For despite the vicissitudes of brainwashing, the process which gave rise to the name is very much a reality: the official Chinese Communist program of szu-hsiang kai-tsao (variously translated as “ideological remolding,” “ideological reform,” or as we shall refer to it here, “thought reform”) has in fact emerged as one of the most powerful efforts

emotional extremism.

serving as an Air Force psychiatrist in Japan and Korea.

another kind of myth, the claim that there is no such thing,

The basic task was to locate people who had been put through intensive reform experiences and communicate with them in meaningful emotional depth.

How intoxicating to feel like God the Father and to hand out definitive testimonials of bad character and habits. Albert Camus

the Zen Buddhist maxim:

It was first used by an American journalist, Edward Hunter, as a translation of the colloquialism hsi nao (literally, “wash brain”) which he quoted from Chinese informants

the term has a far from precise and a questionable usefulness;