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Mindfucking: A Critique of Mental Manipulation
Being surrounded by bullshit is one thing. Having your mind fucked is quite another. The former is irritating, but the latter is violating and intrusive (unless you give your consent). If someone manipulates your thoughts and emotions, messing with your head, you naturally feel resentment: he or she has distorted your perceptions, disturbed your feelings, maybe even usurped your self. Mindfucking is a prevalent aspect of contemporary culture and the agent can range from an individual to a whole state, from personal mind games to wholesale propaganda.
In Mindfucking Colin McGinn investigates and clarifies this phenomenon. Taking in the ancient Greeks, Shakespeare and modern techniques of thought control, McGinn assembles the conceptual components of this most complex of concepts - trust, deception, emotion, manipulation, false belief, vulnerability - and explores its very nature. He elucidates the sexual implications of the metaphor of mindfucking, stressing both its positive and negative features and exposes its essence of psychological upheaval and disorientation. Delusion is the general result, sometimes insanity. How mindfucked are you? It's hard to say from the inside, but being aware of the phenomenon offers at least some protection.
In Mindfucking Colin McGinn investigates and clarifies this phenomenon. Taking in the ancient Greeks, Shakespeare and modern techniques of thought control, McGinn assembles the conceptual components of this most complex of concepts - trust, deception, emotion, manipulation, false belief, vulnerability - and explores its very nature. He elucidates the sexual implications of the metaphor of mindfucking, stressing both its positive and negative features and exposes its essence of psychological upheaval and disorientation. Delusion is the general result, sometimes insanity. How mindfucked are you? It's hard to say from the inside, but being aware of the phenomenon offers at least some protection.
96 pages, Hardcover
First published March 31, 2008
12 people are currently reading
556 people want to read
About the author
Colin McGinn
35 books76 followersColin McGinn is a British philosopher currently working at the University of Miami. McGinn has also held major teaching positions at Oxford University and Rutgers University. He is best known for his work in the philosophy of mind, though he has written on topics across the breadth of modern philosophy. Chief among his works intended for a general audience is the intellectual memoir The Making of a Philosopher: My Journey Through Twentieth-Century Philosophy (2002).
Colin McGinn was born in Blackpool, England in 1950. He enrolled in Manchester University to study psychology. However, by the time he received his degree in psychology from Manchester in 1971 (by writing a thesis focusing on the ideas of Noam Chomsky), he wanted to study philosophy as a postgraduate. By 1972, McGinn was admitted into Oxford University's B.Litt postgraduate programme, in hopes of eventually gaining entrance into Oxford's postgraduate B.Phil. programme.
McGinn quickly made the transition from psychology to philosophy during his first term at Oxford. After working zealously to make the transition, he was soon admitted into the B.Phil programme under the recommendation of his advisor, Michael R. Ayers. Shortly after entering the philosophy programme, he won the John Locke Prize in 1972. By 1974, McGinn received the B.Phil degree from Oxford, writing a thesis under the supervision of P.F. Strawson, which focused on the semantics of Donald Davidson.
In 1974, McGinn took his first philosophy position at University College London. In January 1980, he spent two semesters at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a visiting professor. Then, shortly after declining a job at University of Southern California, he succeeded Gareth Evans as Wilde Reader at Oxford University. In 1988, shortly after a visiting term at City University of New York (CUNY), McGinn received a job offer from Rutgers University. He accepted the offer from Rutgers, joining ranks with, among others, Jerry Fodor in the philosophy department. McGinn stayed at Rutgers until 2006, when he accepted a job offer from University of Miami as full time professor.
Although McGinn has written dozens of articles in philosophical logic, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language, he is best known for his work in the philosophy of mind. In his 1989 article "Can We Solve the Mind-Body Problem?", McGinn speculates that the human mind is innately incapable of comprehending itself entirely, and that this incapacity spawns the puzzles of consciousness that have preoccupied Western philosophy since Descartes. Thus, McGinn's answer to the hard problem of consciousness is that humans cannot find the answer. This position has been nicknamed the "New Mysterianism". The Mysterious Flame: Conscious Minds in a Material World (2000) is a non-technical exposition of McGinn's theory.
Outside of philosophy, McGinn has written a novel entitled The Space Trap (1992). He was also featured prominently as an interviewee in Jonathon Miller's Brief History of Disbelief, a documentary miniseries about atheism's history. He discussed the philosophy of belief as well as his own beliefs as an atheist.
Colin McGinn was born in Blackpool, England in 1950. He enrolled in Manchester University to study psychology. However, by the time he received his degree in psychology from Manchester in 1971 (by writing a thesis focusing on the ideas of Noam Chomsky), he wanted to study philosophy as a postgraduate. By 1972, McGinn was admitted into Oxford University's B.Litt postgraduate programme, in hopes of eventually gaining entrance into Oxford's postgraduate B.Phil. programme.
McGinn quickly made the transition from psychology to philosophy during his first term at Oxford. After working zealously to make the transition, he was soon admitted into the B.Phil programme under the recommendation of his advisor, Michael R. Ayers. Shortly after entering the philosophy programme, he won the John Locke Prize in 1972. By 1974, McGinn received the B.Phil degree from Oxford, writing a thesis under the supervision of P.F. Strawson, which focused on the semantics of Donald Davidson.
In 1974, McGinn took his first philosophy position at University College London. In January 1980, he spent two semesters at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as a visiting professor. Then, shortly after declining a job at University of Southern California, he succeeded Gareth Evans as Wilde Reader at Oxford University. In 1988, shortly after a visiting term at City University of New York (CUNY), McGinn received a job offer from Rutgers University. He accepted the offer from Rutgers, joining ranks with, among others, Jerry Fodor in the philosophy department. McGinn stayed at Rutgers until 2006, when he accepted a job offer from University of Miami as full time professor.
Although McGinn has written dozens of articles in philosophical logic, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language, he is best known for his work in the philosophy of mind. In his 1989 article "Can We Solve the Mind-Body Problem?", McGinn speculates that the human mind is innately incapable of comprehending itself entirely, and that this incapacity spawns the puzzles of consciousness that have preoccupied Western philosophy since Descartes. Thus, McGinn's answer to the hard problem of consciousness is that humans cannot find the answer. This position has been nicknamed the "New Mysterianism". The Mysterious Flame: Conscious Minds in a Material World (2000) is a non-technical exposition of McGinn's theory.
Outside of philosophy, McGinn has written a novel entitled The Space Trap (1992). He was also featured prominently as an interviewee in Jonathon Miller's Brief History of Disbelief, a documentary miniseries about atheism's history. He discussed the philosophy of belief as well as his own beliefs as an atheist.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
July 26, 2011
Great little philosophical book and fun to have on the shelf for shock value. Don't let the title fool you, the book is written by Colin McGinn, an actual philosopher. He touches on many different institutions that use manipulation (mindf---ing) to keep our attention. He also brings up something that I hadn't thought of before regarding manipulation; people get addicted to the thoughts that were put in their minds, perhaps at a young age, which makes it more difficult for them to think in any other way.
October 6, 2012
Entertaining. Neither mindblowing nor mindf*ucking.
January 2, 2020
I saw this very short book in a bookstore and had to stop and read it. It was actually a far more interesting piece than I thought it would be (as reflects my rating).
Mcginn's entry into the discourse of linguistics with respect to human interaction, or more interestingly power interactions is somewhat unique. He articulates the differences of what he means by MindFucking vs. other forms of deception both external and internal. Rationalization and the ability of the mind to construct deceptions are matters which plague philosophical discourse and the search for truth.
In many other previous pieces, one finds a view of deceptive speak or elloquent speak as something which is violating; in such a way that the essence of man (whatever you might think that is) should revolt against it. Indeed, Mindfucking addresses the fact that there is something perverse but potentially satisifying in allowing the deception. Indeed, the potential for philosophy and academia to pervert the truth, i.e. the difference between the rational and rationalization and the tendancy of the latter to be a tool used by the brightest to "justify" much of what is negative in society, is not insignficant. To the extent there is pleasure in being deceived, this poses some very interesting problems for much of political philosophy.
In this regard, the last chapter is adorable. Though I'm sure he added it as a cheeky after thought, it is actually rather an important chapter. In presenting the idea of philosophical thought to potentially be arift with it's own biases, its own presausive desires, this chapter reminds the academic reader that "essay" as a form has a certain social utility.
Mcginn's entry into the discourse of linguistics with respect to human interaction, or more interestingly power interactions is somewhat unique. He articulates the differences of what he means by MindFucking vs. other forms of deception both external and internal. Rationalization and the ability of the mind to construct deceptions are matters which plague philosophical discourse and the search for truth.
In many other previous pieces, one finds a view of deceptive speak or elloquent speak as something which is violating; in such a way that the essence of man (whatever you might think that is) should revolt against it. Indeed, Mindfucking addresses the fact that there is something perverse but potentially satisifying in allowing the deception. Indeed, the potential for philosophy and academia to pervert the truth, i.e. the difference between the rational and rationalization and the tendancy of the latter to be a tool used by the brightest to "justify" much of what is negative in society, is not insignficant. To the extent there is pleasure in being deceived, this poses some very interesting problems for much of political philosophy.
In this regard, the last chapter is adorable. Though I'm sure he added it as a cheeky after thought, it is actually rather an important chapter. In presenting the idea of philosophical thought to potentially be arift with it's own biases, its own presausive desires, this chapter reminds the academic reader that "essay" as a form has a certain social utility.
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March 23, 2021Somewhat useful. Not overly great.
July 10, 2012
I came across this at random and read it on a whim. According the the author, there is lying, bullshitting, and then there is mindfucking (MF). MF is then explained in detail, though not in the most lively of ways. The author makes a few good points, provides a few examples, though none in recent terms. It seems the author was afraid to offend by making an argument the Fox News MF's their audience, or how specific religions MF the flock, or even the 2008 Obama campaign--this was disappointing. I think what's need is a real example, broken down step by step to demonstrate how the MF works in the wild and how people reacted in turn.
Though the topic is inflammatory, if by nothing else than it's sheer name, the writing is fairly dry until maybe a third of the way in when meme's are discussed; from there, it picks up. The argument is well supported and the book does well to explain it, but I don't think nearly enough to suggest how to fight back and dispel. I would suggest this to read as it is short and interesting, but don't expect his words to leave you MF'd (in the good sense)
Though the topic is inflammatory, if by nothing else than it's sheer name, the writing is fairly dry until maybe a third of the way in when meme's are discussed; from there, it picks up. The argument is well supported and the book does well to explain it, but I don't think nearly enough to suggest how to fight back and dispel. I would suggest this to read as it is short and interesting, but don't expect his words to leave you MF'd (in the good sense)
April 10, 2013
I actually thoroughly enjoyed this book.
It's more of a treatise than an actual book, and it is an incredibly quick read. It can be taken as a more modern view of On Bullshit, and owes a lot to the previous book (as it says) but it easily stands on its own as well. If you're looking for an interesting psychological study of manipulation, here it is. If you're looking for something a lot deeper and involved? Well, you'll have to look elsewhere.
It's more of a treatise than an actual book, and it is an incredibly quick read. It can be taken as a more modern view of On Bullshit, and owes a lot to the previous book (as it says) but it easily stands on its own as well. If you're looking for an interesting psychological study of manipulation, here it is. If you're looking for something a lot deeper and involved? Well, you'll have to look elsewhere.
June 2, 2020
A short philosophical essay that shallowly dives into the meaning of mindfucking and mental manipulation. The first half was mostly common sense, defining the word, differentiating it from "bullshitting", and outlining the difference between negative mindfucking ("the illegitimate exercise of power") and welcomed mindfucking (falling in love and movies with shocking endings like The Sixth Sense).
This mostly focused on the negative application where someone intends harm. McGinn provides a few examples of where it's used in politics, the military, religion, and even Shakespeare's characters to one another, but I wish he went into more detail. It was a surface explanation that didn't dissect any specific examples in history, but just that it happens.
Although, the "Extending the concept" chapter was more intriguing. It explains how we can mindfuck ourselves through our dreams, and the effect of a chemical imbalance in your brain on things like mental illness or from drugs like LSD. I was also engaged by McGinn's discussion of how "the most mindfucked societies on the planet are, not accidentally, those with the weakest independent media." Especially during this moment of 2020 where there's so much happening in the US and the world, it's proving difficult to parse through it all to find the truth when the media seems to mindfuck us all and shows us only what they want us to see.
This is a super quick read, and although you won't get anything surprising from it, there were a few sections that made it worthwhile.
This mostly focused on the negative application where someone intends harm. McGinn provides a few examples of where it's used in politics, the military, religion, and even Shakespeare's characters to one another, but I wish he went into more detail. It was a surface explanation that didn't dissect any specific examples in history, but just that it happens.
Although, the "Extending the concept" chapter was more intriguing. It explains how we can mindfuck ourselves through our dreams, and the effect of a chemical imbalance in your brain on things like mental illness or from drugs like LSD. I was also engaged by McGinn's discussion of how "the most mindfucked societies on the planet are, not accidentally, those with the weakest independent media." Especially during this moment of 2020 where there's so much happening in the US and the world, it's proving difficult to parse through it all to find the truth when the media seems to mindfuck us all and shows us only what they want us to see.
This is a super quick read, and although you won't get anything surprising from it, there were a few sections that made it worthwhile.
March 8, 2022
A book by Christopher Wylie bearing similar title had familiarized the term mindfuck. But the real explanation of the word, with its not so popular positive connotation, and the most popular and prevalent negative connotation became clear after reading the book. It is really difficult to coin such a powerful term conveying the multidimensional meaning of the process. I would vote for this word as the most important, impactful word of this century. Colin McGinn deserves a special thanks for brining clarity to the most dangerous process we are undergoing. We will be aware of the process, though we may not be able to escape.
October 1, 2021
A great little book by Colin McGinn the founder of mysterianism. This is a great text to help people identify the different levels of manipulation. This has to be one of my favorites by Professor Colin McGinn.
June 21, 2021
A tiny essay about the history, defintions, and concepts behind mindfucking.
April 29, 2023
I enjoyed reading this book, it’s really worthwhile to see and be able to understand the type of strategies that people use to manipulate us, this makes us be more aware when someone is trying to manipulate us.
May 11, 2014
I picked up this book because of the unusual title. I had no idea what I would find in there, until I started reading it. The first few pages turned out to be philosophical - the analytical kind.
The book is simple, easily readable, informative primer on mindfucking.
What I learnt? Mindfucking is a concept which is applicable in our daily lives - it is closer to home than we think. People who are easy to manipulate are already disposed to it. Closed informational systems are prone to Mindfucking. Romantic love is sort of a mindfuck. Drugs mindfuck. Words mindfuck. These are some of the themes explored in this tiny book.
How to deal with Mindfucking? This is not explicitly stated in the book but as a reader who has been equipped (after reading the book) with what constitutes of Mindfucking and how to identify it, I can figure that out for myself.
No, I wasn't mindfucked (in a good way) by the book but enlightened as the author claims in the concluding chapter.
Yes, I would recommend it to friends and family.
The book is simple, easily readable, informative primer on mindfucking.
What I learnt? Mindfucking is a concept which is applicable in our daily lives - it is closer to home than we think. People who are easy to manipulate are already disposed to it. Closed informational systems are prone to Mindfucking. Romantic love is sort of a mindfuck. Drugs mindfuck. Words mindfuck. These are some of the themes explored in this tiny book.
How to deal with Mindfucking? This is not explicitly stated in the book but as a reader who has been equipped (after reading the book) with what constitutes of Mindfucking and how to identify it, I can figure that out for myself.
No, I wasn't mindfucked (in a good way) by the book but enlightened as the author claims in the concluding chapter.
Yes, I would recommend it to friends and family.
November 23, 2014
3.5 Stars
An interesting essay on 'Mindfucking' . I wanted too see if what I enjoy in a book could be justified, explained. Well it took me about 6 months of picking up and putting down to read it from beginning to end.
Refreshing to read a definition / explanation about an element to books that I have a leaning towards :) Did it comfort or reassure me? Maybe but not calling my taste for such manipulation within the covers of a good book!
An interesting essay on 'Mindfucking' . I wanted too see if what I enjoy in a book could be justified, explained. Well it took me about 6 months of picking up and putting down to read it from beginning to end.
Refreshing to read a definition / explanation about an element to books that I have a leaning towards :) Did it comfort or reassure me? Maybe but not calling my taste for such manipulation within the covers of a good book!
June 26, 2014
It's a philosophical essay on mindf**king describing its geometry structure.The writer is trying to explain also why mindf**king is different from bulshitting and lying.What Who Why and How are the main questions raised to explain this term.For as the author tells it seems that romantic love is also a species of mindf**k.Fellatio is also a kind of head fucking because to f**k with someone's head also means to cause this action on it.
March 8, 2009
Em Português com o titulo "Não me F**** o juízo", é um livro interessante, pequenino, lê-se em 3h e faz-nos perceber as várias conotações da frase "não me fodam o juízo" assim como o significado de psicofoda.
Muito bom para quem tiver problemas de perversidade assim como pessoas que se deixam fazer por tudo e por nada.
Muito bom para quem tiver problemas de perversidade assim como pessoas que se deixam fazer por tudo e por nada.
May 13, 2011
The Moor is of a free and open nature,
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by th'nose
As asses are.
(Iago,in Othello, Act 1 Scene 3)
Quote un Quote
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by th'nose
As asses are.
(Iago,in Othello, Act 1 Scene 3)
Quote un Quote
July 10, 2013
Solid work of analytic philosophy. Author shows admirable self-restraint in his punning :-) Now to read On Bullshit!
July 23, 2016
Boring and lazy. It reads like the author thought about the topic for about five minutes and then took about an hour and a half to write the book.
September 4, 2014
Great, short read. Challenges American systems and culture norms that are clearly negate values, rights, and justices of many individuals.
July 16, 2014
It's probably not quite a 4 but... Short. Interesting. Will provoke a couple thoughts.
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August 19, 2017This book is the definition of mindfuck, I was asking myself wtf I was reading all along lol. Cant give it a note cause this one also went over my head
March 16, 2018
Per the author (from the final paragraph on page 76), "this [book itself] is not a mind-fuck; it is an essay on mindfucking. It is a treatise on one aspect of human nature, an aspect fraught with personal and political meaning."
And a wide-ranging treatise it is, for something so brief. In his analysis of mindfucking, McGinn ranges from indoctrination, brainwashing, and "psy-ops" to philosophy, paradigm shifts, and psychedelic substances, all in an attempt to understand what mindfucking is and how it differs from other forms of "playing with the truth," such as lying or bullshitting.
McGinn's insights into mindfucking are even more important ten years on, when one person's "fake news" and another's "manufactured consent" vie for the attention and intention of our hearts and minds.
The collective mindfuck requires informational isolation, so that nothing can come along to refute the system of false belief foisted on its victims; this is why nations and sects that depend on it are always closed societies. The essence of an open society is the free flow of information. The political mindfuck withers under the glare of informational openness, because knowledge thwarts manipulation. (pp.50–1)
It would seem then that seeking out a diverse range of information sources, many of which conflict withe one another, would be helpful in resisting a host of mindfucks from different quarters, whether religious, political, or whatever. McGinn describes the sort of groupthink necessary for a successful mindfuck as follows:
The effective mindfuck thrives on unity of message, the absence of a dissenting voice, and this state of affairs will not obtain if the means of communication are free and open (which is why informational monopoly is such a lamentable condition). The most mindfucked societies on the planet are, not accidentally, those with the weakest independent media. (p. 59)
Nothing to see here folks.
The problem is sorting out the bullshit and the mindfucking from honest discourse (and there is no simple litmus test). A serious worry is that people might come cynically to suspect that there is no genuine distinction here (this essay is dedicated to the proposition that there is). (p.60)
There is no simple litmus test.
The manipulation of minds needs to be at its most intense when those minds might, if left to their own devices, form dissenting opinions. Indoctrination will increase the volume if there are whispers from abroad filtering through. (p. 61)
A question that particularly interests me is whether philosophy, as an intellectual discipline, is inherently a type of mindfuck. I do not, I hasten to add, mean mindfuck in the negative sense; I mean the positive sense... in connection with paradigm shifts and other fundamental upheavals of thought....
Was Socrates, great man as he was, not actually one of the supreme mindfuckers of all time (in the positive sense, of course)? He went around the marketplace questioning people's ordinary beliefs about things, showing them that they were ignorant of even their most basic concept: he radically undermined their confidence, their sense of intellectual security (and rightly so). (pp. 62–3)
Perhaps, indeed, it is true to say that we can only be mindfucked by someone else if we already have a tendency to mindfuck ourselves: to believe our own bullshit, I am tempted to say. Mindfucking begins at home. (p. 71)
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November 9, 2018Not earth-shattering (not a mindfuck, one could say***), but as McGinn notes in his conclusion, he's only, after all, trying "to articulate what is implicit in our ordinary concepts." I'm a little surprised internet trolls weren't discussed as a modern counterpart to his Shakespearean examples. I'd enjoy reading a less philosophical expansion of his linguisitic umbrella produced in current times, in order to take into account the new* hub-bub around "fake news," disinformation campaigns, viral content online, and news propaganda.
The bulk of this... essay, really, focuses on the bad mindfuck -- mental manipulation, as the title suggests. Besides the absence of trolling, I did kind of wonder why "manipulation" wasn't good enough a label. I'm also unsure how to reconcile the good mindfuck with the bad, since most of this writing emphasizes mindfucks as manipulative to ill end, potentially capable at worst of steering a victim towards insanity. Oh but also romance and falling in love are a mindfuck**, and movies with shocking twist endings are a mindfuck, and his own introduction to the term mindfuck was a bit of a mindfuck. He pushes the analogy of physical fucking versus rape to set up that kind of symmetry, but it got short shrift.
*not actually
**not untrue, and I'm not even totally sure I'd classify this as a wholly "good" side of mindfucking examples
*** but then again, he stretches the analogy to include seeds of ideas being planted in a fucked-mind, and certainly there's a good bit here that could germinate some more...
The bulk of this... essay, really, focuses on the bad mindfuck -- mental manipulation, as the title suggests. Besides the absence of trolling, I did kind of wonder why "manipulation" wasn't good enough a label. I'm also unsure how to reconcile the good mindfuck with the bad, since most of this writing emphasizes mindfucks as manipulative to ill end, potentially capable at worst of steering a victim towards insanity. Oh but also romance and falling in love are a mindfuck**, and movies with shocking twist endings are a mindfuck, and his own introduction to the term mindfuck was a bit of a mindfuck. He pushes the analogy of physical fucking versus rape to set up that kind of symmetry, but it got short shrift.
*not actually
**not untrue, and I'm not even totally sure I'd classify this as a wholly "good" side of mindfucking examples
*** but then again, he stretches the analogy to include seeds of ideas being planted in a fucked-mind, and certainly there's a good bit here that could germinate some more...
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews