Several movies talk about brainwashing, such as those that show how communists in Vietnam brainwashed American soldiers. However, far from the dramatization of these movies, brainwashing is better understood if we call it coercive persuasion, which consists of influencing, and forcing. This type of persuasion is the strongest and most invasive, generally practiced by sects, totalitarian states, terrorist organizations, and kidnappers, among others.
Brainwashing a person, or more correctly, using coercive persuasion, is not easy. To change an individual’s entire belief system, way of thinking, feeling, and acting, several techniques must be used. These coercive persuasion techniques can be divided into four types: environmental techniques, emotional techniques, cognitive techniques, and those that induce dissociative states.
Environmental type techniques
These types of techniques intervene in the subject’s surroundings or environment by controlling or manipulating them. Their purpose is to weaken resistance to facilitate persuasion. Some of the environmental coercive persuasion techniques are listed below:
- Isolation: serves to make persuasion more effective and consists of encapsulating the subject from the psychic, social, and physical world. In other words, isolating him completely.
- Information control: Control and manipulation of information is a form of isolation. Less information will result in fewer choices and less critical thinking.
- Creating a state of existential dependence: This involves making a person’s existence dependent on another person, usually a leader. Its practice consists of satisfying primary and secondary needs until total dependence is created.
- Psychophysical weakening: physical weakening is associated with psychological weakening, which in turn leads to a weakening of the ability to resist persuasion techniques.
“Since we are dealing with the superfluous, we resort to mechanisms of propaganda, marketing and persuasion to induce people to consume and make them believe that the superfluous is necessary and a secret source of happiness.”
-Leonardo Boff-
Emotional type techniques
Motivations are emotionally conditioned, so if emotions can be influenced, they will influence motivations and, in turn, behaviors. Below are two emotional coercive persuasion techniques:
- Emotional activation of joy: it consists of moving people pleasantly. It is used to attract followers, to capture them.
- Emotional activation of fear, guilt, and anxiety: through the use of rewards and punishments, emotional responses of fear, guilt, and anxiety are established. These emotions foster dependency and submission.
Cognitive type techniques
These types of coercive persuasion techniques are mediated by the previous techniques. A physically weakened subject with a feeling of guilt is perfect for carrying out cognitive persuasion. Some of these techniques are described below:
- Denigration of critical thinking: This involves showing the invalidity of following one’s thoughts. Every time they suffer, they are repressed or denigrated.
- Use of lies and deception: consists of distorting reality and information through concealment, lies, or deception.
- Demanding compliance: Instituting groupthink or conforming to what the group decides is another strategy. In other words, developing a habit of conformity and submission.
- Identification with the group: identity has to become collective so that each individual loses his or her personality and adopts that of the group. This pressure can cause individuals to become de-individualized, losing the identity factors that distinguish them.
- Attention control: By manipulating the presentation of stimuli, attention can be controlled toward the points of persuasion.
- Control over language: Controlling language can reduce freedom. By removing words, certain questions or evaluations can be avoided.
- Alteration of the sources of authority: Once all the principles of authority of a person have been overthrown, total authority is exposed. This authority figure collects all the power and the others are subject to them.
“Men can only deal with each other in two ways: weapons or logic. Force or persuasion. Those who know they cannot win by using logic have always ended up resorting to weapons.”
-Ayn Rand-
Techniques for inducing dissociative states
Dissociation corresponds to trance states that arise from the intensification of an experience. These states lead to momentary loss of consciousness and identity and are more likely in totalitarian environments. In addition, these states of consciousness make adepts more vulnerable, so they can be targeted by limiting their possible options and reducing their ability to evaluate them.
In short, coercive persuasion, also known as brainwashing, consists of manipulating the environment to weaken the subjects. From there, cognitive and emotional persuasion will change their way of thinking and feeling to, finally, lead them to trance states in which it is easier to persuade.
All sources cited were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, timeliness, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
- Rodríguez-Carballeira, Á. (1992). The brainwashing. Psychology of coercive persuasion. Barcelona: Editorial Boixareu Universitaria.