'Teenagers and adolescents vulnerable to brain-washing'

by Dulmin Samarasinghe

Brain-washing is an indoctrination process which results in an inability to think independently, and a disruption of beliefs and affiliations. It refers to the involuntary abandoning of basic beliefs and values of an individual.

Dr. Nishantha Kumarasinghe

Robert Jay Lifton

James T. Richardson

The term is used for methods, which can be seen subverting an individual's sense of control over their own behaviour, emotions or decision making, says behavioural scientist and senior lecturer at the Sir John Kotelawala Defence University, Dr. Nishantha Kumarasinghe.

People who use this technique study the personalities, background of individuals and select the vulnerable individuals or groups, he said. People who undergo hardships are a target as they can be easily made to listen to what they say due to their unfortunate circumstances. Certain political parties and their affiliate student organisations in the country are widely believed to be using this method.

Cognitive behavioural transformation takes place with the brain-washing. The same phrases are repeated over the years and after some time the individuals who are vulnerable become victims, he said.

The local political parties use primitive methods of this, such as intense physical exercises where the victims feel fatigue after a while and tend to obey the instructions irrespective of the dangerous outcome.

This is why ragging in the universities should be stopped, he said. Teenagers and adolescents are said to be two most vulnerable groups.

Brain-washing can create individuals with anti-social behaviour. Such people are capable of harming others with or without anger, hatred or animosity, Dr. Kumarasinghe said.

They would carry out the task as ordered by someone else who has taken over even the values of an individual. Terrorist groups are using this unethical and illegal technique to recruit members and even turn them into suicide cadres.

According to sociologist, James T. Richardson, some of the concepts of brainwashing have spread to other fields and are applied with some success such as custody battles and child sexual abuse cases, where one parent is accused of brainwashing the child to reject the other parent, and in child sex abuse cases where one parent is accused of brainwashing the child to make sex abuse accusations against the other parent.

In psychology, the study of brain-washing, often referred to as thought reform, falls into the sphere of "social influence."

It is the collection of ways in which people can change other people's attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. For instance, the compliance method aims to produce a change in a person's behaviour and is not concerned with his attitudes or beliefs.

It's the "Just do it" approach. Persuasion, on the other hand, aims for a change in attitude. The education method goes for the social-influence trying to affect a change in the person's beliefs, along the lines of "Do it because it's the right thing to do." Brain-washing is a severe form of social influence that combines all of these approaches to cause changes in someone's way of thinking without that person's consent and often against his will.

Brain-washing is such an invasive form of influence, it requires the complete isolation and dependency of the subject. The agent must have complete control over the target so that sleep patterns, eating, using the washroom and the fulfilment of other basic human needs depend on the will of the agent, says Richardson. In the brain-washing process, the agent systematically breaks down the target's identity to the point that it doesn't work anymore.

The agent then replaces it with another set of behaviours, attitudes and beliefs that work in the target's current environment.

While most psychologists believe that brain-washing is possible under the right conditions, some see it as improbable or at least as a less severe form of influence than the media portrays it to be.

Some definitions of brain-washing require the presence of the threat of physical harm, and under these definitions most extremist cults do not practise true brain-washing since they typically do not physically abuse recruits. Other definitions rely on nonphysical coercion and control as an equally effective means of asserting influence.

Regardless of which definition is used, some experts believe that the effects of the process are most often short-term.

The brain-washed victim's old identity is not in fact eradicated by the process, but instead is in hiding, and once the "new identity" stops being reinforced the person's old attitudes and beliefs will start to return.

A brain-washing process like the one discussed above has not been tested in a modern laboratory setting, because it's damaging to the target and would therefore be an unethical scientific experiment. Robert Jay Lifton created this description from first-hand accounts of the techniques used by the captors in the Korean War and other instances of brain-washing around the same time. Since Robert Jay Lifton and other psychologists have identified variations on what appears to be a distinct set of steps leading to a deep state of suggestibility, an interesting question is why some people end up brain-washed and others don't.

Certain personality traits of the brain-washing targets can determine the effectiveness of the process. People who commonly experience great self-doubt, have a weak sense of identity, and show a tendency toward guilt, are more likely to be successfully brain-washed, while a strong sense of identity and self-confidence can make a target more resistant to brain-washing. Research shows that faith in a higher power can assist a target in mentally detaching from the process.

Mental detachment is one of the Prisoner-of-war survival techniques taught to soldiers as part of their training.

It involves the target psychologically removing himself from his actual surroundings through visualization.

The military also teaches soldiers about the methods used in brain-washing, because a target's knowledge of the process tends to make it less effective.