Brainwashing is probably one of the most powerful types of social control in that it involves a whole lot of brainwashing and victim involvement. Brainwashing, also known as mind control, thought reform, or coercive Persuasion, isn’t a technique that can be applied with results on a one-off basis.
It needs clear manipulator feedback up to the point that they can break the victim down to their desired outcomes. You’ve heard more likely than not someone described as brainwashed. You may have even used the term yourself to refer to someone who expressed opinions that seemed too brazen to be true, that obviously is not theirs.
Although many people still use this phrase loosely in daily conversation, the full scope of this exploitation technique is something that can only be grasped after all the details surrounding it have been accepted.
The Ten Steps of Washing the Brain
As noted earlier, brainwashing isn’t an experience of one day. Often, it takes years of consistency and hard work to brainwash a person completely. It is no wonder then that some members of cults will take years to create a follow-up before eventually making their mark in the world, although infamously. While they may overlap from time to time, brainwashing steps are often distinct, and can be widely classified into three stages. The first stage includes all the steps the predator uses to break down their victim; the second stage includes showing the victim that there is a chance of salvation, and lastly, the third stage includes leading the victim to salvation, or at least their own definition of salvation.
First step: Breaking the Target Step I: Identity Assault
To break down a predator’s target, they must first target what makes the target what they are: their identity or ego. Every human being has, in his mind, a picture of himself, which is what he thinks he is. That is the way they identify themselves. You can have several identities. You could be a mother and a career woman. You could be a clever businessman and a dad. You could be a hard-fought student at the college. You just might be a Christian. You can choose between endless identities. That identity is your answer to the statement tell me about yourself a little bit.
Take a moment and think about your personal identity. What/who are you?
Suppose one day you woke up and somebody told you that you are not what you think you are. How did you manage to say that? If this were mentioned in passing, you would probably brush it off and move on with your life. Or maybe you’d think about it for a few minutes or hours, and maybe get frustrated for a bit, but eventually, move on. Now imagine someone came to your house every minute of the day to tell you that you’re not the guy you think you are. How’d it made you feel? If that persisted over weeks or even months, then at the end of it all, you would probably be out of your mind. You will be disoriented and left to wonder where to draw the line between fiction and fact. If you’d thought of yourself as a good writer before, you’d start to doubt it. If you thought you were your children’s biological father, you might start questioning him. If you grew up believing you were a true Christian, reading regular conflicting reports would make you start believing you might not be. The first step of the brainwashing cycle is where all of the dirty work starts to take root. A person whose ugly seed of doubt has been planted in them is vulnerable to exploitation. As people, we want to believe the best of ourselves. They also want to make people believe in us to the full. Sure, there are people who don’t care about recognition and acceptance of anyone else. It is important, and we will all fight for it. But at the end of the day,, the person who goes to bed believing he is the worst of the worst (thanks to other people’s feedback) sleeps more restlessly. Having high self-esteem and a good sense of self, of course, protects you from the predators trying to prey on you, but that’s a topic for another post. The outcome of brainwashing’s first step is a full-blown identity crisis which the perpetrator will prey on for the purposes of the second step.
Step 2: Guilt tripping
Guilt, as it has been called, maybe a futile emotion, but it is also a very strong emotion. Guilt can make you, as a person, promise things outside of your scope. Guilt will have you stay up at night, asking why you’re such a horrible human being when you’re actually not. The human predators around us are continuously harnessing the power of culpability. This is how the second stage of brainwashing works: the brainwasher has already convinced its victim that they are not what they have always thought to be. Hence, the victim is in a state of confusion as they seek to answer for themselves the question of identity. That is if they aren’t a decent guy, who are they then? The predator swoops in at this point and begins to take them for the entire guilt trip of their lives. When you’re unsure who you are, it can be very easy to believe any lie you’re being fed up with about yourself. A brainwasher will make statements convincing their victim that they are essentially a bad person, irrespective of the context this adjective is being used. A brainwasher, for example, might try to convince a young mom that they’re a bad person and a bad mom because they’ve agreed to vaccinate their children or prefer the breast to the bottle. A predator will take every opportunity to remind the victim that they are lacking in a particular field or in all areas of their lives, and that the only way to redemption is to listen to and accept what the predator has to offer. In their attack on the victim, the predator is merciless because the ultimate goal is to break the victim down to the point where they are helpless and completely free from their authentic self-image and identity.
Steps 3 and 4: Self-trafficking and breaking point
Most people themselves are fiercely loyal. They’re going to defend themselves and their actions and fight to hear their voices. Particularly those people who are incapable of standing up for others also will stand up for themselves. A person having been brainwashed is the complete opposite. Brainwashed people have no trouble rejecting themselves and everything else attached to them after being continuously bombarded by messages of being the opposite of what they once considered themselves to be. These include their friends, belief system, relatives, and any other associations they may have that connect them to their old identity, which has been ‘evaluated’ by the brainwasher and found ‘seriously lacking.’ There are certain reasons why a person who has been brainwashed can easily find himself in this step and can not fight back. For starters, they’ve already been through the first two steps and come out in confusion and remorse, feeling disoriented and sinking. Most often, they don’t have the energy to fight back. Bear in mind that there is often a chance of physical harm if enforcement is not reached, and the target will be too scared to question all the messages that the abuser receives from them. Around the same time, there is a tendency for culprits to want to make up for their sins. For some people, especially those broken down by brainwashing, making up involves cutting ties with everything related to its ‘sinful’ history. What is sadly always the case is that the survivor is still left in an even worse situation after their friends, relative and belief system have been disowned. They’ve felt the embarrassment and remorse until they broaden. They are, after all, a traitor now, and the fact that they could not be loyal to their circle is sufficient proof that they are as bad a person as the predator had supposed. It is obvious that brainwashing is psychological warfare aimed at tearing a person down to the point where they are incapable of thinking in a coherent way. It’s all-consuming and exhausting, and victims often struggle to get out of their predators’ jaws, especially if they do it through the other stages of the brainwashing process.
Second Stage: Dangling the Salvation Carrot
Step 5: The Olive Branch
After the first three steps of brainwashing mentioned above, a victim of brainwashing often feels so awful about themselves that they try to redeem themselves at whatever cost. The survivor is also in poor mental condition and has low self-esteem. They have lost their old sense of identity and will clutch up on any straws offered to feel something again. At this stage, a victim is likely to experience a nervous breakdown, and this is the signal for the predator to swoop in and give redemption. The manipulator usually extends an olive branch after breaking down their target for a sustained period of time so that the target can fall into the trap of believing there is some light at the end of the tunnel. An olive branch at this point could be anything from a kind word to a gift, or perhaps even some form of physical affection. This olive branch helps to show the goal that if they are on the good side of the manipulator, there is certain leniency to gain. The manipulator is, after all, a ‘fair guy’ who wishes them the best. That is at least what they have heard since the start of brainwashing.
Step 6: Forced confession
Consider this: You have been subjected for a period of time to extreme psychological torment by a person. You have lost your sense of identity and feel confused and indignant. You’re nearing a nervous breakdown, or you’ve already undergone one and can’t make any aspect of your life head or tails. After denouncing your social circle, you have lived in solitary confinement and can’t remember the last time you had a proper meal. Then, one day, this person shows up at your door with a steaming coffee pot and freshly baked muffins. They just say they want to talk. You are letting them into your house. You just can’t believe it. This is the only kindness you’ve been receiving for the longest time. What do you think your former abuser will be reacting to this unexpected kindness? You’ll feel a sense of indebtedness more often than not. Human beings like being kind enough to reciprocate for kindness. If someone does something nice for you, then in return, it is human to want to do something nice. The need to pay back is even greater for a brainwashed person because they also feel they have to pay for everything (at least as per the brainwasher’s gospel) they are wrong about. The brainwashed group, therefore, will be more than willing to give back some sort of kindness. This goodness will always be in the form of a confession, in their troubled minds. The rapist would usually offer the option of a confession as a way to get paid back.
Step 7: Channeling Guilt
A brainwashed victim sometimes gets filled with so much crushing remorse that after weeks and months of being told they’re wrong about everything, they’re just no room for any other emotions. The target has been bombarded by predators with so much psychological torment that they don’t even know what they feel most culpable about. The perpetrator obviously believes he is guilty of something. During this uncertainty, the manipulator swoops in and convinces them that the blame is due to all the things that were previously considered wrong. The abuser, in other words, channels the remorse into the belief system. The victim now begins to associate their belief system with the guilt and the burden of dealing with the guilt. In essence, the predator is to make their victim learn to associate all the bad feelings with their past, while at the same time making them believe that if they choose alternative beliefs, there is a chance to be redeemed and to feel better.
Step 8: Freeing the Guilt
The victim is feeling a little relieved at this point to realize that he is not inherently wrong; rather, it is his beliefs that are wrong. He can be right again, by dissociating himself from his beliefs. He sheds his remorse by relinquishing everything and everything related to his prejudices, including those nearest to him. He confesses the errors of his old ways and is able to take on the new set of values that the brainwasher provides
Third Phase: Brainwashed Self Rebuilding
Step 9: Progress and consistency
At this point in the process of brainwashing, the target is eager to redeem itself and look good in the brainwasher’s eyes. As such, they will start rebuilding a new identity based on the manipulator’s offered belief system. After passing through the suffering and torture of the earlier stages of brainwashing, the victim is convinced that only pain and guilt will come from their old belief system. They are relieved to be rid of the old self and replace it with a new self that is their safe haven from all their misery past and present.
Step 10: Last Confession and Reborn
Following acceptance of the new belief system, the survivor also feels reassured about their past and all of the associated suffering. They will stick to their new identity like the proverbial last raft on a sinking ship because this is the only peace they have experienced in a long time. At this stage, the brainwasher succeeded in obtaining a convert, and may even be conducting a ceremony to welcome the new convert into the sacred inner circle. At this point, it is common for the majority of victims to be completely isolated from their families. They’re going to have it in their minds that they’re different people now who don’t have to associate with their past bad things. A brainwashed person who has been through these ten measures is usually almost difficult to persuade that they have been brainwashed. The damage done here is so immense that a do-over is an uphill climb. Professional support may be pursued to save a brainwashed loved one, but it is never a guarantee of success.