How "brainwashing" is made

Just finished reading "Brainwashing Psychology" by Kathleen Taylor, a psychology research expert at Oxford University (I feel that this translation is too superficial and fails to reflect the full meaning of the original name Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control). This book is divided into three parts: Brainwashing The historical origin and social psychology of the book, the neuroscience of brainwashing, freedom and control. This book contains a lot of information, especially the analysis of the brain operation in the middle involves a lot of biological knowledge, it is difficult to read, and there are many parts directly and fast Progress, but still some gains.

The word "brainwashing" seems to be used frequently over the years. When a person's thoughts, behaviors and beliefs have undergone great changes and we can't understand them, we often conclude with the sentence "I don't know if this person has been brainwashed". <Wei There are two definitions of "brainwashing", one is "forcibly indoctrinated to induce a person to abandon basic political, social and religious beliefs and attitudes and to accept the opposite and strictly controlled ideas", and the second is "Persuasion through propaganda or sales". Therefore, brainwashing is not limited to what we usually understand to be related to politics or religion, a typical example is the advertisement mentioned by the author in the book. The first thing a good advertisement should do is to evoke our Strong emotions, such as negative emotions such as guilt, anxiety, and then point out that purchasing the product service is the most effective way to eliminate this emotion, or associate the product service with a positive emotion to encourage us to feel happy through the purchase. Advertisers use a variety of ways to package ads, music, color, fast tempo, good looks, etc., in order to hinder our critical analysis of the ad, so that there is no time and space to think "Do I need it".

The example from advertising can be extended to the methods used by brainwashers. Brainwashing may of course be coercive, such as physical and psychological torture through violence, intimidation, torture, etc. to force victims to change their minds and behaviors. However, Forcibly depriving a person of the control of his own thoughts will arouse strong resistance from the other party, and the resulting brainwashing effect may not be good or sustainable. Therefore, modern dictators or religious leaders usually adopt subtle and covert brainwashing methods. . An ideal brainwashing environment is to separate the brainwashed from the rest of the group, and then continuously accept a single repetition of the "one truth". Although in contemporary society, even in the most restrictive circumstances of life, people can Different sources of information, but the brainwasher can still create an atmosphere of isolation. For example, exaggerating to the target group the possible dangers of external threats, establishing clear enemies to arouse the unease of the target group, making the target group in the Tension or busyness makes them less likely to stop and think. The authors point out that certain strong emotions are evoked and then combined with certain nihilistic thoughts, which are often established in the state , party, God, truth and other absolute authority, this is an extremely effective way of brainwashing. When people accept these nihilistic thoughts as the highest criterion, they will be willing to surrender their freedom, and they will put some abstract goals higher than Human life and quality of life, and even regard human beings as a tool to seek benefits and achieve goals, which can be seen in countless examples of nationals of totalitarian countries and members of cult groups.

So, as individuals, how should we prevent and resist our own "brainwashing"? The author puts forward a "FACET" code of prevention for brainwashing at the end of the book. F stands for Freedom, and we need to be alert to those behaviors that limit and hinder freedom. ; A is for Agency, need to be wary of propaganda that denies individual competence and emphasizes collective representation; C is for Complexity, needs to be wary of dogmas that deny the complexity of the world and emphasize a single pure value; E is for Ends-not-Means, need to beware of those who want to achieve their goals The claim that any means are acceptable; T stands for Thinking, we always have to keep our own independent thinking. On the one hand, we need to accept diverse information and constantly learn, when we ourselves have built a sophisticated and complex cognitive network, those emotional A single strong shock of a person is less likely to shake our independent personalities and minds. On the other hand, always remember to think critically, and to avoid succumbing to emotional pressure, learn to stop and think before acting. environment, do not easily surrender your freedom of thought.