File:Greek_uc_psi_icon.svg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
brainwashing
Sign in to saveAlso known as coercive persuasion, mind abuse, menticide, thought control, thought reform
Brainwashing is the systematic effort to get someone to adopt a particular deception, loyalty, instruction, or doctrine, usually without being noticed. It is also a term that refers in general to psychological techniques that manipulate action or thought against a person's will, desire, or knowledge. It attempts to damage individual or group attitudes, frames of reference, beliefs, values or loyalties by demonstrating that current thinking patterns and attitudes are wrong and need change. It is said to reduce its subject's ability to think critically or independently, to allow the introduction
Research
82 papers- The anatomy of brainwashing.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2024
- Brainwashing by Social Media: A Threat to Freedom, a Risk for Dictatorship.Clinical neuropsychiatry · 2022
- How I do it: brainwashing for purulent ventriculitis.Acta neurochirurgica · 2023
- Brainwashing by commercials.Clinical pediatrics · 1971
- Sleep Apnea and the Glymphatic System: Support for the Importance of Brainwashing.Radiology · 2024
via PubMed
Wikidata facts
Show 2 more facts
- Commons category
- Brainwashing
via Wikidata · CC0
~22 min read
Article
13 sectionsContents
- China and the Korean War
- Legal cases and the "brainwashing defense"
- Anti-cult movement concept
- United States scientific research
- Research by the U.S. government
- American Psychological Association
- Other areas and studies
- In popular culture
- See also
- Further reading
- Notes
- References
- External links
Brainwashing is the systematic effort to get someone to adopt a particular deception, loyalty, instruction, or doctrine, usually without being noticed. It is also a term that refers in general to psychological techniques that manipulate action or thought against a person's will, desire, or knowledge. It attempts to damage individual or group attitudes, frames of reference, beliefs, values or loyalties by demonstrating that current thinking patterns and attitudes are wrong and need change. It is said to reduce its subject's ability to think critically or independently, to allow the introduction of new, unwanted thoughts and ideas into their minds.
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. Research into the concept also looked at Nazi Germany and present-day North Korea, at some criminal cases in the United States, and at the actions of human traffickers. Scientific and legal debate followed, as well as media attention, about the possibility of brainwashing being a factor when lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was used, or in the induction of people into groups which are considered to be cults.