The term "brainwashing" was first used in the 1950s by the American journalist Edward Hunter. He used it to denounce the treatment received by American soldiers in Chinese prison camps during the Korean War. Techniques to do this have been documented since the time of the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead and used by partners, parents, false seers, cult leaders, secret societies, revolutionaries and dictators, who abuse others to have them in their hands and they manipulate them against their will. These methods do not require the use of futuristic weapons or supernatural powers, rather they are based on an understanding of the human psyche and a desire to exploit it to one's advantage. By understanding them better, you can learn to protect yourself and others.
Steps
Part 1 of 3: Recognizing the Brainwashing Tactics
Step 1. Remember:
people who try to brainwash others tend to target weak and vulnerable people. Not everyone ends up falling prey to mind control, but some individuals are more vulnerable to certain types of brainwashing at particular times in their lives. A good manipulator knows what to look for, and his targets are individuals who at a certain moment face difficulties or an unwanted change. Here are some of the possible candidates:
- People who have lost their jobs and fear for their future.
- Recently divorced people, especially those who have had a bad experience.
- People who suffer from chronic diseases, especially if they don't understand them.
- People who have lost a loved one, especially if it was a deep relationship and don't have many other friends.
- Young people who leave home for the first time. They are especially targeted by the leaders of religious sects.
- Finding out enough information about the targeted person and their ideas is a common predatory tactic. Getting to know her better allows you to explain why she is going through this difficult moment in line with her beliefs. Subsequently, the strategy can be extended by applying this person's values to the explanation of what is happening in general, imperceptibly modifying his interpretation.
Step 2. Beware of people trying to isolate you or someone you know from outside influences
Since people who experience a personal tragedy or a major change in their life are prone to feel alone, a skilled manipulator works to amplify the feeling of loneliness. Such isolation can take many forms.
- If it is about young people involved in a sect, it could be implemented by preventing them from having contact with friends and family.
- If it is a manipulative relationship, it means never losing sight of the victim or not allowing her to have contact with family and friends.
- For labor camp prisoners, it means being isolated from other inmates and being subjected to subtle or obvious forms of torture.
Step 3. Watch for attacks aimed at the victim's self-esteem
Brainwashing only works when the perpetrator is in a position of superiority to the victim. This means that the targeted person must be destroyed in order for the manipulator to rebuild him in his own image and likeness. It can be done using mental, emotional or physical means for a certain amount of time in order to physically and emotionally wear down the target.
- Mental torture may begin by lying to the victim, and then proceed by embarrassing or threatening the victim. This form of torture can be carried out with words or gestures, passing from expressions of disapproval to the invasion of his personal space.
- Emotional torture is obviously no less violent than physical torture, and may progressively increase. For example, they might start with verbal insults, then proceed with persecution, plagiarism and dehumanizing actions, such as undressing the victim to photograph or even just looking at her.
- Physical torture could include hunger, cold, sleep deprivation, beating, mutilation, and so on, and none of them are socially acceptable. Physical torture is commonly used by violent parents and partners, but also in prisons and "re-education" camps.
Step 4. Be wary of those who try to convince you that group membership is preferable to the outside world
Along with breaking down the victim's stamina, it is important to provide a seemingly more attractive alternative to the world he knew before meeting the manipulator. This can be done with several methods:
- He allows himself to have contact only with other brainwashed victims. This creates a kind of pressure coming from their own kind that encourages the new adept to want to be like the others and to be accepted by the group. This could be reinforced through physical contact, meetings, orgies, or through stricter means, such as a dress code, controlled diet, or other strict rules.
- The message is repeated through various means, such as singing and re-singing the same phrases or saying certain slogans, often emphasizing key words or phrases.
- Imitation of the rhythm of the human heartbeat through the cadence of the leader's speeches or a certain musical accompaniment. This technique can be enhanced with lighting that is neither too dim nor too strong and a temperature that stimulates relaxation.
- The victim is never given time to think. This can mean never leaving her alone or always bombarding her with the same lessons on topics beyond logical understanding. His questions are discouraged.
- An "us versus them" mentality develops, according to which the leader is right and the outside world is wrong. The goal is to achieve blind obedience, so that the victim offers his money and his life to the manipulator, to support his goals.
Step 5. Remember that manipulators often offer rewards after "converting" the victim
After having completely destroyed it and brought it to extreme obedience, it can be "re-educated". This step can take a few weeks or several years, depending on your brainwashing goals.
An extreme form of complacency towards one's executioners is known with the expression “Stockholm syndrome”. Its origin? In 1973, during a bank robbery, two criminals held four hostages for 131 hours. After the rescue, the victims found themselves identifying with the kidnappers, to the point that one became engaged to one of them and another created a financial fund to pay their legal fees. Patty Hearst, kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974, is considered another victim of Stockholm syndrome
Step 6. Recognize the new thinking parameters in the victim's brain
Much of the "re-education" is done through some of the same operant conditioning techniques used to reward and punish the victim while trying to destroy her. Positive experiences are now being used to reward her, since she thinks as the manipulator wishes; negative experiences instead serve to punish the last traces of disobedience.
A way to reward the victim? Give it a new name. This is usually associated with sects, but the Symbionese Liberation Army also did so when it renamed Patty Hearst as "Tania"
Step 7. The process doesn't stop there
While brainwashing has proved effective and thorough, most manipulators find it necessary to test the depth of control exerted on subjects. This can be verified in different ways, depending on the perpetrator's goals. The results determine what needs to be done for the victim to remain in this state.
- Extorting money is one of the methods used - among other things it serves to make the manipulator rich. Psychic Rose Marks used her control over writer Jude Deveraux to scam her: she made $ 17 million in cash and property, ruining her career.
- Committing criminal acts, with the manipulator or for him. An example was Patty Hearst, who accompanied the Symbionese Liberation Army to carry out robberies.
Part 2 of 3: Identify a Victim
Step 1. Observe if the possible victim is characterized by a mix of fanaticism and addiction
A person who has been brainwashed can give the idea of being overwhelmed by the group and / or having a real obsession with the leader. At the same time, he appears to be unable to solve problems without the help of the group or his guide.
Step 2. See if he agrees to everything
A victim will unquestionably agree with whatever the group or leader says, regardless of the difficulties or consequences of complying with the rules. This could also push her to distance herself from people who do not share the same interest in the manipulator.
Step 3. See if it shows any detachment from reality
Those who are brainwashed tend to be listless, reserved and lacking the personality that distinguished them before being subjected to this process. It is particularly evident in cult victims or in a manipulative relationship.
Some victims may internalize their anger. This can cause depression and various ailments, even leading to suicides in some cases. Others may take their anger out on anyone they see as the cause of the problem, often through verbal or physical confrontation
Part 3 of 3: Defusing the brainwashing
Step 1. Subject needs to know that their brain has been washed
This understanding is often accompanied by denial and distress, because he begins to question what he has practiced without being used to being critical anymore. Progressively, this individual should become more aware of the methods of manipulation to which he has been subjected.
Step 2. Expose him to ideas that contradict those of brainwashing
Put him in front of multiple options, without overloading him with too many possibilities at once: you will see that he will acquire a new and broader perspective, from the top of which he will challenge the beliefs implanted in his mind by the manipulator.
- Some of these same conflicting ideas may have traces of manipulation. In such a case, it is useful to make an effort to try to present them in the most impartial way possible.
- A stronger form of this exposition lies in forcing the subject to relive the experience by staging it. In this case, however, you should give him options to react to the brainwashing. This type of therapy requires a psychotherapist experienced in psychodrama.
Step 3. Encourage the individual to make their own decisions based on the newly acquired information
At first, he may feel anxious about doing this, or he may feel ashamed that he has made bad choices right now or in the past. However, with practice, this tension will disappear.
Advice
Healing from the effects of brainwashing without being assisted by anyone is possible. In 1961, psychiatrist Robert J. Lifton and psychologist Edgar Schein did a study that showed that few of the prisoners of war exposed to Chinese brainwashing techniques converted to communism, and those who did gave up these ideas after being Set Yourself Free
Warnings
- While hypnosis techniques might be used to brainwash someone, hypnotizing is not synonymous with brainwashing. In the latter case, a system of superficial rewards and punishments is used to have an impact on the victims, and the goal is always to crush the resistance of the people to whom it is inflicted. Hypnosis usually begins by making someone relax and requires access to the deepest parts of the psyche; generally it does not provide for rewards and punishments. Despite the work it involves, hypnosis often works faster than brainwashing a subject.
- In the 1980s some specialists, called "deprogrammers", were often called upon by worried parents to forcibly remove their children from the sects that had involved them. Many of these same professionals, however, used techniques similar to those of brainwashing, in order to subject the "saved" subjects to a counter-indoctrination. In any case, these methods have proved ineffective in many cases, since brainwashing must be continually reinforced; by kidnapping the boys to "cure", they themselves became criminals.
