Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of brainwashing in China

Would you like to tell us about a lower price? Informed by Erik Erikson's concept of the formation of ego identity, this book, which first appreared in , is an analysis of the experiences of fifteen Chinese citizens and twenty-five Westerners who underwent "brainwashing" by the Communist Chinese government. Robert Lifton constructs these case histories through personal interviews and outlines a thematic pattern of death and rebirth, accompanied by feelings of guilt, that characterizes the process of "thought reform.

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Combating Cult Mind Control: The science of thought control Oxford Landmark Science. Editorial Reviews Review Lifton has written a book with the rare virtue of being at once a rich source of information vital to international relations, and an interesting exploration of several aspects of ideology and identity.

Survivors of Hiroshima and The Nazi Doctors. Product details File Size: January 1, Sold by: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Read reviews that mention thought reform mind control read the book lifton in this book totalism china chinese cults religious brainwashing chapter cult communist groups re-education thoughts particular psychological understanding westerners. Showing of 17 reviews. Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. There was a problem filtering reviews right now.

Please try again later. Growing up one of Jehovah's Witnesses, some of what Lifton describes in this book I have definitely seen and it really rang true for me. I think his idea of totalism, this internal drive that many all? Interestingly, I actually found chapter 8 on "Apparent Resisters" to be the part of the book that was most illuminating in my quest to understand the religion I grew up with. I always asked myself, even when I was one, how could JW's be so resistant I'm very grateful to Robert Lifton for this wonderful analysis, this isn't just a book about "brainwashing" in communist China, it's a book about human nature.

If you're curious about the more extreme and darker impulses of human nature, read it! And if your curious about high control religious groups, or especially if you are in the process of leaving one yourself, I highly suggest reading it along with his study on Aum Shinrikyo "Destroying the World to Save it". There is no higher praise I can offer Robert Jay Lifton than this: That's an amazing achievement.

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Can anyone dismayed by the shallowness of contemporary sound bite culture, for instance, not benefit from understanding Lifton's analysis of how "loading the language" leads to the "language of non-thought"? Is our tepid response to the continual revelations about government invasiveness and the ensuing power grab so evident in the non-accountable judgements conducted by FISA and the NSA a reflection of Lifton's prescient claim that "doctrine over person" is central to the success of ideological totalism, be it implemented by authoritarian regimes or democratic ones?

These and other conclusions by the author are not the arbitrary musings of an Ivy Tower theorist - they are the conclusions arrived at after years of painstaking research, conclusions supported by other groundbreaking research that followed - particular the experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo. This research is critical to digest if we're to avoid the prospects of the haunting warning issued by the author midway through this book: I first heard of this book during a Psychology class I took in college nearly 40 years ago, and have always wanted to read it.

Editorial Reviews

This book is a classic psychological study of the techniques used to manipulate the ideological thoughts of captives in Communist China. Although originally published in , Dr. Lifton's work is still invaluable to anyone who is a student of the subject, or as an adjunct of the Cold War. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. Still the formative work on thought reform. This should be required reading for every freshman college student and every conscientious citizen of the world.

So much of the politico-religious movements occupying global headlines could be understood by reading this book. Human nature hasn't changed so the need for cautionary reminders will never diminish. One person found this helpful. The review of actual cases provides detailed insight into re-education processes in the midth Century in China. Commentary by the author interprets these processes from a psychoanalytic viewpoint.

The author compares the thought reform processes to education and treatment.

In George Orwell 's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four , the fictional constructed language Newspeak is designed to entirely eliminate the ability to express unorthodox thoughts. For her, these phrases are symptomatic of an absence of thought.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism Book cover, edition. A Study of Brainwashing in China. The Life of the Mind. Retrieved from " https: Books about mind control books W. Pages to import images to Wikidata. Views Read Edit View history.

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