About the Book
'A frankly brilliant book' - GUARDIAN
'An absorbing exploration ... Pick does not stumble' - TORTOISE
'An extraordinarily engrossing and wide-ranging analysis of a word and a concept. I fell under its spell immediately' - SIMON GARFIELD
In 1953, a group of prisoners of war who had fought against the communist invasion of South Korea were released. They chose - apparently freely - to move to Mao's China. Among those refusing repatriation were twenty-one American GIs. Their decision sparked alarm in the West: why didn't they want to come home? What was going on?
Soon, people were saying that the POWs' had been 'brainwashed'. Was this something new or a phenomenon that has been around for centuries? The belief that it is possible to marshal scientific knowledge to govern someone's mind gained enormous attention. In an era of Cold War paranoia and experimentation on 'altered states', the idea of brainwashing flourished, appearing in everything from critiques of CIA research on LSD to warnings of corporate groupthink, from visions of automaton assassins to conspiracy theories about 'global elites'. Today, brainwashing is almost taken for granted - built into our psychological and political language, rooted in the way we think about minds and societies. How did we get to this point - and why?
Psychoanalyst and historian Daniel Pick delves into the mysterious world of brainwashing in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from The Manchurian Candidate to ISIS, TV advertising to online algorithms. Mixing fascinating case studies with historical and psychological insights, Brainwashed is a stimulating journey into the mysteries of thought control.
About the Author :
Daniel Pick is a psychoanalyst, historian, university teacher, writer and broadcaster. He is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London, a fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society, and author of several books on modern cultural history, psychoanalysis, and the history of the human sciences.
Review :
A frankly brilliant book
Daniel Pick has done the most wonderful, engaging and compelling job in tracing the roots of this particular strain of post-war anxiety in all it's forms, from totalitarian tyrannies and espionage, right up to today's fears of fake news and ubiquitous algorithms. And [he] has terrific range: whether discussing the delicacy of democracy or psychiatric hospitals, Pick's account is mesmerising and generous, [leaving] you continually wondering about your own power to resist.
Dizzyingly fluent ... a reminder that, in the matter of thinking for ourselves, cages come in all sizes and shapes
Daniel Pick has here taken a great step toward answering a great preoccupation of the twentieth century
In this absorbing exploration of "brainwashing" ... [Pick] does not stumble ... he looks for the strands that connect the totalitarian crushing of dissent to the subtler forms of influence and mythologisation in the democratic world. As a guide to historical and topical lessons of psychoanalysis - witness his writings on Nazism, modern warfare, and dreams - Daniel Pick has few rivals, and is always worth reading
Mixing insights from his practice as a psychoanalyst, Daniel Pick takes us on a gripping ride through the history and makes us ponder how, in a digital economy that moves ever faster, we can ever think for ourselves. A thought-provoking must read.
An extraordinarily engrossing and wide-ranging analysis of a word and a concept. I fell under its spell immediately
Lively ... stimulating [and] hugely entertaining ... a clarion call for better ways of thinking and better politics
Daniel Pick's new book is a fascinating exploration of brainwashing, advertising and other mind manipulations. Focusing on the second half of the 20th century but bringing the story right up to date with a penetrating consideration of recent conspiracy theories, it is absorbing, accessible, scholarly and of profound contemporary importance
A great preoccupation of the twentieth century was the suspicion that our minds were being manipulated through hypnotism, advertising, fake news, brain washing and the like. Importantly, this suspicion arose in democratic as well as totalitarian societies. Where did it come from and why has it been so hard to shake? Daniel Pick, who is both a psychoanalyst and an historian, has here taken a great step toward answering this question.
Daniel Pick takes us on a gripping ride through the history of fears of brainwashing that date from the 1950s and its links to ideals of anti-communism and personal freedom. But as he shows, 'coercive influence' is alive and well today, one of the major challenges we now face. Mixing insights from his practice as a psychoanalyst, this thought-provoking book makes us ponder how, in a digital economy that moves ever faster, we can ever think for ourselves. A must read.
Fabulous - both brilliant as history and penetrating about the present
A guide to the frightening place where the science of the mind and the politics of paranoia come together
Praise for Daniel Pick's previous books
Daniel Pick is an intelligent, thoughtful, well-read psychoanalyst who is always worth reading. His 2012 book, The Pursuit of the Nazi Mind, has an honoured place on my bookshelves.
Pick scrupulously examines the scientific background to Garibaldi's obsession ... stimulating, often ingenious approach ... a clever and illuminating study
Tremendous ... Pick tells the story of Garibaldi's failed Tiber venture with flair, mingling psychological speculation with biography and history
A fascinating dissection of a slice of European history
A fascinating exploration
Richly absorbing, perceptive, often funny and moving
Intelligent, discriminating, subtle, dispassionate, sensitive to context, and to nuance ... provides the indispensable perspective for further discussion and reasoned argument
