What Is Brainwash ? : How to Deal with a Brainwashed Person

Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwashing is said to reduce its subjects’ ability to think critically or independently, to allow the introduction of new, unwanted thoughts and ideas into their minds, as well as to change their attitudes, values and beliefs

Brainwashing, also called Coercive Persuasion, systematic effort to persuade nonbelievers to accept a certain allegiance, command, or doctrine. A colloquial term, it is more generally applied to any technique designed to manipulate human thought or action against the desire, will, or knowledge of the individual. By controlling the physical and social environment, an attempt is made to destroy loyalties to any unfavorable groups or individuals, to demonstrate to the individual that his attitudes and patterns of thinking are incorrect and must be changed, and to develop loyalty and unquestioning obedience to the ruling party.

The term is most appropriately used in reference to a program of political or religious indoctrination or ideological remolding. The techniques of brainwashing typically involve isolation from former associates and sources of information; an exacting regimen requiring absolute obedience and humility; strong social pressures and rewards for cooperation; physical and psychological punishments for non-cooperation ranging from social ostracism and criticism, deprivation of food, sleep, and social contacts, to bondage and torture; and continual reinforcement.

How Brainwashing Works

In psychology, the study of brainwashing, often referred to as thought reform, falls into the sphere of “social influence.” Social influence happens every minute of every day. It’s the collection of ways in which people can change other people’s attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. For instance, the compliance method aims to produce a change in a person’s behavior and is not concerned with his attitudes or beliefs.

It’s the “Just do it” approach. Persuasion, on the other hand, aims for a change in attitude, or “Do it because it’ll make you feel good/happy/healthy/successful.” The education method (which is called the “propaganda method” when you don’t believe in what’s being taught) goes for the social-influence gold, trying to affect a change in the person’s beliefs, along the lines of “Do it because you know it’s the right thing to do.”

Brainwashing is a severe form of social influence that combines all of these approaches to cause changes in someone’s way of thinking without that person’s consent and often against his will.

Because brainwashing is such an invasive form of influence, it requires the complete isolation and dependency of the subject, which is why you mostly hear of brainwashing occurring in prison camps or totalism cults.

The agent (the brainwasher) must have complete control over the target (the brainwashee) so that sleeping, eating, using the bathroom and the fulfilling other basic human needs depends on the will of the agent. In the brainwashing process, the agent systematically breaks down the target’s identity to the point that it falls apart. The agent then replaces it with another set of behaviors, attitudes and beliefs that work in the target’s current environment.

While most psychologists believe that brainwashing is possible under the right conditions, some see it as improbable or at least as a less severe form of influence than the media portrays it to be. Some definitions of brainwashing require the presence of the threat of physical harm, and under these definitions most extremist cults do not practice true brainwashing since they typically do not physically abuse recruits.

Other definitions rely on “nonphysical coercion and control” as an equally effective means of asserting influence. Regardless of which definition you use, many experts believe that even under ideal brainwashing conditions, the effects of the process are most often short term — the brainwashing victim’s old identity is not in fact eradicated by the process, but instead is in hiding, and once the “new identity” stops being reinforced the person’s old attitudes and beliefs will start to return.

There are psychologists who say the apparent conversion of American POWs during the Korean War was the result of plain-old torture, not “brainwashing.” And in fact, most POWs in the Korean War were not converted to communism at all, which leads to the question of reliability: Is brainwashing a system that produces similar results across cultures and personality types, or does it hinge primarily on the target’s susceptibility to influence? [source: Adams]. In the next section, we’ll examine one expert’s description of the brainwashing process and find out what makes an easy target.

Brainwashing Techniques

In the late 1950s, psychologist Robert Jay Lifton studied former prisoners of Korean War and Chinese war camps. He determined that they’d undergone a multistep process that began with attacks on the prisoner’s sense of self and ended with what appeared to be a change in beliefs. Lifton ultimately defined a set of steps involved in the brainwashing cases he studied:

• Assault on identity
• Guilt
• Self-betrayal
• Breaking point
• Leniency
• Compulsion to confess
• Channeling of guilt
• Releasing of guilt
• Progress and harmony
• Final confession and rebirth

Each of these stages takes place in an environment of isolation, meaning all “normal” social reference points are unavailable, and mind-clouding techniques like sleep deprivation and malnutrition are typically part of the process. There is often the presence or constant threat of physical harm, which adds to the target’s difficulty in thinking critically and independently.

We can roughly divide the process Lifton identified into three stages: breaking down the self, introducing the possibility of salvation and rebuilding the self. Let’s examine them in more detail:

Breaking down the self /brainwashing achieved

• Assault on identity: You are not who you think you are. This is a systematic attack on a target’s sense of self (also called his identity or ego) and his core belief system. The agent denies everything that makes the target who he is: “You are not a soldier.” “You are not a man.” “You are not defending freedom.” The target is under constant attack for days, weeks or months, to the point that he becomes exhausted, confused and disoriented. In this state, his beliefs seem less solid.
• Guilt: You are bad. While the identity crisis is setting in, the agent is simultaneously creating an overwhelming sense of guilt in the target. He repeatedly and mercilessly attacks the subject for any “sin” the target has committed, large or small. He may criticize the target for everything from the “evilness” of his beliefs to the way he eats too slowly. The target begins to feel a general sense of shame that everything he does is wrong.
• Self-betrayal: Agree with me that you are bad. Once the subject is disoriented and drowning in guilt, the agent forces him (either with the threat of physical harm or of continuance of the mental attack) to denounce his family, friends and peers who share the same “wrong” belief system that he holds. This betrayal of his own beliefs and of people he feels a sense of loyalty to increases the shame and loss of identity the target is already experiencing.
• Breaking point: Who am I, where am I and what am I supposed to do? With his identity in crisis, experiencing deep shame and having betrayed what he has always believed in, the target may undergo what in the lay community is referred to as a “nervous breakdown.” In psychology, “nervous breakdown” is really just a collection of severe symptoms that can indicate any number of psychological disturbances. It may involve uncontrollable sobbing, deep depression and general disorientation. The target may have lost his grip on reality and have the feeling of being completely lost and alone.  When the target reaches his breaking point, his sense of self is pretty much up for grabs — he has no clear understanding of who he is or what is happening to him. At this point, the agent sets up the temptation to convert to another belief system that will save the target from his misery.

Here’s a summary of achieved

BREAKING DOWN THE SELF
Assault on identity: You aren’t who you say you are.
Guilt: You are bad.
Self-betrayal: Agree with me that you are bad.
Breaking point: Who am I, where am I and what am I supposed to do?

INTRODUCING THE POSSIBILITY OF SALVATION
Leniency: I can help you.
Compulsion to confession: You can help yourself.
Channeling of guilt: This is why you’re in pain.
Releasing of guilt: It’s not me; it’s my beliefs.

REBUILDING THE SELF
Progress and harmony: If you want, you can choose good.
Final confession and rebirth: I choose good.

How to Deal with a Brainwashed Person

While getting through to them will be challenging, here are a few suggestions that might help. 

1. Be compassionate

Whether you’re frustrated, angry, or scared for someone, your supercharged emotions have the potential to come through in the way you speak, causing them to become defensive and pushing them even further into the arms of the brainwashers. Telling someone that they’ve been brainwashed or applying other negative labels won’t get you anywhere. Before broaching the conversation, be sure to do so in as non-judgemental of a manner as possible. 

2. Reconnect over shared experiences (“Remember when…”)

Talking about old memories or conversations can help remind a person of their old identity and that they had a life beyond whatever their current interest. Additionally, it can put someone in a positive frame of mind that can make them more receptive to what you have to say. 

3. Expose them to facts—gently

Once again, in a non-judgmental manner, introduce facts that contradict what they’ve been brainwashed to believe. Present these as a gentle, non-invasive question (“What are your thoughts on this?”) or perhaps as an observational opinion (“Her family must be heartbroken by that decision”). This provides an opportunity for the brainwashed person to be exposed to rational lines of thinking without feeling attacked.

4. Be patient

Whether it’s a cult or company culture, breaking out of group-think is going to take time. Beliefs aren’t changed overnight, nor will they be changed back. Ultimately, no one can force someone’s beliefs to change (especially if they’re strongly associated with some sort of ideology). The best you might be able to do is to slowly chip away at their harmful beliefs until they are able to come to a revelation on their own timing. 

Reference : science.howstuffworks.com