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Robert Jay Lifton

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Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of 'brainwashing' in China Paperback – July 31 1989

by Robert Jay Lifton (Author)

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Informed by Erik Erikson?s concept of the formation of ego identity, this book, which first appreared in 1961, 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.? In a new preface, Lifton addresses the implications of his model for the study of American religious cults.

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?While exploring the dynamics of Chinese Communist 'thought reform,' Lifton has performed the extraordinary feat of successfully linking . . . distinctly Chinese experiences with universal knowledge about human behavior.??Journal of Asian Studies

?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.??Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease

About the Author

Robert Jay Lifton is lecturer on psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima and The Nazi Doctors.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The University of North Carolina Press; With a new preface by the author edition (July 31 1989)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 524 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0807842532
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0807842539
Item weight ‏ : ‎ 612 g
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.97 x 2.97 x 21.59 cm

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Nicolas P. DiCiaccio
Refutation of Prior Review - This Is An Excellent Book
Reviewed in Canada on May 29, 2000

Upon seeing the review below, from the reader in Rio de Janeiro, I had to write my own thoughts and share them. As a former cult member myself and current volunteer in anti-cult activism, I can personally attest that what Dr. Lifton wrote about concerning destructive groups and mind control absolutely exists. The famous chapter 22, where Dr. Lifton lays out the famous "eight criteria", to me isn't a chapter in a book but how my adolescense was in this particular group. It's true; it exists. The reader from Rio said that mind control was a failure; well, ultimately, yes it is, total control over a person's mind isn't 100%, and won't last forever. However, individuals and destructive groups (cults) know how to exploit mind control techniques to allow them control over a person's thoughts and actions long enough to get that person to do what they want, and often when people leave cults they suffer psychological damages for years afterward. This is also not about West superior over East; Dr. Lifton also chronicled how many Chinese were hurt by the mind control imposed by the Communists. All in all, this is a terrific book about mind control and its damaging effects; I highly recommend it.

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Kelly Graham
Totalism and Psychotherapy
Reviewed in Canada on January 25, 2002
Lifton provides content and commentary regarding attempts by the People's Republic of China to 're-educate' Westerners and citizens according to Communist ideology. Actual contents of his one-on-one interviews are particularly useful, as are Lifton's evaluations of the effects and causes of 're-education'.
Lifton's principal shortcoming is the overarching psychotherapeutic interpretations, which sometimes stretch the imagination.
Lifton's book is often misunderstood and misrepresented as a polemic against 'brainwashing' and religious 'cultism'. 'Brainwashing' usually means the hypnotic manipulation of one's thoughts forcing someone to change their beliefs counter to their awareness or conscious will; Lifton denies emphatically that this happened in China or that it can happen. It appears that many who cite his work (and some of the reviewers here) have never read the book, other than through excerpts and summaries.
Lifton himself admits that 'brainwashing' is a misnomer; he denies that 're-education' was effective or that it converted people against their will. Furthermore, he argues that the principal difference between Chinese methods of thought-reform and normal, usual persuasion is the Chinese use of physical violence and imprisonment.
Lifton never intended for his book to be used by the anti-cult industry to attack religious non-orthodoxy and constitutionally guaranteed religious expression.

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Religious totalism
Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2013
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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?) humans have to give themselves over 100+% to something greater than themselves... it's very real and it is something that we should all be aware exists.

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... how did they resist in concentration camps and gulags, refusing to compromise even a little? I feared that I could never have THAT kind of resolve. Lifton pointed out that those who best resisted the thought reform of the Chinese prison system were those who were most immune to the appeal of totalism, *because they already had a totalistic worldview of their own.* Therefore, the totalism that the communists tried to involve these resisters in was actually perceived as a threat to their already satisfied totalistic impulse, rather than a tempting means to fulfill it.

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".

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S. Plowright
When this book came out in 1961, there was ...
Reviewed in Australia on March 15, 2018
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When this book came out in 1961, there was a fascination in the West about communist methods of mind control. People imagined the creation of puppet-like agents who would carry out secret missions while virtually unaware. The reality was a little more mundane. The term "brainwashing" was a translation of the Chinese "mind cleansing" which they used to describe their extreme indoctrination or "re-education" methods.

It took another couple of decades for people to realise that the extreme indoctrination documented by Lifton was not invented by communists, but had been happening in their own societies for centuries, in religious and political cults. Lifton's book became the first handbook used by cult busters and de-programmers.

Freedom of thought has been a cornerstone of Western Democracy since the Enlightenment, and is considered a basic human right. Totalist, or extreme indoctrination is a serious and prevalent abuse. Whether it happens in North Korea, Jehova's Witnesses, Scientology, or Islamic State, it not only destroys lives and families, but those who manage to escape suffer lifelong psychological scars. I have personally known survivors who have issues including self-doubt, paranoia, depression, and PTSD.

Lifton's book provides a thorough, insightful, and compassionate view into the techniques and effects of extreme indoctrination. It shows a depth of understanding that remains relevant. Such understanding inoculates us to some extent. If we want to protect ourselves, friends, and family from religious or political totalist or cultish groups, read this book. Know your enemy.

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在野の天災宗教社会言語学者
全体主義=共産主義=ナチズム的ファシズム=カルト宗教=全宗教の証明と定式化
Reviewed in Japan on September 8, 2017
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リフトンは1954年から55年にかけいずれも中国で捕まり強制収容所で思想改造の経験を持つ25人の欧米人と15人の中国人の計40人を対象に面接調査を実施。当時中国での洗脳の実態を解明しその真髄を纏めたのが本書。思想改造を推進する上で役割大の８大要素の抽出は以下の通り。詰まりは法則である。
１、外界との情報遮断。
２、指導者の神秘化。
３、思想的純粋要求。
４、自己純化のための自己批判とその組織内共有化。
５、理念の神聖絶対化、聖なる科学化。
６、教条的決まり文句の使用。
７、個人より理念の上位化。
８、全体主義的価値観不一致者の生存免除。
８項目は、社会内小組織から国家大組織までに適用出来よう。具体的にはサカキバラセイト個人からオウム真理教そして北朝鮮まで。しかしながら今日においても和訳されない訳は左右両翼にとって、つまりは上記８項目に該当したならマルクス主義も天皇主義もファシズムとして一括りされてしまう不都合な事実に満ちているからで、さらには一般的民族性すら自然発生的全体主義の烙印を押されかねないからであると推測される。訳者は血の気多い全てを敵に回す危険を覚悟せねばならない。しかしこの書はその様な危険性に充分見合う効用すなわち全てのマインド・コントロールからの人間の全面的解放の道筋を提示している。本来人は母親の、両親の、家族の、言語の、社会の、国家のマインド・コントロールを不可避的に受ける。今までの無意識的マインド・コントロールを意識化し、能動的主体的に自己意識を再構成すなわち正のマインド・コントロールを自分自身に施した時、人間は主体的に言語、社会、国家、家族、両親、母親そして思想を選ぶ自由を手にするだろう。明らかに、マインド・コントロール自体が悪い訳ではなく、それに依拠した普遍的低生産性が悪いのである。負のマインド・コントロールからどれだけ正のマインド・コントロールを能受動的に受けどれだけ自由度が高いかが個人の普遍的生産性の高さを決定する。

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Lm
Great book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 1, 2020
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Excellent book
Lifton’s first hand experiences of victims of Chinese thought control is fascinating. His forensic analysis of the stages and impact on ‘the self’ are wonderfully described.

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Ziggy
Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 21, 2014
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amazing book

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