Brainwashing and Modern Techniques of Mind Control

Harvard FAS

This course examines the phenomenon of brainwashing as a modern set of techniques that can apparently force a subject radically to alter their beliefs against their will. The Cold War roots of 'brainwashing' - both the myth and the reality -- lie in the politics of twentieth-century anti-Communism and the deeper fear that people's most strongly held thoughts, ideas, and ideological commitments could be vulnerable to powerful infiltration. I argue this fear is justified — that brainwashing is…