BRAINWASHING Edgar H Schein

BRAINWASHINGEdgar H.ScheinBrainwashing is a colloquial term which has been used in reference to thesystematic efforts of the Chinese Communists (and by implication the Soviets)to persuade non-believers to accept Communist allegiance, commands, and/or doctrineby coercive means. More generally, the term has been applied to anytechnique designed to manipulate human thought or action against the desire,will, or knowledge of the individual. The word brainwashing derives from theChinese phrase Hsi Nao (Hunter, 1951) and is most appropriately used in referenceto Chinese Communist "thought reform" or "ideological remolding" (SzuHsing Kao Tsao), a program of political indoctrination based on the conceptionthat people who have not been educated in a Communist society have, by definition,incorrect bourgeois attitudes and beliefs, and must therefore be reeducatedbefore they can take their place in a Communist society (Lifton, 1956).Interest in brainwashing on the part of Western observers and scientistsderives from the seemingly successful attempts by the Sovit and Chinese Communistsecret police and army to convert Western military and civilian prisoners.Ofequal interest, however, has been the seeming success of the Soviet secret policein getting confessions from former high officials of the Communist party as inthe purge trials of the 1930's (Leites & Bernaut, 1954); and of the Chinese Communistsin indoctrinating their entire population in the remarkably short timeof 3 to 5 years.Because of the close connections between Chinese and Soviet Communism andbecause of the importance which Soviet psychology seems to attach to the works*Much of the material in this review is from a forthcoming publication,Coercive Persuasion (Schein, 1961). I wish to thank Inge Schneier and CurtisBarker who were my collaborators in preparing that volume and who thereforecontributed importantly to this paper. This material was prepared for the 1961World Affairs Yearbook and will appear there in slightly condensed form.