The concept of transforming the mind has long captivated scientists, artists, and thinkers alike. It embodies the essence of personal growth—the understanding that our experiences shape who we are and that our thoughts are in a continual state of evolution and change.
However, that very malleability also leaves us deeply vulnerable. Though we’d like to think, ‘we’ll know it when we see it,’ exposure to coercive persuasion is also used to control, influence, or brainwash those who are exposed to it.
The term "brainwashing" might evoke images of dystopian novels or films, but it actually originated during the Cold War. It was first used to describe the suspected Chinese indoctrination of American POWs during the Korean War. Lemov recounts the harrowing experience of Morris Wills, a 17-year-old sophomore sent straight to Korea after high school. “He described how, finally, once you're completely reduced and you crawl like a dog, you don't retain any sense of who you are after a while.”
What makes someone susceptible to brainwashing? Rebecca Lemov, professor of the history of science at Harvard University and author of The Instability of Truth: Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-persuasion,
has studied its evolution from military applications to cult recruitment. She says what’s often so remarkable, especially within cults, is that the ability to disable one's ego, can also lead to a feeling of happiness and belonging. “Beating down the typical functions of the ego actually leaves room for connecting more with a group sometimes, or even states of ecstasy or exhilaration.”
It’s difficult to comprehend the psychological manipulation these individuals endured. Their communist captors exploited their vulnerabilities and grievances, painting life in China as far more appealing. While their methods were both brutal and deceptive, the outcomes may feel more familiar to us than we’d like to admit.
Lemov offers her perspective on the ‘softer’ brainwashing of social media and doom scrolling today, saying, “what you're seeing in your interactions is not the same as what anyone else is seeing in the old days of mass media, when everyone saw the same broadcast. What you made of it was individual, but it was a shared phenomenon, and now you may see a political ad, or just for you.”
The Instability of Truth: Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-persuasion by Rebecca Lemov
Rebecca Lemov, pictured here, says, “We constantly underestimate our own malleability. Brainwashing, we often like to think of it, or mind control or thought reform, as this kind of freakish thing, somebody in a cult, or somebody who fell for some outlandish scam.” Photo by Sharon A. Jacobs
