On 2003-11-14 09:17:00, GregFL wrote:
""its a form of brainwashing"
Art Barker, speaking of the techniques of the seed, to the Miami Herald 8/19/72
To go to Journal of Applied Polymer Science go to http://www3.interscience.wiley.com and then journal search and put the journal number and year
-- Journal of Applied Polymer Science Vol. 47, 1984
"
Reading back through this thread I noticed that Art himself described the Seed program as a type of "Brainwashing". Given this, I'm a little surprised that so many defenders of the program refute this. Art said it was brainwashing....yet so many here say it was not. A common statement being: "I never felt brainwashed". If you were brainwashed...would you feel it at all? Isn't that part of the programming itself? Wouldn't you only feel brainwashed if the effects were at least beginning to wear off? I thought that the only debate was whether such brainwashing (or thought-reconditioning....if you prefer a milder term) was justified by the higher purpose of getting people off drugs.
A view similar to Art's seems to be held by the professor below:
Incredibly, in 1962 Dr. Edgar H. Schein, associate professor of psychiatry at M.I.T., addressing the topic "Man Against Man: Brainwashing" at a seminar for prison wardens and psychologists chaired by James V. Bennett, the then director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, told his audience,
'My basic argument is this: in order to produce marked change of behavior and/or attitude, it is necessary to weaken, undermine, or remove the supports of the old patterns of behavior and the old attitudes'; this can be done 'either by removing the individual physically and preventing any communication with those whom he cares about, or by proving to him that those whom he respects are not worthy of it and, indeed, should be actively mistrusted.' Dr. Schein told his audience that he had gotten most of his ideas by studying the techniques used by North Korean and Chinese Communist on GI prisoners of war, but cautioned his audience not to be put off by this fact: 'These same techniques in the service of different goals may be quite acceptable to us. . . I would like to have you think of brainwashing not in terms of politics, ethics, and morals, but in terms of the deliberate changing of human behavior and attitudes by a group of men who have relatively complete control over the environment in which the captive population lives.' [Corrective Psychiatry & Journal of Social Change, Second Quarter, 1962.]
Many people seem amused by the comparison of the Seed's techniques to Korean Brainwashing. Did this idea originate with some junkie seed-screwup or is it simply some insult pulled out of thin air? And who first referred to the Seed as a 'cult'? Antigen? Greg? Not quiet:
"There are indications that a cult of The Seed has developed which leads seedlings to associate only with other seedlings and to ostracize those who associate with non-seedlings. This has led to the formation of continuing limited peer groups outside the program which restrict seedlings' interaction with normal society. Allegiance to such a peer group may lead to a transfer of decision-making and opens the possibility that if the peer group shifts direction it may return its members to drug abuse or turn them to other anti-social behavior. "
1974 Report by the Staff of the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce.
And where did the bizarre idea of comparing the Seed's methods to Korean Brain Washing originate:
"Other forms of behavior modification techniques employ intensive "encounter sessions" in which individuals are required to participate in group therapy discussions where intensive pressure is often placed on the individuals to accept the attitudes of the group. . . Once the individual is submissive, his personality can begin to be reformed around attitudes determined by the program director to be acceptable. Similar to the highly refined "brainwashing" techniques employed by the North Koreans in the early nineteen fifties, the method is used in the treatment of drug abusers. . . "The Seed", a drug abuse treatment program in Florida that, until recently, received funding from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, is based on a similar philosophy. "
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND THE FEDERAL ROLE IN BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION by the Committee on the Judiciary,United States Senate, Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, November, 1974, pp. 15 - 16 describing a juvenile drug rehab program in Fort Lauderdale, Florida called The Seed.
Brainwashing: What does this mean? It does not mean that your memory is wiped out. It does not mean you become a 'manchurian candidate' robot pre-programed to carry out assigned tasks. It doesn't mean you are a zombie or are incapable of any critical thinking or feeling on any level. It does mean that your basic beliefs, ideals and personality are modified to conform with a desired result or ideal. Your ability to critically evaluate particular issues addressed by the programming is indeed affected. It is a catch 22 since it is this ability to critically evaluate the claims of the programming itself that offers the only way of freeing yourself from it's clutches. If you don't feel brainwashed, you obviously aren't interested in freeing yourself from it.
