Brainwashing: Fact vs Fiction Essay

The Milgram Experiment conducted at Yale University in 1963, focused on whether a person would follow instructions from someone showing authority. Students (actors) were asked questions by the teachers (participants), if the students got the answer wrong they would receive a shock each higher than the previous. The shocks ranged from Slight shock (15v) to Danger! (300v) to XXX (450v). Stanley Milgram wanted to know if people would do things just because someone with authority told them to, even if it was hurting someone. I believe that the experiment was a good way to test the obedience of people

Mark Zepezauer’s article, “MK-Ultra from the Book the CIAs Greatest Hits” discusses the psychology experiment conducted by the CIA, MK-Ultra. The MK-ultra conducted a study that used mind control on their participants. Zepezauer recounts the events of the CIA tries to defend their stance by claiming they used the method in response to the brainwashing from the Chinese that was happening in the fifties. He says that mind control practices took place prior to 1953, but became popular after the experiment. He continues to explain how the CIA would use drugs, including LSD, and test them on their patients that were unaware of what tests were upon them. Zepezauer reveals that multiple suicides also took place in response to the given substances. He deliberated how the CIA rented out apartments and used prostitutes in their study. They used them to slip the drugs into their client’s pockets and the CIA would look through one-way mirrors to see the client’s response. Once the auditors discovered this, the MK-Ultra shut down and renamed the MKSEARCH. Mark Zepezauer

According to Bruce Barlett, “Many conservatives live in a bubble where they watch only Fox News on television, they listen only to conservative talk radio — Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, many of the same people. When they go onto the Internet, they look at conservative websites like National Review, Newsmax, World Net Daily. And so, they are completely in a universe in which they are hearing the same exact ideas, the same arguments, the same limited amount of data repeated over and over and over again. And that’s brainwashing.” Who is brainwashing whom?

The first experiment that was done with human subjects was agreeing on being apart of the study by signing a consent form. The human subjects that volunteered to be apart of this study were given hallucinogenic drugs. After completing the experiment, the human subjects, who were volunteer prisoners at a rehabilitation center in Kentucky, got addicted to some of the drugs that were being tested and “as a reward far participation in the program, the addicts were provided with the drugs of their addiction” (“94TH Congress…”). During the CIA’s research they tested several subjects using another drug that is known as LSD. They wanted to use LSD to be able to control the bodies of their enemies. They also used the drugs to develop ways to kill or disable their enemies, specifically the Soviets during the Cold War. The CIA wanted to use these mind controlling drugs because the Soviets were using them against their own enemies. The CIA said that “there is ample evidence in the reports of innumerable interrogations that the communists were utilizing drugs, physical duress, electric shock, and possibly hypnosis against their enemies” (“94TH Congress…”). The CIA began testing the LSD drug on human subjects without their consent “in normal settings by undercover officers of Bureau of Narcotics acting for the CIA” (“94TH Congress…”). The CIA tested the human subjects who did not consent in order to see if LSD was

Matthew W. Dunne’s A Cold War State of Mind: Brainwashing and Postwar American Society, Dunne attempts to reconsider the history of postwar America through the idea of brainwashing and look at the mind-set the idea created. Very early in the novel he reminds the audience that this is not a piece of work written to examine the legitimacy of the method of brainwashing to control minds. Rather, he focuses on not only why brainwashing was so accepted by the American public, but also how it had many generations of the United States thinking that their individuality was under attack. The book spans from a time of external fears of the Communists using brainwashing techniques on Americans, then shifts to where the fear turned to the state of American

The way the fascist and totalitarian regimes of the past used mass propaganda techniques to “brainwash” their people was

In many situations, there have been authority figures with mass followings. Often the power the leader holds over their followers can influence them to do negative things. Many people believe that they can be independent enough to resist any pressure put on them by an authoritative figure. If this was true, then why do genocides mark the pages of history books around the world? Stanley Milgram sought to answer this budding question. He used his scientific authority to conduct an experiment which would reveal that most people would succumb to authority and obey their commands. This contradicts what most people would like to believe about themselves and their morals. Many people believe that they would never harm another human being, even under pressure from an authoritative figure, the Stanley Milgram Experiment proves that this is false. Although the experiment left its participants psychologically harmed, the results discovered why genocides continue to happen. Most people collapse under the pressure and obey any command given to them rather than doing what they believe is right.

The US after the war becoming aware of these so called “mind control” techniques came to the conclusion that this method was to time intensive, so with the help of modern day sedatives, alcohol and drugs the US eventually completed their research, but the price was US lives with some even committing suicide. Therefore America 's conduct of espionage during the Cold war similar to that of Russian espionage, when trying

The Milgram Obedience Study was an experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram in 1963 to observe how far people would obey instructions that resulted in harming another individual. The experiment consisted of a “learner” engaging in a memory task and a “teacher” testing the “learner” on the task, administering electrical shocks to the “learner” each time an incorrect answer was given; the electric shocks started out small from 15 volts, labeled as “SLIGHT SHOCK”, all the way to 450 volts, labeled as “X X X”—of course, that was what the participant was told. The true purpose of the experiment was not disclosed until after the experiment and the “random selection” of who would be the “teacher” or “learner” was rigged so that the participant was always the “teacher” and the “learner” was always an actor. The shocks, naturally, were never given to the “learner”, and the “learner” gave responses that were scripted, both in answers to the questions and in responses to the shocks.

In 1974 Stanley Milgram conducted the classic study of obedience to authority. The study looked into how far individuals would be willing to go, and were asked could they deliver increasingly devastating electric shocks to a fellow human being, as they were requested to do so by the professor in charge of the experiment.

Stanley Milgram conducted one of the most controversial psychological experiments of all time: the Milgram Experiment. Milgram was born in a New York hospital to parents that immigrated from Germany. The Holocaust sparked his interest for most of his young life because as he stated, he should have been born into a “German-speaking Jewish community” and “died in a gas chamber.” Milgram soon realized that the only way the “inhumane policies” of the Holocaust could occur, was if a large amount of people “obeyed orders” (Romm, 2015). This influenced the hypothesis of the experiment. How much pain would someone be willing to inflict on another just because an authority figure urged them to do so? The experiment involved a teacher who would ask questions to a concealed learner and a shock system. If the learner answered incorrectly, he would receive a shock. Milgram conducted the experiment many times over the course of 2 years, but the most well-known trial included 65% of participants who were willing to continue until they reached the fatal shock of 450 volts (Romm, 2015). The results of his experiment were so shocking that many people called Milgram’s experiment “unethical.”

The interrogator would then lightly question the prisoner, who would be unwittingly collaborating with the Chinese, to make a list of some “problems” with America. This type of foreign coercive persuasion used by the Chinese Communist party became more and more outright through the prisoners’ stay at the “re-education” camps. The physical impacts of Chinese brainwashing were minimal, as the only intention of the Chinese was to convert as many people as possible to the Communist orthodoxy. The concept of brainwashing was key as esteemed psychologist Edward Hunter stated that “The United States of America is the main battlefield…and the people and the soil and the resources of the United States” (Weiner 1). In this quote, he warned the American people not to be influenced by the upcoming threat of Communist manipulation. His primary reason for making this statement was his first-hand experience regarding Mao Zedong’s China. The Korean conflict brought no end to American paranoia as many free American citizens had been arrested and accused of being “enemies of the state” in Communist China. Many of these convicted Americans then went through a series of rigorous interrogations intended to guilt trip the person into thinking that he/she was the aggressor to the victims in China or North Korea. Furthermore,

Their symptoms were referred to as “shell shock.” Huxley helped us to understand that if the central nervous system of dogs can be broken down, so can it be of political prisoners. “The shotgun has its place but so has the hypodermic syringe (355).” Mental manipulation is a process in which the human mind is under complete control of their ruler. This is proven through examples of physical torture and mental abuse, often times portrayed throughout events in history, specifically World War Two. It is important to note that in Brave New World this was finely illustrated through the quote, “the controllers realized that force was no good. The slower but infinitely surer methods of ectogenesis, neo- Pavlovian conditioning and hypnopedia (50).” Of particular importance, the greatest amount of people in charge of the world state concluded that a world without feelings would result in a world without conflict or war. Could this actually be true? Perhaps, but it does in fact remove any unique meaning of life. There are specific examples of complete manipulation and control from our contemporary society today. In an interview with Kim Jong Il’s bodyguard from North Korea, author Paula Hancocks writes “Lee says he was trained to believe Kim Jong Il was a god—and that the only reason he was born was to serve and protect the ‘Dear Leader.’” Much like the World

“How can this happen?” one might ask. In Germany specifically, a variety of brainwashing tools were utilized. Early on in school, children were taught the ideology of the Nazi party. Additionally, “throughout the Second World War children played war games... None of us cried and we won” (Stargardt, 39). Children became so desensitized to war and brutality that when such events actually occurred, emotion and rationale became separate. Furthermore, the concept of the “master race,” certain people are better than others, was ingrained into their subconscious. Adults experienced similar techniques, albeit in a different environment. Individuals in the police battalion were also directly involved with some of the atrocities committed. For these men, “there was to be continuing ideological training during the war, with planned daily, weekly, and monthly instruction of the men in police battalions. The daily instruction informed the men of political and military developments. The weekly instruction was intended to shape their ideological views and build their character” (Godhagen, 184). As shown above, both children and adults were similarly trained to view the outside world the way the party wanted them to. In effect, the brainwashing was so severe that it seemed to change individual’s sense of morality. One woman in Lower’s

Since its inception, the followers of Islam have grown exponentially, spreading the religion’s ideals across the world. Today, Islam is one of the most significant religions in the world by attracting millions of followers who continue to adhere to the ancient practices outlined in the Qur’an. Unfortunately, these practices are often looked down upon by non-Muslim people and considered to be symbolic of terrorism or of the fundamentalist side of the religion. This instance can be observed largely in France as a result of secularism that has been deeply rooted in the country for generations. The most controversial practice of Islam today is Islamic dress. Women who wear head coverings like hijabs, burqas, and niqabs as a way to bring them closer to god are viewed as unwilling to integrate into Western society even though the women may be French citizens.