"Some people say the seed practices brainwashing techniques. I say your brain needed a little washing".
My father, to my sister and I while driving us to a oldcomer rap.
"Brainwashing, as a technique, has been used for centuries and
is no mystery to psychologists. In this sense, brainwashing means
involuntary re-education of basic beliefs and values."
Allen W. Dulles, CIA director in a forward memorandum to J Edgar Hoover dated 1956.
http://www.ncoic.com/brainwsh.htmexcerpts:
"There is no question that an individual can be broken psycholog-
ically by captors with knowledge and willingness to persist in tech-
niques aimed at deliberately destroying the integration of a personality. Although it is probable that everyone reduced to such a confused, disoriented state will respond to the introduction of new beliefs, this cannot be stated dogmatically.
PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN CONTROL AND REACTION TO CONTROL
There are progressive steps in exercising control over an individ-
ual and changing his behaviour and personality integration. The fol-
lowing five steps are typical of behaviour changes in any controlled
individual:
1. Making the individual aware of control is the first stage in
changing his behaviour...
comes to recognize the overwhelming powers of the state and the impersonal, "incarcerative" machinery in which he is enmeshed. The individual recognizes that definite limits have been put upon the ways he can respond.
2. Realization of his complete dependence upon the controll-
ing system is a major factor in the controlling of his behavior.The controlled adult is forced to accept the fact that food, tobacco,praise, and the only social contact that he will get come from the very interrogator who exercises control over him.
3. The awareness of control and recognition of dependence re-
sult in causing internal conflict and breakdown of previous patterns
of behaviour. Although this transition can be relatively mild in
the case of a child, it is almost invariably severe for the adult
undergoing brainwashing. Only an individual who holds his values
lightly can change them easily. Since the brainwasher-interrogators
aim to have the individuals undergo profound emotional change, they force their victims to seek out painfully what is desired by the
controlling individual. During this period the victim is likely to
have a mental breakdown characterized by delusions and hallucinations.
4. Discovery that there is an acceptable solution to his prob-
lem is the first stage of reducing the individual's conflict. It
is characteristically reported by victims of brainwashing that this
discovery led to an overwhelming feeling of relief that the horror
of internal conflict would cease and that perhaps they would not,
after all, be driven insane. It is at this point that they are pre-
pared to make major changes in their value-system. This is an
automatic rather than voluntary choice. They have lost their a-
bility to be critical.
5. Reintergration of values and identification with the cont-
rolling system is the final stage in changing the behaviour of the
controlled individual.
.......
"The most important aspect of the brainwashing process is the interrogation. The other pressures are designed primarily to help the interrogator achieve his goals. The following states are created systematically within the individual . These may vary in order, but all are necessary to the brainwashing process:
1. A feeling of helplessness in attempting to deal with the impersonal machinery of control.
2. An initial reaction of "surprise."
3. A feeling of uncertainty about what is required of him.
4. A developing feeling of dependence upon the interrogator .
5. A sense of doubt and loss of objectivity.
6. Feelings of guilt.
7. A questioning attitude toward his own value-system.
8. A feeling of potential "breakdown," i.e.,that he might go crazy.
9. A need to defend his acquired principles.
10. A final sense of "belonging" (identification)."