Brainwashing: The Fictions of Mind Control: A Study in Cold War Demonology

by David Seed

The term "brainwashing," coined during the Korean War, was popularized by a CIA operative who was a tireless campaigner against communism. It took hold quickly and became a means to articulate fears of totalitarian tendencies in American life. David Seed traces the assimilation of the notion of brainwashing into science fiction, political commentary, and conspiracy narratives of the Cold War era. He demonstrates how these works grew out of a context of political and social events and how they express the anxieties of the time. This study reviews 1950s science fiction, Korean War fiction, and the film The Manchurian Candidate. Seed provides new interpretations of writers such as Orwell and Burroughs within the history of psychological manipulation for political purposes, using declassified and other documents to contextualize the material. He explores the shifting viewpoints of how brainwashing is represented, changing from an external threat to American values to an internal threat against individual American liberties by the U.S. government. Anyone with an interest in science fiction, popular culture, or the Cold War will welcome this study.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sociology

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 30, 2004

About the author

David Seed is a professor of English at the University of Liverpool.

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection on Brainwashing is not as useful to my own research but supplements Human Programming by Selisker well. Seed considers the roots of brainwashing theories in American military views of Communism and fear of totalitarianism following WWII. Then, he locates different theories of brainwashing in literature and film following its inception. Most of his work focuses on literature that introduces invasive and pervasive forms of brainwashing and the use of technology or pharmacology in brainwashing tactics. There is one section on propaganda, but not a lot on smaller scale methods to the individual within family units or in personal relationships. Still, this is a seminal text of research on brainwashing historically and in literature, especially science fiction and dystopic texts.