"Brain-washing"

[Angrboda]

I'm generally skeptical of grand claims being made for brainwashing as what little reading I've done in the area (Wikipedia rox!) seems to indicate that documentation of the phenomena is lacking.

Do I believe Vietnamese prisoners were subjected to harsh psychological pressures that caused extreme reactions, sure. Were these reactions controlled and predictably reliable? I doubt it.

And the question gets even murkier when you come to people who are fanatics about "dangerous cults" and the brainwashing of members by "charismatic leaders". In a recent discussion about Scientology, it became clear to me that the main criteria people were using to sieve alternative religions into the "cult" category were: a) how new the religion was, b) how unpopular it was with mainstream religions and the general public, and c) how large it was (number of members). The only additional criteria that surfaced drew attention to published statements of L Ron Hubbard regarding his mission (tax free status).

Of course, once an alternative religion is thus identified, it is immediately assumed to be the most destructive kind, to engage in brainwashing, and be impossible for members to voluntarily leave. This of course justifies the do-gooder to engage in kidnapping, coercion, and their own brand of reverse brainwashing (aka "de-programming"). Perhaps some of these alternative religions are guilty on all counts. But that's usually a justification after the fact. There is also the question of "exit counseling" which is often slotted alongside de-programming efforts, though hopefully with more humanitarian aims. The Swedish Government's Commission on New Religious Movements found that only 0.2% of ex-cult members required some form of post-affiliation counseling, yet cult awareness fanatics say otherwise. Loud and long. And one can only guess at what forms of coercion go on amongst friends and family of the pre- and post-affiliation individual. All in the name of love, and, being a good friend.

No, I'm rather skeptical. First, the little data I've examined. Second, my own researches into the way the mind works and the way beliefs are formed suggests that: a) it's likely hard to predict cause and effect even in intentional coercion, b) individual psychological make up is likely a greater predictor than any coercions, and c) I rather doubt that even the more extreme situations differ greatly in either degree or kind from that we consider "normal" and "non-pathological" in ordinary social processes and discourses.

That being said, I spent some time attending services at a Unitarian Universalist church (which is described as the most atheistc of UU churches here, a good sized metropolis). We didn't pray or anything, but they did have a book of hymns. Every time I sang hymns with them, I was distinctly weirded out, as I knew I wasn't processing the information (the lyrics, the social experience, the perceptions) in an ordinary way. In some sense I felt like my mind was being short circuited and messages bypassing me to become, what, I don't know. (Of course, then I wonder what listening to songs or reading poems does -- not as intense or subconscious as the hymns, but what do I know?)