Society & culture: general
September 2021
DARK PERSUASION: The Story of Brainwashing in the 20th Century
by Joel Dimsdale
DARK PERSUASION tells the captivating history of brainwashing through a psychological lens. With its beginnings in torture and religious conversion, brainwashing was transformed when Pavlov, in the age of Stalin and Lenin, introduced a scientific approach to brainwashing. Persuasion techniques became a key part of WWII interrogations and the Cold War, and would expand to the wider culture with the creation of cults. Whether at the hands of governments or cult leaders, brainwashing could be shatteringly destructive. As Dimsdale writes, “History is shaped by individuals acting in the context of vast impersonal forces. Who were the people who molded brainwashing? What did they think they were doing? And how will brainwashing evolve in the 21st century?”
