| Description |
1 online resource (75 pages) |
| Series |
Cambridge elements. Elements in new religious movements, 2635-232X |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references |
| Notes |
Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (viewed on July 07, 2022) |
| Subject |
Brainwashing.
|
|
Brainwashing
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| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9781009029568 |
|
1009029568 |
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