If anyone asked you what you thought of brainwashing and whether or not it had a place in a free society I expect you would have no problem or hesitation in your answer. Part of what we mean by freedom includes freedom of mind or choice as we would say.
It has long been accepted that our choices are limited by the necessity to have rules and, of course, the making and breaking of those rules constitutes a huge part of the character of our society. It is also accepted that a certain amount of "brainwashing" is required to train and socialise children. It is more commonly known as behavioural psychology. In my own diagnostic career I established very early on that all people can be divided into one of two groups. Generally, my first step, which I thought of as an orientation procedure, was to classify a patient/client into an over socialised or an under socialised person. Delinquent behaviour, for example, could be caused by lack of supervision in a child who has been allowed to run wild or rebellion by a child who has been surrounded by rules. These are neat opposites which, therefore, indicate a solution in the area of increasing or decreasing structure. Obviously, it is crucial that the therapist is clear about which is which.
As well as finding the right solution it is necessary to devise a little procedure which can be followed over and over again. Life is structured around big things and little things, nice things and chores, all with different levels of importance and appeal. The trick is to take something the child wants and make it conditional upon something you want the child to do. All this works much better if you put a positive spin on it. So, lets suppose the child wants to go out to play. Your answer might be "Yes, you can go out just as soon as you finish your tea". This is far preferable to threatening the child with "No, your'e not going out because you haven't finished your tea". The reason a positive spin works better is because it keeps the focus on what you both want to achieve instead of allowing the agenda to be hi-jacked by an argument about what neither of you wants.
So there it is. Once we nasty psycho-babblists came along we opened the door to all kinds of thought control. If only you knew!
First off the mark were the greedy money makers - sales and advertisers. The shocking statistic, which inspired this piece, is that on average, each of us is exposed to around 500 adverisements per day. Now, I don't care how much trite rubbish they dig out to defend the need to advertise in a capitalist society. My concern is quantity. Many, many television adverts are run over and over and over again at every commercial break. Why? There is only one sane and reasonable explanation. We are being bombarded by brainwashing techniques. And the scale of it is greater than most psychologists and most parents achieve in socialisinmg their children. Shock. Horror.
One of my pet mental procedures is to contemplate where a currently popular idea will be in 50 or 100 years time. I predict that at some time in the future there will be a mass revolt against what will be called psychological abuse, akin to child abuse, and that it will radically alter the world of advertising for ever. People will become very conscious of all forms of thought control and it will be akin to racism, sexism etc to attempt to enter someone's mind without permission. I think the idea of psychological rape is already understandable in our society and that is a huge leap forward.
In my next piece I will take a look at the economics of this hollow freedom to persuade. What would happen to society if we took out huge chunks of advertising making millions redundant. Would it cause a world recession? Would it affect climate change?
In the meantime, may I recommend that you do what I have done for a good long time and hit the MUTE button when the ads come on.
Pierre
Tags: brainwashing democracy freedom choice rules society behavioural psychology diagnosis delinquent supervision rebellion child structure solution conditional positive spin agenda hi-jack statistics advertisements capitalist television abuse economic mute
Just something to cheer away the weekend. It won't make Crowbarred's top 1000 tunes but it's good therapy for the terminally insane. 
