Brainwashing

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Brainwashing refers to the idea that an individual can get someone to adopt a particular doctrine or belief using purported methods that manipulate action or thought against a person's will, desire, or knowledge. The term "brainwashing" was first used in English by Edward Hunter in 1950 to describe how the Chinese government appeared to make people cooperate with them during the Korean War. Theories of brainwashing and of mind control were originally developed to explain how totalitarian regimes appeared to systematically indoctrinate prisoners of war through propaganda and torture techniques. These theories were later expanded and modified by psychologists including Margaret Singer and Philip Zimbardo to explain a wider range of phenomena, especially conversions to some new religious movements (NRMs). The suggestion that NRMs use mind control techniques has resulted in scientific and legal debate; with scholars and legal experts rejecting the concept of brainwashing, finding it to be...

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