Battle for the Mind: A Physiology of Conversion and Brainwashing - How Evangelists, Psychiatrists, Politicians, and Medicine Men Can Change Your Beliefs and Behavior

by William Sargant

Other authorsCharles Swencionis (Preface)
Paperback, 2015

Status

Available

Call number

153.853

Publication

Malor Books (2015), 350 pages

Description

How can an evangelist convert a hardboiled sophisticate? Why does a POW sign a "confession" that he knows is false? How is a criminal pressured into admitting his guilt? Do the evangelist, the POW's captor, and the policeman use similar methods to gain their ends? These and other compelling questions are discussed in this definitive work by William Sargant. Sargant explains and illustrates the basic techniques used by evangelists, psychiatrists, and brain-washers to dissolve existing, established patterns of belief, and then substitute new beliefs and behaviors.

User reviews

LibraryThing member petervanbeveren
We have still much to learn as to the laws according to which the mind and body act on one another, and according to which one mind acts on another; but it is certain that a great part of this mutual action can be reduced to general laws, and that the more we know of such laws the greater our power
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to benefit others will be.

How can an evangelist convert a hardboiled sophisticate? Why does a POW sign a "confession" that he knows is false? How is a criminal pressured into admitting his guilt? Do the evangelist, the POW's captor, and the policeman use similar methods to gain their ends? These and other compelling questions are discussed in the definitive work by William Sargant, who for many years until his death in 1988 was a leading physician in psychological medicine. Sargant spells out and illustrates the basic techniques used by evangelists, psychiatrists, and brain-washers to disperse the patterns of belief and behavior already established in the minds of their hearers, and to substitute new patterns for them.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1957

Physical description

350 p.; 6 inches

ISBN

1883536065 / 9781883536060
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