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How Brainwashing Works

上一篇 / 下一篇 2007-08-27 11:54:42 / 个人分类：资料·业务

During the Korean War, Korean and Chinese captors reportedly brainwashed American POWs held in prison camps. Several prisoners ultimately confessed to waging germ warfare -- which they hadn't -- and pledged allegiance to communism by the end of their captivity. At least 21 soldiers refused to come back to the United States when they were set free. It sounds impressive, but skeptics point out that it was 21 out of more than 20,000 prisoners in communist countries. Does brainwashing really work in any reliable way?

In psychology, the study of brainwashing, often referred to asthought reform, falls into the sphere of "social influence." Social influence happens every minute of every day. It's the collection of ways in which people can change other people's attitudes, beliefs and behaviors. For instance, thecompliancemethod aims to produce a change in a person's behavior. and is not concerned with his attitudes or beliefs. It's the "Just do it" approach.Persuasion, on the other hand, aims for a change in attitude, or "Do it because it'll make you feel good/happy/healthy/successful." Theeducationmethod (which is called the "propaganda method" when you don't believe in what's being taught) goes for the social-influence gold, trying to affect a change in the person's beliefs, along the lines of "Do it because you know it's the right thing to do." Brainwashing is a severe form. of social influence that combines all of these approaches to cause changes in someone's way of thinking without that person's consent and often against his will.

Because brainwashing is such an invasive form. of influence, it requires the complete isolation and dependency of the subject, which is why you mostly hear of brainwashing occurring in prison camps ortotalist cults. Theagent(the brainwasher) must have complete control over thetarget(the brainwashee) so thatsleeppatterns, eating, using the bathroom and the fulfillment of other basic human needs depend on the will of the agent. In the brainwashing process, the agent systematically breaks down the target's identity to the point that it doesn't work anymore. The agent then replaces it with another set of behaviors, attitudes and beliefs that work in the target's current environment.

While most psychologists believe that brainwashing is possible under the right conditions, some see it as improbable or at least as a less severe form. of influence than the media portrays it to be. Some definitions of brainwashing require the presence of the threat of physical harm, and under these definitions most extremist cults do not practice true brainwashing since they typically do not physically abuse recruits. Other definitions rely on "nonphysical coercion and control" as an equally effective means of asserting influence. Regardless of which definition you use, many experts believe that even under ideal brainwashing conditions, the effects of the process are most often short-term -- the brainwashing victim's old identity is not in fact eradicated by the process, but instead is in hiding, and once the "new identity" stops being reinforced the person's old attitudes and beliefs will start to return.

There are psychologists who say the apparent conversion of American POWs during the Korean War was the result of plain-old torture, not "brainwashing." And in fact, most POWs in the Korean War were not converted to communism at all, which leads to the question of reliability: Is brainwashing a system that produces similar results across cultures and personality types, or does it hinge primarily on the target's susceptibility to influence? In the next section, we'll examine one expert's description of the brainwashing process and find out what makes an easy target.

Brainwashing Techniques

Photo courtesyU.S. Army
American POWs in the
Korean War

In the late 1950s, psychologistRobert Jay Liftonstudied former prisoners of Korean and Chinese war camps. He determined that they'd undergone a multistep process that began with attacks on the prisoner's sense of self and ended with what appeared to be a change in beliefs. Lifton ultimately defined a set of steps involved in the brainwashing cases he studied:

Assault on identity
Guilt
Self-betrayal
Breaking point
Leniency
Compulsion to confess
Channeling of guilt
Releasing of guilt
Progress and harmony
Final confession and rebirth

Each of these stages takes place in an environment of isolation, meaning all "normal" social reference points are unavailable, and mind-clouding techniques like sleep deprivation and malnutrition are typically part of the process. There is often the presence or constant threat of physical harm, which adds to the target's difficulty in thinking critically and independently.

We can roughly divide the process Lifton identified into three stages: breaking down the self, introducing the possibility of salvation, and rebuilding the self.

Breaking down the self

Assault on identity: You are not who you think you are.
This is a systematic attack on a target's sense of self (also called his identity or ego) and his core belief system. The agent denies everything that makes the target who he is: "You are not a soldier." "You are not a man." "You are not defending freedom." The target is under constant attack for days, weeks or months, to the point that he becomes exhausted, confused and disoriented. In this state, his beliefs seem less solid.
Guilt: You are bad.
While the identity crisis is setting in, the agent is simultaneously creating an overwhelming sense of guilt in the target. He repeatedly and mercilessly attacks the subject for any "sin" the target has committed, large or small. He may criticize the target for everything from the "evilness" of his beliefs to the way he eats too slowly. The target begins to feel a general sense of shame, that everything he does is wrong.
Self-betrayal: Agree with me that you are bad.
Once the subject is disoriented and drowning in guilt, the agent forces him (either with the threat of physical harm or of continuance of the mental attack) to denounce his family, friends and peers who share the same "wrong" belief system that he holds. This betrayal of his own beliefs and of people he feels a sense of loyalty to increases the shame and loss of identity the target is already experiencing.
Breaking point:Who am I, where am I and what am I supposed to do?
With his identity in crisis, experiencing deep shame and having betrayed what he has always believed in, the target may undergo what in the lay community is referred to as a "nervous breakdown." In psychology, "nervous breakdown" is really just a collection of severe symptoms that can indicate any number of psychological disturbances. It may involve uncontrollable sobbing, deep depression and general disorientation. The target may have lost his grip on reality and have the feeling of being completely lost and alone.
When the target reaches his breaking point, his sense of self is pretty much up for grabs -- he has no clear understanding of who he is or what is happening to him. At this point, the agent sets up the temptation to convert to another belief system that will save the target from his misery.

The Possibility of Salvation

Leniency: I can help you.
With the target in a state of crisis, the agent offers some small kindness or reprieve from the abuse. He may offer the target a drink of water, or take a moment to ask the target what he misses about home. In a state of breakdown resulting from an endless psychological attack, the small kindness seems huge, and the target may experience a sense of relief and gratitude completely out of proportion to the offering, as if the agent has saved his life.
Compulsion to confession: You can help yourself.
For the first time in the brainwashing process, the target is faced with the contrast between the guilt and pain of identity assault and the sudden relief of leniency. The target may feel a desire to reciprocate the kindness offered to him, and at this point, the agent may present the possibility of confession as a means to relieving guilt and pain.
Channeling of guilt: This is why you're in pain.
After weeks or months of assault, confusion, breakdown and moments of leniency, the target's guilt has lost all meaning -- he's not sure what he has done wrong, he just knows he is wrong. This creates something of a blank slate that lets the agent fill in the blanks: He can attach that guilt, that sense of "wrongness," to whatever he wants. The agent attaches the target's guilt to the belief system the agent is trying to replace. The target comes to believe it is his belief system that is the cause of his shame. The contrast between old and new has been established: The old belief system is associated with psychological (and usually physical) agony; and the new belief system is associated with the possibility of escaping that agony.
Releasing of guilt:It's not me; it's my beliefs.
The embattled target is relieved to learn there is an external cause of his wrongness, that it is not he himself that is inescapably bad -- this means he can escape his wrongness by escaping the wrong belief system. All he has to do is denounce the people and institutions associated with that belief system, and he won't be in pain anymore. The target has the power to release himself from wrongness by confessing to acts associated with his old belief system.
With his full confessions, the target has completed his psychological rejection of his former identity. It is now up to the agent to offer the target a new one.

Rebuilding the Self

Progress and harmony: If you want, you can choose good.
The agent introduces a new belief system as the path to "good." At this stage, the agent stops the abuse, offering the target physical comfort and mental calm in conjunction with the new belief system. The target is made to feel that it is he who must choose between old and new, giving the target the sense that his fate is in his own hands. The target has already denounced his old belief system in response to leniency and torment, and making a "conscious choice" in favor of the contrasting belief system helps to further relieve his guilt: If he truly believes, then he really didn't betray anyone. The choice is not a difficult one: The new identity is safe and desirable because it is nothing like the one that led to his breakdown.
Final confession and rebirth:I choose good.
Contrasting the agony of the old with the peacefulness of the new, the target chooses the new identity, clinging to it like a life preserver. He rejects his old belief system and pledges allegiance to the new one that is going to make his life better. At this final stage, there are often rituals or ceremonies to induct the converted target into his new community. This stage has been described by some brainwashing victims as a feeling of "rebirth."

(SeeHow Cults Work: Indoctrinationfor details on the thought-reform. process that takes place specifically in destructive cults.)

A brainwashing process like the one discussed above has not been tested in a modern laboratory setting, because it's damaging to the target and would therefore be an unethical scientific experiment. Lifton created this description from first-hand accounts of the techniques used by captors in the Korean War and other instances of "brainwashing" around the same time. Since Lifton and other psychologists have identified variations on what appears to be a distinct set of steps leading to a profound state of suggestibility, an interesting question is why some people end up brainwashed and others don't.

Certain personality traits of the brainwashing targets can determine the effectiveness of the process. People who commonly experience great self doubt, have a weak sense of identity, and show a tendency toward guilt and absolutism (black-and-white thinking) are more likely to be successfully brainwashed, while a strong sense of identity and self-confidence can make a target more resistant to brainwashing. Some accounts show that faith in a higher power can assist a target in mentally detaching from the process. Mental detachment is one of the POW-survival techniques now taught to soldiers as part of their training. It involves the target psychologically removing himself from his actual surroundings through visualization, the constant repetition of a mantra and various other meditative techniques. The military also teaches soldiers about the methods used in brainwashing, because a target's knowledge of the process tends to make it less effective.

While the U.S. consciousness was turned to brainwashing in the 1950s in the aftermath of the Korean War, brainwashing has been around for longer than that. Scholars have traced the roots of systematic thought reform. to the prison camps of communist Russia in the early 1900s, when political prisoners were routinely "re-educated" to the communist view of the world. But it was when the practice spread to China and the writings of Chairman Mao Tse-tung ("The Little Red Book") that the world started to take notice.

在二十世纪五十年代末，心理学家罗伯特杰立顿研究了曾在朝鲜和中国战俘营关押过的俘虏。他认为这些战俘接受了一个多步过程的洗脑。先是对战俘的自我感进行攻击，使其丧失自我认识，最后使他们改变了信仰。最终立顿最终定义了很研究过的被洗脑人员经过的洗脑步骤：
1. 身份袭击
2. 负罪感
3. 自我背叛
4. 拐点
5. 受到宽大对待
6. 强制忏悔
7. 引导负罪感
8. 释放负罪感
9. 进步与和谐
10. 最终忏悔、重生
所有这些步骤都在隔绝的环境中进行，这就意味着所有的“正常”社会参考点都成为不可能，同时心理阴云技巧，如不给睡觉和营养不良等也是过程的一部分。在此种环境中，战俘总是经受时时可能的身体伤害，这也就使得战俘难以批判地、独立的思考问题。
我们可以精细地把立顿确立的步骤分成三个阶段：击碎自我，引入救赎可能，最后是自我重建。
击碎自我
• 身份袭击你不是自己心目中的自己
这是对被洗脑人自我感（也叫做自我意识）及他的核心信仰进行的系统袭击。洗脑人否定目标认为的自己：“你不是士兵。” “你不是男人。” “你不是为自由而战”在数天、数周或数月的时间内，被洗脑人都经受这样的意识袭击，直到他精疲力竭、糊里糊涂、不知所以。在这种状态下，他的信仰好像有所动摇。
• 负罪感：你是坏人。
当自我意识危机开始进入被洗脑人大脑时，洗脑人同时也在被洗脑人心中创造一种难以抵制的负罪感。他不断地、无情地袭击被洗脑人，对被洗脑人所犯的各种“罪行”进行批判，不管罪行大小。洗脑人可能会批判被洗脑人的一切，说他的一切，包括信仰，都是邪恶的，甚至包括他吃饭太慢也是邪恶的表现。被洗脑人开始感到一种总体的羞辱感，认为他所做的一切都是错的。
• 自我背叛你的同意我的观点，你的坏人。
一旦被洗脑人失去方向、处在负罪感中，洗脑人强迫他（要么通过刑罚的危胁或继续进行心理袭击）谴责他的那些与他有共同“错误”信仰体系的家人、朋友和同龄人。对自己和对自己所属集团信仰的背叛增长了羞辱感，让他面对自我意识更加不知所以。
• 拐点我是谁，我在哪里，我应该做什么？
当被洗脑人处在自我意识危机中，经受强烈的羞辱，背叛了他所秉承的信仰，被洗脑人就会有一个人们叫做“神经衰变”的过程。在心理学中，“神经衰变”是一系列的症状，可以导致各种心理紊乱。这些综合症状可能是不可控制的抽泣，严重的抑郁或失去方向。被洗脑人可能失去对现实的理解，感到完全迷失和孤独。
当被洗脑人心理状态达到拐点时，他的自我感很容易被控制――他对自己是谁不清楚，也不知道发生在自己身上的事。在这一点，洗脑人诈骗被洗脑人，让被洗脑人接受另一种信仰体系，让他知道这种体系把他从困境中拯救出去。
救赎的可能性
• 宽大对待：我可以帮你。
当被洗脑人处在危机中时，洗脑人表现出一定的亲近感，暂缓对被洗脑人进行折磨。他可能会提供一杯水，或者问被洗脑人是不是想家。在持久的心理袭击导致的衰变状态中，这样一个小小的善意好像巨大，被洗脑人可能会感到一种安慰，十分感激，这与善意的大小很不成比例，让被洗脑人感到好像自己是被从死神手里救出来一样。
• 强制忏悔你可以帮助你自己。
在洗脑过程中，被洗脑人第一次面对负罪、自我伤情与猛烈的宽大对待带的安慰之间的巨大的对比。被洗脑人可能会有欲望来回报这种善意，而且在此时，洗脑人可能会用忏悔引诱被洗脑人，让他觉得忏悔可能会获得安慰。
• 引导负罪感这就是你痛苦的原因。
在数周数月的袭击、混乱、衰变与片刻的宽大对待的交替中，被洗脑人的负罪感失去了意义，他会忘记他做的那些错误，他会认为他是错的。这会创造一个空白，使得洗脑人引入新的信仰：他可以任意掌握袭击的强度，他会随意地袭击被洗脑人“错误感”。洗脑人会把负罪感打入被洗脑人的信仰体系中。被洗脑人渐渐意识到他的信仰体系是他羞辱的原因。新的信仰体系与旧的信仰体系之间的对比就建立了起来：老的信仰体系与心理（生理）痛苦相关联；而新的信仰体系与逃避那种痛苦可能相关联。
• 释放负罪感：不是我坏，是我的信仰。
饱受折磨的被洗脑人会学到，他的错误是外部原因引起的，而不是他自己导致的――这就意味着只要丢弃旧的信仰体系，他就可以逃避这种错误感。他能做的就是谴责与那个信仰系统相联的人、机制等，他这样就不会再痛苦。被洗脑人有能力通过忏悔与旧体系相联的行为之错误性，而把自己从错误感中解放出来。
当他完全忏悔完了之后，被洗脑人完全丢弃了以前的自我。现在应该由洗脑人提供新的信仰体系。
重建自我
• 进步与和谐：如果你愿意，你可以选择好的信仰。
洗脑人引入新的信仰体系，让被洗脑人达到“善”。在这一阶段，洗脑人停止了折磨，让被洗脑人生理上生活舒服，心理上平静，使之接受新的信仰体系。这就是为创造一种感觉，让他感到是他必须自己在新旧的信仰体系中间进行选择，让他感觉到他的命运在他的手中。为了避免遭受折磨，为了获得宽大对待，被洗脑人已经谴责过自己的旧的信仰体系，现在到此地步会做出“自觉的选择”那个给他带来好处的信仰体系。如果他真正信仰那个旧体系，他不会背叛那个体系。这种选择不是难的事：新的自我身份让被洗脑人感到安全，因为这与那个导致他遭受的旧体系截然不同。
• 最终忏悔、重生：我选择善。
旧的体系带来痛苦，新的体系带来安静与安慰，目标就会选择新的自我，让抓到救命稻草一样抓住它。他会拒绝旧的体系，向新的体系表示忠心，因为新体系会让他生活得更好。在最后这一阶段，总是会有仪式或典礼，以吸纳他进行这个新的社区。这一阶段，就像洗脑受害者所说，会感到一种“重生”。
（参看邪教是如何运作的：在思考改变过程中的灌输细节，这经常会出现在对人有伤害的邪教中。）
如上所述的洗脑过程，没有在现代实验室被试验过，因为这种实验会对被洗脑人带来伤害，也是不道德不科学的实验。立顿从受害者的讲述中对洗脑进行了描述，这些受害者多是朝鲜战争的战俘或当时其他情况下的“洗脑”受害者。立顿和其他心理学家经过对洗脑进行的研究，得出洗脑是由一些步骤组成的，这些步骤导致受害人的思想改变，于是就产生一个有意思的问题：为什么有的人被洗脑了，而另一些没有。
被洗脑人性格中的特征影响了洗脑能否成功。一般那些经受自我怀疑、缺少自我意识、表现出负罪感与绝对主义（非黑即白的思维）的人易于被成功洗脑，而拥有强烈的自我感和信心的人对洗脑更有抵抗力。有的讲述表明对超能的信仰也有助于抵制这种过程。心理独立是现在士兵必须学习的生存技巧。这一过程要求被洗脑人心理上把自己从周围的环境中用想像的方式解放出来，对一口头语进行不断地重复，而且还有其他技巧。军方也用洗脑过程中用到的方法来教授士兵，因为被洗脑人对洗脑过程的知识会使这一过程降低效果。
虽然只有在上世纪五十年代朝鲜战争过后，美国人才开始注意洗脑，但洗脑在这之前就出现了。学者们发现，在二十世纪初叶，在共产的俄国的战俘营就有了系统地思考改造，政治犯们被“重新教育”以接受共产思想。但只有在这种作法传到红色中国后，人们才开始认识到洗脑

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引用删除 halou / 2009-01-22 03:02:18: the sentence "Several prisoners ultimately confessed to waging germ warfare -- which they hadn't " is incorrect. it should read "which they had" The americans were using Japanese scientists and bioweapons against korea. They confessed and Frank Olson, a Bioweapons specialist who threatened to go public over american biowarfare was drugged thrown from a high building. A number of documentaries have since been produced on the subject and a former state department employee william blum has provided many more details in a new book titled "kiling hope"

引用删除 Guest / 2007-09-05 15:33:46: 评 5 分

引用删除 jinhongwei / 2007-08-27 12:33:48: 连岳
两天前，Digg有条新闻很受欢迎，叫做《洗脑是如何工作的》，严格地说，这属于科学新闻。科学家发现，人在接受观念时，信息先经过大脑的情感区（emotional brain），然后才到达理智区（rational brain）——翻译有可能不当，所以附上英文名称。
除了邪教与传销，文明社会是反感洗脑的，也就是说，一定会尽量让信息进入每个人大脑的理智区，这样才能得到合理的结论。洗脑爱好者则相反，他们极力把信息留在情感区。
这就可以解释“爱国主义是流氓最后的庇护所”这句话了，爱国主义本身显然是正当的诉求——而且几乎是每个人都认为是正当的，极其强势，所以相当具有情感挑动色彩，流氓自然是不爱国的，但是他们知道只要不讲道理，先把对手扣上“不爱国”的帽子，这些信息在经过听众的情感区时就会起作用。
这句话还可以细分，“爱乡主义是地痞最后的庇护所”，也是成立的，经常可以看到有些腐败的官员，在对待正当的批评与建议时，不管三七二十一，就先脱离主题，恐吓批评者不得“抹黑我们的城市”、“抹黑我们的家乡”。
当然，听众不是傻瓜，他们有正常判断力，当更符合理性判断的观点出现时，他们会接受——这也是不要替民众操太多心的原因之一，大家的判断力都差不了多少。所以，科学家认为“洗脑”还需要单一信息的重复灌输，不停地强化它们在情感区的印象。