Governments have been using
brainwashing techniques for years, and there have been many different scientific
methods used throughout modern history to obtain desired effects from people’s
minds. The term brainwashing actually developed out of the methods of Communist
China. As Robert Jay Lifton describes, “It [Brainwashing] was first used by an
American journalist, Edward Hunter, as a translation of the colloquialism hsi
nao (literally, “wash brain”) which he quoted from Chinese informants who
described its use following the Communist takeover” (Lifton 3). A good example
of Chinese brainwashing is the treatment of American prisoners. Prisoners would
often be heavily interrogated in addition to being forced to read and discuss
Communist propaganda with groups. Prisoners were made to feel like criminals and
were often mentally swayed into thinking that they did something wrong, and
therefore, giving confessions, etc (Lifton 19-37). Undoubtedly, fear,
intimidation, and violence were common tools.
The Russian Soviets also used
brainwashing techniques in the 1930s and later. Soviet prisoners were harshly
interrogated to the point of confessions in much more solitary settings than the
Chinese used. The Chinese used brainwashing mostly for “individual re-education
and reform” while the Soviets used brainwashing to elicit confessions and punish
individual criminals (O’Neill/Demos 20-21). The desired effects of brainwashing
were not always negative. For example, during World War II, the process of “drug
abreaction” was being used on soldiers to alleviate painful memories. The term
“drug abreaction” was a product of the work of Breuer and Freud. They came up
with the theory that in order to rid patients of the painful effects of
traumatic memories, people had to bring the memories vividly back to the surface
and be talked through them. Ether was a common drug used by psychotherapists
during World War II to force soldiers to remember ugly wartime memories. These
soldiers would then be talked through their pain and often come out of this
drugged state without the mental anguish associated with these memories (Sargant
65-74). In A Clockwork Orange, drugs are used in a negative way to
condition Alex’s brain in a way that cuts off his ability to make free choices.
Alex describes the horror of the brainwashing and says, “Because I did not think
it was possible for any veck to even think of making films of what I was forced
to viddy, all tied to this chair and my glazzies made to be wide open” (Burgess
106). The process of conditioning Alex towards non-violence through films and
music is known in the novel as the Ludovico Technique. This process is a form of
responsive conditioning (Landini 1), where patients are trained to respond in
desired ways to certain stimulants.
Alex is rendered physically ill by
violence and even Beethoven. Alex states, “Then I noticed, in all my pain and
sickness, what music it was that like crackled and boomed on the sound-track,
and it was Ludwig van, the last movement of the Fifth Symphony, and I creeched
like bezoomny at that” (Burgess 113). This link between his physical illness and
Beethoven could be contributed to the fact that a part of the brain called the
Amygdala is associated with both the emotional effects of music and “fear and
recognition of emotions” (Landini 6). Alex is experiencing fear in association
with Beethoven’s music. William Sargant talks about how shock treatment has been
used to disturb the brain prior to conditioning it. Psychotherapists used these
“psychological shocks” to eliminate mental disorders and other problems (Sargant
81-82).
Orwell spins this in a negative
light as well by having O’Brien electrically shock Winston in 1984
until he is mentally exhausted and confused enough to believe anything Big
Brother wants him to believe. At one point, O’Brien shocks Winston and Orwell
explains, “He [Winston] started and almost cried out. A pang of pain had shot
through his body. O’Brien had pushed the lever of the dial up to thirty-five”
(Orwell 263). The brainwashing that Winston endures is absolutely brutal.
Burgess and Orwell both try to warn us of a dark future by utilizing drug
therapy, responsive conditioning, and shock therapy as the tools of evil
totalitarian governments.
The
University of Southern California does not screen or control the content on this
website and thus does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity, or quality of such
content. All content on this website is provided by and is the sole
responsibility of the person from which such content originated, and such
content does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the University
administration or the Board of Trustees
No comments:
Post a Comment