Customer Reviews

Battle for the Mind: A Physiology of Conversion and Brainwashing

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_Battle for the Mind_ presents a model for the physiological processes behind dramatic religious or political conversions and brainwashing based on the experiments of the Russian neuro-physiologist, I. P. Pavlov. Pavlov conducted experiments on dogs and found "equivalent" (in which the brain gives the same response to both strong and weak stimuli), "paradoxical" (in which the brain gives a response to weak stimuli but not to strong stimuli), and "ultra-paradoxical" (in which the brain gives a positive response to weak stimuli and a negative response to strong stimuli) behavior patterns present in the dogs under different conditions. From his experiments, he concluded that all dogs have a "breaking-point". Using these results, William Sargant (who worked with patients suffering from post-traumatic stress (PTSD) symptoms during the war) examines the phenomena of religious conversion and persuasion as well as brainwashing. Sargant conjectures that similiarly, all humans have a "breaking-point". The book includes discussion of war victims, religious and political conversions (especially emphasizing the techniques of Wesley in his mass conversions of people to Christianity), possession and rhythmic dance, brainwashing in ancient and modern times, as well as the eliciting of confessions. Much food for thought is presented as the author retells the stories of various individuals who have undergone drastic conversions or who have exhibited various forms of "paradoxical" behavior under the presence of sufficient stressors. The discussion of confession is particularly interesting, in that it reveals that often the interrogator becomes just as deluded as the confessor may be. In a world in which the masses are continuously bombarded by propaganda from all angles and the government, where cults are able to seize possession of individual minds and checking accounts, in which brainwashing takes place in totalitarian states, and in which the average person at any moment may be exposed to severe stressors, it is most important to study the human brain and the physiological processes behind conversions. The book is not reductionistic, the author allows the possibility of an external force or power to be the causal agent of any conversion. William Sargant's study will remain a classic for those of us who worry about the effects of political and religious propaganda and modern day stressors.

Robert Graves scholars claim that Graves "Englished" (that is, rewrote) this book for Sargant, which might help explain how such a complex subject ended up getting explained so clearly. Graves's involvement might also explain how Sargant was able to draw evidence from such an incredible range of history to explain his basic thesis. The result is an excellent book for psychologists and also for historians. What do these things have in common - Methodist sermons, ancient Greek mysteries, Jesuit training, battlefield fatigue in WWI and WWII, Voodoo ceremonies, rock and roll dancing, and the flood that almost killed Pavlov's dogs? They all show that under severe and/or prolonged stress, the mind can change radically, profoundly, and with lasting results. In all cases, Sargant concluded, it's a manifestation of a "normal" psychological process by the brain of accommodation to circumstances, which under severely abnormal circumstances can result in very surprising and strange accommodations indeed. When the mind is in such a "wiped" state, it can be reconstructed in many ways. Brainwashers, Sargant shows, use the state to get people to do things they normally wouldn't consider. A compassionate psychologist, however, can use this state to genuinely help a person recover from the trauma. Or, as in many religious conversions and "mystical" experiences as far back as ancient times, prolonged stress can actually be used therapeutically. Sargant clearly speaks from a great range of professional experience. He's not speculating.

If you've read Graves poetry, much influenced in the early stages by horrific personal experiences on World War I battlefields, this collaboration has something poignant about it. According to Sargant, Graves convinced him to write the book and it's easy to understand Graves's enthusiasm for what Sargant had to say. The result is an important (and also very readable) book.

This is an important book for what it reveals about the nature of interrogation. Interrogation, as it is practiced' is not about finding the truth but about creating a set of new beliefs in the prisoner. As the author, Sargent, points out this may be entirely unintentional on the part of the questioner. However the techniques they use to overcome their subject's resistance act to put him/her in a state of heightened suggestibility. The examiner by his/her questions supplies to the subject the substance of new beliefs. The stress that they put the subject under cause distinct and predictable physiological effects that result in the subject losing his/her previous sets of beliefs.

Sargent illustrates this by reference to techniques used in religious conversions and Soviet and Chinese brain washing and re-education. Sargent shows that the same techniques of overwhelming the subject with stress and then offering a way out have been sued for thousands of years in this regard. He describes Soviet era questioning, the evangelism of John Wesley, Chinese re-education camps and shows that they all have the same effect of converting the subject to a new way of belief that is desired by the examiner. The subjects of Soviet show trials did not confess because they feared more pain. They confessed because they genuinely believed in Th charges against them

This puts the current discussion of torture and Guantanomo in perspective. The techniques from there that have been described in the press are not designed to elicit information under the fear of pain. They are designed to convert the prisoners to a new set of beliefs that are compatible with American interests. As Sargent shows, since the fact that the prisoners are people with strong beliefs means that they will, after conversion, hold beliefs of equal strength in the new cause. They will cooperate with the American cause because they will then believe in it with all of their hearts.

This is one of very few books that I have read twice, and like several previous reviewers it would be very high on my list of essential reads. The first time I read it was soon after it was published. I was in my late teens, and it was a friend's recommendation. It made little immediate impact on me, but as time when by its resonance gave me insights into life changing incidences that I saw in others and myself (religious conversion, career changes, etc.).

The book is a clear exposition of those mechanisms for growth adaptations (or changes) within all our personalities, how these changes occur naturally, and how they can be artificially induced. He also discusses techniques that can inhibit the natural mechanisms for change.

I read it again 10 years ago to regain some insight into several intelligent and capable friends that, although hating their work, appeared to have had their ability for change inhibited by their use of soft drugs.

This book has a curiously positive unanimity amongst its reviewers, could we have been brainwashed :-)

I am pleased that it is back in print and feel almost honour bound to buy a copy (I borrowed it previously from our local lending library)

The author was a respected British psychiatrist who operated a "sleep room", treating and sometimes killing mentally patients up till his retirement in 1972. In this book he states the best way to treat psychoses and neuroses: induce a terminal sate of temporary emotional collapse and stupor. Then "abnormal patterns may disperse and healthier ones can return or be implanted afresh in the brain."

Sargant didn't think much of psychoanalysis. He states in the book that it was "much slower in bringing about what more violent or intensive methods often achieve in the psychiatric, political or religious field". His inspiration seems to have been Pavlov's experiments with dogs. About Pavlov he says, "Pavlov's dogs suffering nervous breakdowns shouldn't blind our eyes to its value in human psychiatry or to its possible significance in the political or religious fields".

He briefly mentions Aldous Huxley's experiences of mescaline, but doesn't mention whether he used that or LSD on his patients or for the British military establishment. As an alternative to his sedation/shock therapy, he also states that schizophrenia can be successfully treated by insulin shock therapy. In his conclusion he states that psychiatric research can benefit by concentrating more on the workings of the brain, "rather than scouring the metaphysical ocean for hidden mysteries."

For those 5 star reviewers he reckon he was a great man, I think it worth pointing out that his sleep room was immediately closed down on his retirement. However, none of his victims have been compensated, according to a recent BBC radio documentary. I find it surprising that he managed to avoid jail.

I first read this book in about 1957 and it helped me recover from the cult of the Student Christian Movement and a sudden conversion, a la Billy Graham, along with the social presssure towards Christianity as a cure for adolescent insecurity.

"Know yourself" - Sargant's humanism and love shine through and the observations are valid today, but the behaviouristic applications of some of these ideas has been disastrous, notably in Australia, I remember.

I think Sargant had quite a famous writer friend who helped him with this book!

Read and enjoy and think. Above all "know thyself."

Anyone who has ever had a "religious transformation", found themselves under a lot of stress, or acting out of character should read this book. I consider this work about the four basic temperaments first outlined by Hippocrates and later studied by Pavlov in his dogs to be senior in scope to Freud, Jung and the last century of psychobabble. It is a very good foundation for beginning the study of brainwashing. It has made me more watchful as to what and whom I will allow into my personal space. It is worth the price to learn how to deal with police and other officials. I bought extra copies for my kids.

Here is a good quote from the book, page 264: "The obstacles that the religious or political proselytizer cannot overcome are indifference of detached, controlled and continued amusement on the part of the subject at the efforts being made to break him down, or win him over, or tempt him into argument. The safety of the free world seems therefore to lie in a cultivation not only of courage, moral virture and logic, but of humour: humour which produces the well-balanced state in which emotional excess is laughed at as ugly and wasteful."

I had often heard references to the concepts of "conditioning" and "brainwashing" but never had a chance to read such a clear exposition of them. Sargant offers many examples of the physiology of these practices, both from history and from psychiatric literature. His writing is fresh and balanced. Although "conditioning" theory is associated with the Skinnerian fashion of the middle part of the century, Sargant is no doctrinaire behaviorist. He seems to have no particular ideological ax to grind. Far from trying to abolish consciousness as the Skinnerians did, Sargant's work is aimed at making it possible for people to have more awareness of their consciousness -- and to protect themselves from organized efforts to usurp it. (It's interesting that this reprint is published by ISHK, a press that focuses on works about consciousness.)

When researching the world of mind control and subtle brainwashing I found this book and a fascinating memoir, which I devoured in one sitting, by Deborah Layton entitled SEDUCTIVE POISON. Hers is a personal testimony of how the well educated and idealistic can fall prey to coercion. Both of these works ought to be required reading for all parents and professionals.

For anyone who has questioned 'what is me' and 'what has been put into my brain', this book (first published in 1959) is the par-excellence guide to religio/political indoctrination. Read it and challenge your faith, your political views, your very self. But, after the challenge emerge from the test as a more fuller 'you'. A more aware self. If 'to know thyself' is the most important aspect of life, then this book is the most important guidebook I have ever read. It can get technical. It can get disruptive in terms of belief. However, belief is what we take into ourselves, freely - not what is pumped into us by others. In my view,The Bible, The Life of Edgar Cayce and 'The Battle for the Mind' are the most important books I have ever read. I am glad to see this book back in print, happy for all the people who can now access, again, this superb revelation of the mind, it's processes and it's infinite ability to overcome the challenges of living and believing.