the process of forcible indoctrination into a new set of attitudes and beliefs.
An activity usually involving torture to force victims to change their beliefs and/or actions. The effects of brainwashing are normally short-lived when the torture (or threat thereof) is removed. The word "brainwashing" was invented in 1951 by an American journalist to describe what American soldiers had undergone who had been captured in the Korean War and tortured to change their beliefs. Not the same as mind control.
A method of religious training among Abortionite sects, popular for its effectiveness, especially when the culture at large is supportive.
Intensive, forcible indoctrination, usually political or religious, aimed at destroying a person's basic convictions and attitudes and replacing them with an alternative set of fixed beliefs.
(or thought reform) The application of coercive techniques to change the beliefs or behavior of one or more people for political purposes. Whether any techniques at all exist that will actually work to change thought and behavior to the degree that the term "brainwashing" connotes is a controversial and at times hotly debated question.
Brainwashing, also known as thought reform or re-education, is defined by Dorland's Medical Dictionary as "any systematic effort aimed at instilling certain attitudes and beliefs in a person against his will, usually beliefs in conflict with his prior beliefs and knowledge."Dorland, Newman W. Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary. 29th. ed. Philadelphia, Saunders, 2000.
