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Brainwashing Techniques in Leadership and Child Rearing
Author(s) -
LYNN R.
Publication year - 1966
Publication title -
british journal of social and clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.479
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8260
pISSN - 0007-1293
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8260.1966.tb00485.x
Subject(s) - prerogative , psychology , the arts , variety (cybernetics) , anxiety , social psychology , psychoanalysis , criminology , law , psychiatry , political science , politics , artificial intelligence , computer science
It used to be thought that brainwashing techniques for manipulating the beliefs of others were the sole prerogative of sinister interrogators behind the iron curtain. This view received something of a jolt from Sargant (1957), who argued that the essentials of the method—which lie in arousing anxiety in the victim and then offering an escape from it—are used a variety of practitioners in the west, notably policemen, certain religious leaders, and psychoanalysts. Even so, these persuaders only practice their arts on minorities and it may be thought that the ordinary citizen is not a victim—or a practitioner—of brainwashing procedures.