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Martino Fine Books

The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing

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2015 Reprint of 1961 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition. Not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. In 1933 Meerloo began to study the methods by which systematic mental pressure brings people to abject submission, and by which totalitarians imprint their subjective "truth" on their victims' minds. In "The Rape of the Mind" he goes far beyond the direct military implications of mental torture to describing how our own culture unobtrusively shows symptoms of pressurizing people's minds. He presents a systematic analysis of the methods of brainwashing and mental torture and coercion, and shows how totalitarian strategy, with its use of mass psychology, leads to systematized "rape of the mind." He describes the new age of cold war with its mental terror, verbocracy, and semantic fog, the use of fear as a tool of mass submission and the problem of treason and loyalty, so loaded with dangerous confusion. The "Rape of the Mind" is written for the interested layman, not only for experts and scientists. Contents: Part One: The Techniques of Individual Submission. 1. You Too Would Confess. 2. Pavlov's Students as Circus Tamers. 3. Medication into Submission. 4. Why Do They Yield? The Psychodynamics of False Confession. Part Two: The Techniques of Mass Submission. 5. The Cold War against the Mind. 6. Totalitaria and its Dictatorship. 7. The Intrusion by Totalitarian Thinking. 8. Trial by Trial. 9. Fear as a Tool of Terror. Part Three: Unobtrusive Coercion. 10. The Child is Father to the Man. 11. Mental Contagion and Mass Delusion. 12. Technology Invades Our Minds. 13. Intrusion by the Administrative Mind. 14. The Turncoat in Each of Us. Part Four: In Search of Defenses. 15. Training Against Mental Torture. 16. Education for Discipline or Higher Morale. 17. From Old to New Courage. 18. Freedom -- Our Mental Backbone Read more


Publisher ‏ : ‎ Martino Publishing (February 25, 2015)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Paperback ‏ : ‎ 320 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1614277877


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 73


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.09 pounds


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #15,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #3 in Propaganda & Political Psychology #10 in Fascism (Books) #12 in Communism & Socialism (Books)


#3 in Propaganda & Political Psychology:


#10 in Fascism (Books):


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • 4.0 out of 5 stars The tactics used by totalitarian states, who is least susceptible to said tactics, and how you can become one of them
This book, first published in 1956, describes the various tactics used by Totalitarian states, and explores why some people stand up to them better than others. It discusses brainwashing, menticide (a term coined by the author), attaining false confessions, and the gamut of tactics of mental submission -- be they active or passive in nature and whether they target individuals or the whole of society. The author, Joost Meerloo, was a Dutch psychiatrist who fled the Nazis, served as a Colonel and psychiatric expert in the Dutch military-in-exile during the Second World War, and then immigrated to the United States where he taught at Columbia University and continued his research on this subject. The first question a reader might have is whether the book is worth reading, given that it was written so long ago and so many books have come since. In other words, does it hold up? It’s true that it’s a little bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, there’s occasional referencing of psychoanalytic notions that have fallen out of favor (e.g. Freudian ideas.) On the other hand, I found the section on technology as a means of indoctrination and mass manipulation to be even truer now than it was at the time. Meerloo was only thinking about radio and television, and couldn’t have imagined how technologies are being infused with lessons from neuroscience to make them, quite literally, addictive -- or how even mass media is being tailored to appeal to various groups (granted this seems to be more demand driven, but its nefarious potential is apparent.) I believe this book is a worthwhile read even more than sixty years later. The author had a lot of personal interaction with individuals affected by these tactics, and there is a great deal of insight. The value of the personal insight far outweighs the influence of any outmoded thinking. Further, I would say that the book is an interesting and informative read even if one isn’t interested in North Korea or any of the few other blatantly authoritarian nations still around today. If one is interested in questions such as why so many people can believe incorrect notions in the face of overwhelming evidence, this book provides food-for-thought on the topic. Even if one’s government is not authoritarian, in-groups may use some of these same tactics to influence members’s thinking. While the book is famous for discussing the cases of the American soldiers brainwashed during the Korean War (i.e. the basis of the “Manchurian Candidate” novel and original movie [1962,]) Joost uses many examples from the Nazis -- including a little of his personal experience -- as well as Cold War stories (generally focusing on the Soviets, but touching upon the Totalitarian-style tactics of McCarthyism.) There are famous cases like Cardinal Mindszenty, but many lesser known cases with which the reader is unlikely to be familiar. The book’s eighteen chapters are divided into four parts. Part I (chapters 1 through 4) expounds upon the tactics used to cause individuals to submit. Meerloo discusses how false confessions are elicited using techniques from Pavlov’s classical conditioning to drugs to manipulation by doctors to playing on the subject’s guilt. It should be pointed out that a central idea in this book is that it’s just a matter of time. It’s an idea that’s revisited later in the book when considering the ethics of sentencing for treason and when evaluating how to best train soldiers to hold out as prisoners of war. It’s true that some individuals are much more resistant to these techniques but no one holds out forever. One can become more robust to interrogation, but the idea is to do so in the hope that one can outlast the enemy. Part II (ch. 5 to 9) discusses techniques for mass submission. This dives into how totalitarian leaders affect thinking by controlling semantics, the information available to the public, and by using fear through various methods including the surveillance state and show trials. One key concept is how having spies everywhere isn’t necessarily about gaining information so much as keeping the populace in fear so as to influence their behavior. It creates a steady state prisoner’s dilemma in which one never knows whether someone is going to roll over on one for his or her own benefit. Part III (ch. 10 to 14) continues on the theme of mass compliance but with a focus on “unobtrusive coercion.” Running a totalitarian state isn’t all about torture, truth serum, and having spies everywhere. There is a soft power component to totalitarianism. This section explores this side of the coin with special attention to the roles of technology and bureaucracy. These chapters also consider how education and child development can be a tool of the dictator or authoritarian regime, and how indoctrination about concepts of treason and loyalty can be exploited by totalitarian governments. Part IV (ch. 15 through 18) considers how individuals and societies can make themselves more robust against authoritarian tactics. This section delves into how members of democratic societies might best think about concepts of loyalty and treason in light of the fact that even the most stoic soldiers and spies can be weakened given enough time. There is one chapter that mirrors material in part III, except that instead of discussing how totalitarian systems use education to weaken and manipulate, this one suggests how education might be used to make a society of individuals less vulnerable to authoritarian arguments and tactics. This is also where Meerloo offers analysis of what traits tend to make one more robust to brainwashing and other totalitarian tactics and why. There is no ancillary matter (i.e. graphics, appendices, notes, or bibliography) in the edition that I read. However, I can’t say that it was missed. The author uses many cases and anecdotes to make the book interesting to read, and much of it comes from the author’s personal knowledge. I found this book intriguing, and would recommend it. As I mentioned earlier, one needn’t be exclusively interested in Nazi Germany, Stalinist Soviet Union, or countries like the DPRK (N. Korea) to find this book interesting. Sadly, the book has a lot to say of relevance to individuals in modern-day democracies. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 13, 2018 by Bernie Gourley
    • 4.0 out of 5 stars (4.1 stars) Be forewarned so that you may forearm and defend your mind.
The Rape of the Mind attempts to depict the strange transformation of the free human mind into an automatically responding machine. In the modern era, this transformation was previously executed overtly (e.g., the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany) but is currently being brought about by cultural undercurrents and deliberate, covert experiments in the service of an ideology. Accordingly, the rape of the mind is the psychological weapon of choice used to overwhelm, invade, usurp and pillage a person’s mental faculties so that an opportunist can imprint his thoughts upon the minds of those he plans to use and destroy. Subsequently, in this book, Meerloo successfully communicates the specifics of planned and deliberate mental coercion (e.g., torture) and moves to the more general question of the influences of the modern world that tend to robotize and automate people (e.g., technology). Likely the most important section of the book is Part IV (“In Search of Defenses”) where the author talks about individual freedom (our “mental backbone”) and the steps a person can take away from menticide and toward liberation of the mind. An urgent lesson the text will undoubtedly teach all its readers is that if we are to survive as free people, we must face up to this problem of ideologically inspired mental coercion and all its ramifications. Totalitarianism is a threat to everyone because it can arise anywhere, anytime. And, “Totalitaria” can develop albeit unwittingly even in a so-called free, democratic society. As the author posits, totalitaria grows from the soil of mental chaos and verbal confusion; hence these two base materials are typically produced with healthy amounts of fear. What lies at the core of the strategy of menticide is the destruction of hope, which keeps the mind alive. If you make a man afraid and make him believe he has no future, his spirit dies. Menticide therefore becomes highly improbable only when a castle of hope is built inside the mind. The only objections I have about this book are based on two implicit assumptions the author makes: (I) That psychology can save man. Meerloo suggests that if psychology can be weaponized for destruction, it can also be engineered for healing. Yet, this rejects the concrete reality that people are not mere minds. They are also spiritual beings with souls. Clearly then, as the author himself admits, if faith and hope preserve a man, there must be something greater in man that his mental faculties. (II) That people are inherently good. Again, as the author admits, human begins can be corrupted with ease and there is no essential difference between the victim and the totalitarian: both have no control over their deeply held criminal thoughts and feelings. Power corrupts and the majority delights in being lorded over so they can shirk responsibility. If all people were inherently good, this reality of humanity would not exist. Would not a more plausible explanation, then, be that all human beings are corrupted and there is an innate tendency toward totalitarianism and conformity? This implies what is at stake is much greater than the domain of psychology. In the end, we live in a time where our luxurious habits and accessible technology appeal more to our mental passivity than our spiritual alertness. The passive are easily duped. We also live in a time when being a critic of “The Narrative” leads to shaming and/or public crucifixion. Totalitaria is always searching for social sinners and critics of the system because dissent is equivalent to blasphemy when the State is god. Yet, with the foreknowledge supplied in this book, those who yearn for freedom will be forearmed with powerful tools in their struggle for freedom and maturity. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 5, 2022 by Dr. C.H.E. Sadaphal
    • 5.0 out of 5 stars If raised by narcissists, then this book is for you
Review Image by Amazon Customer Amazon Customer
This book has done more to help me piece together the early life events that led to my adult apathy and feelings of brokenness, guilt, and shame than any other psychology book -- including books like The Drama of the Gifted Child, For Your Own Good, The Body Keeps the Score, and King, Warrior, Magician, Lover. You might ask how all the segments on totalitarianism relate to parents and authority figures in a child's life? Well, the archetype for totalitarianism is the Steward who falsely thinks himself King: the shadow Steward. When you read about the torture and forced confessions, look back to when you were surrounded by mobs of peers at school ready to humiliate you if you re/acted with emotion and spontaneity. The book concerns itself way more on psychodynamics of children -- despite not trying to -- than books that actually focus on childhood trauma. Bonus: the book also happens to teach you about what happens when governments get their hands on the most subversive techniques available in psychology. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 3, 2023 by Amazon Customer Amazon Customer

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