocki, late professor of sociology at Rutgers University said that the number of people who attest to brainwashing in interviews (performed in accordance with guidelines of the National Institute of Mental Health and National Science Foundation) is too large to result from anything other than a genuine phenomenon. He said that in the two most prestigious journals dedicated to the sociology of religion there have been no articles "supporting the brainwashing perspective," while over one hundred such articles have been published in other journals "marginal to the field." He concluded that the concept of brainwashing had been blacklisted.Phil Zuckerman. Invitation to the Sociology of Religion. Psychology Press, 24 July 2003 p. 28