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A crucial gap in the medical history of the Korean War is the history of psychiatry during the Korean War. War puts those who participate in it through physical and mental extremes, inflicting not only physical injuries but also psychological trauma and damage. However, studies of the medical aspects of the Korean War have been limited to topics related to physical injuries and their treatment, and there are no studies that systematically summarize the traumatic effects on the human mind thrown into the midst of the war, the consequences of these effects, and the medical efforts made to deal with these problems. As the Korean War was fought only five years after the end of the Second World War, the experiences and achievements of the Second World War were used in the Korean War. In terms of personnel, many of the soldiers who fought in the Second World War also fought in the Korean War. This continuity with the Second World War had both positive and negative aspects. On the positive side, treatment and transport systems were quickly put in place to respond to the large numbers of soldiers with psychiatric problems on the front lines early in the war. This is an example of a positive use of the legacy of the Second World War. On the other hand, the negative side of the coin was the much higher frequency of psychiatric symptoms among veterans of the Second World War. This could be explained by the fact that the psychological trauma experienced on the battlefield during the Second World War remained latent and was reactivated in the Korean War as a kind of conditioned reflex. In addition, the brainwashing of prisoners of war and their subsequent psychological problems are also characteristic of the Korean War in the context of the Cold War. These psychiatric features of the Korean War will provide a useful historical example for understanding and helping those who are inevitably involved in war and suffer from mental distress.

Drawing on national and local news stories, newly declassified documents, u.s. prisoner of war (POW) memoirs, and popular films, this article argues that the legacy of the Korean War in the United States from 1953 to 1962 dramatically shaped how Americans imagined the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). It specifically examines how media portrayals of North Korean atrocities, the alleged misconduct of u.s. captives, and the relationship between the People's Republic of China and the DPRK affected public perceptions of "North Korea" as a subjective construct. The painful legacy of the Korean War, particularly the experience of u.s. POWS , encouraged Americans to think of North Korea as an inherently violent foe and as part of a broader "Oriental Communist" enemy in the Cold War. When the experiences of u.s. soldiers contradicted these narratives, media sources often made distinctions between 'Worth Koreans," a repugnant racial and ideological "other," and "north Koreans," potential u.s. friends and allies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that an individual could be manipulated into performing acts "against their will" created a fear of "brainwashing" and, specifically, new religious movements (NRMs). Courts in the United States initially accepted evidence concerning "brainwashing" in cases involving NRMs, and subsequently the term has been applied in ituations involving other behaviors labeled as deviant both in the U.S. and other societies. This has generated challenges for legal systems despite the inability of brainwashing-based claims to meet requirements for dmissibility as scientific evidence. Brainwashingbased claims have diffused into other areas of the American legal system, including, for example, custody cases involving allegations of Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) as well as in cases involving terrorism. This report presents data on how brainwashing has been treated historically in American legal cases and its current uses within that justice system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theories of parental alienation abound in high-conflict custody cases. The image of one parent brainwashing a child against the other parent fits with what we think we know about family dynamics during divorce. The concept of a diagnosable "Parental Alienation Syndrome" ("PAS") developed as an attempt to explain this phenomenon, but it has been widely discredited by mental health professionals and thus fails the standard for evidentiary admissibility. Nevertheless, PAS and related theories continue to influence the decisions of family courts, and even in jurisdictions that explicitly reject such theories, judges still face the daunting task of resolving these volatile cases. In the midst of this highly adversarial process, children deserve independent representation to ensure that their interests remain front and center. Mandating the appointment of guardians ad litem in cases involving allegations of abuse or alienation will assist courts in conducting individualized, fact-specific investigations into such allegations to craft custody orders that serve the best interests of children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of new religious movements (NRMs) have spent considerable energy studying the role of news media in constructing public narratives about religious innovation. This article proposes that similar attention be paid to popular culture. It is argued that fictional media has a unique ability to shape public discourse about NRMs precisely because it is free to present any narrative its authors desire. Furthermore, a diachronic study of television and films over the last half-century reveals an ongoing public conversation about NRMs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Historian Richard Hofstadter's observations about American cold-war politics are used to contextualize Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions and argue that substantive claims about the nature of scientific knowledge and scientific change found in Structure were adopted from this cold-war political culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The »problem« of cults, or new religious movements (NRMs), has been a polarising issue for centuries. The massive culture shift that took place in the 1960s saw the »problem« of cults coupled with the emergent »brainwashing« theory. This article sheds light on exactly what this so-called brainwashing theory is, providing ample evidence for its illegitimacy as an explanation as to why people join new religious movements. Tracing the history of the theory back to its inception by secret arms of both the US government and Nazi Germany, the article provides evidence for the falsity of the theory. The two concepts – brainwashing and cults – were brought together by the »anti-cult movement« (ACM) in the United States in the 1960s. After detailing these initial concepts, the article moves on to the history and development of the ACM, which accused many NRMs of using »cultic brainwashing« techniques in order to gain converts. In order to rid »victims« of these beliefs, the ACM often used violent and dangerous »deprogramming« techniques leading to the eventual downfall of the movement in 1996. Moreover, the author invites the reader to see the parallels between the actions of the alleged »cults« and those of the ACM, highlighting that the two are not so different. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Scottish psychiatrist D. Ewen Cameron and his connection to brainwashing in the Cold War era. The author discusses the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA's) use of the term brainwashing and discusses the CIA's MK-ULTRA program of behavior modification. The author discusses Cameron's career in behaviorism and behavioral science and describes negative and positive depictions of Cameron's work.

The article discusses how the Cold War idea that the Communist Party utilized brainwashing affect the American response to the U.S. war on terror. The author describes suggests that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) presented propaganda about Communist mind control and compares it to the treatment of 21st-century terror suspects. Other topics addressed include the treatment of terror suspect Abu Zubaydah, the idea of covert government, and coining of the term "brainwashing" by Edward Hunter.

The article presents an examination of American public opinion towards life in the Soviet Union in the period of 1947 to 1953. It addresses the pervasiveness of the idea that Soviet citizens lived under the mind-control of the government, rendering them a subservient mass. It explores how this idea was promoted in widely circulated periodicals, movies, television programs and popular literature and appeared in the writing and statements of individuals with the ability to affect public opinion and foreign policy.

In 1946, Albert Maltz - Communist, screenwriter, novelist and future member of the Hollywood Ten - penned a controversial article in which he made a plea for artistic freedom. The article drew the condemnation of many of Maltz's peers, and the incident has been invoked as an example of Communist thought control since Maltz, under pressure, quickly recanted his views. This article argues, however, that the controversy was significant because it heralded the decline of Communist cultural strength. For by reigning in Albert Maltz, the Party rejected its earlier, more accommodating approach to popular culture, and in doing so, unwittingly forfeited a large measure of its cultural influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the recent rash of official reports done by governmental agencies in Western Europe to guide policy development in those societies. Particular attention is given to reports in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, and Italy, and to the changes in such reports that have occurred, perhaps because of the influence of scholarly critiques offered for some of the earlier reports. The reports are divided into "Type I" and "Type II" reports, with the former being thorough-going in their anti-cult orientation, and the latter reports being more moderate in tone, with some attention paid to scholarship on new religions. However, the major thesis of the study is supported, as an examination of both types of reports reveals that they incorporate "brainwashing" and "mind control" imagery imported from the United States, even though such theories have been largely discounted within the United States. Use of such theories leads directly to some questionable policy recommendations, as demonstrated in the reports. Reasons for the spread of "brainwashing" ideas to Europe are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The surge of harsh anti-cultism in parts of Europe may be generally contextualized in terms of recent spectacular violence involving new movements as well as globalization, which transplants esoteric, aggressive movements to societies with antithetical values. The notion of "brainwashing" as an anti-cult rationale was pioneered by American activists but is now more influential in continental Western Europe than in the United States due in part to the greater influence of secular humanism, the greater European tendency toward activist, paternalist government, the shock of the Solar Temple killings, American deference to religious "free exercise," and problems of national unity and cultural assimilation in Europe that enhance distrust of what are perceived as alien spiritual imports. Nevertheless, the legal climate regarding religious movements may conceivably become less favorable in the United States. In general the "brainwashing" controversy has been characterized by pervasive confusions of fact and interpretation and of process and outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the author's opinion on an article about new religious movements in certain European countries. Richardson and Introvigne convincingly show that European reports have borrowed the American cultural product of ideas about brainwashing and mind control but have failed to look closely at the scholarship in the U.S., and elsewhere, that challenges the use and logic of those metaphors for new religious movements. There is general agreement that when the exercise of religious freedom by one group has the effect of endangering the health or safety of others or of significantly disrupting the smooth functioning of life lived in society, the claims of religious freedom must yield to the welfare of the broader society. What is more controversial, but less fully developed in their fine essay, is why governments respond in such a way to new religious movements. At times the authors hint that there is something endemic in the psychology of a political culture--democratic or otherwise--that leads inexorably to the persecution of new religious movements. We know, however, that polities differ in how they treat new religious groups. The thesis briefly presented is that institutions and individuals with a vested interest in moral panics use brainwashing-based arguments to deny rights to new religious movements.

The article presents a case study specific to Iowa which describes the actual cases in the areas of satanic and ritual abuse, mind control and family violence. It expands some detailed information necessary to trace the abuse movement in the U.S. family including woman abuse. It aims to increase general knowledge on the existence of this abuse. Meanwhile, several examples of cult activity are presented to determine the occurrence of this abuse in the family. The paper ends with the points of interest on these issues.

Deals with the role of religious beliefs in litigation involving claims of `mind control' in the United States. Psychological abuse within controversial religious movements; Key properties of the litigation concept; Phases of legal conflict; Implicit attacks on belief in religious negligence/coercion cases.

Focuses on the use of cult/brainwashing allegations in civil cases filed in American courts. Implications on freedom of religious expression; Proponents of religious freedom; Overview of the George v. ISKCON cult brainwashing case.

This article explores the application of the free speech clause of the First Amendment to the purported right of an individual to think social stigmatized thoughts—for example, psychotic or sexually sadistic thoughts. The state may attempts to control such thoughts either by imposing a thought-control technology on the thinker or by prohibiting the thinker from voluntarily using thought-control technology of his own. Thought-control technologies embrace antipsychotic drugs, hallucinogenic drugs, pornography, and other mind-altering devices. Two underlying models of the free speech clause are proposed—a strong model and a weak model. Despite the apparent endorsement of the strong model by the United States Supreme Court, courts in fact vacillate between the two models and are, apparently, reluctant to utilize the First Amendment as a tool to enforce any right to think wicked thoughts. This reluctance, it is proposed, may well have a religious basis in an equation of wicked thoughts with sin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the response of the U.S. film industry to the much-publicised brainwashing of U.S. citizens taken prisoner during the police action in Korea. The war films which dramatised the prisoners' plight tell the viewers much about the response of the contemporary U.S., and about that society's tendency to examine cross-cultural encounters more for what they show of the self than of the other. In their own way, the war films make attempts to redeem the captive Americans by either denying collaboration outright, attributing it to wholesale brainwashing, or pointing to the limits of human endurance on the Cold War frontier.

The article focuses on the issue of brainwashing. The appearance in the popular media of a number of accounts of the Army's research on prisoners of war (POWs), especially a much publicized article by Eugene Kinkead in the October 26, 1957 issue of the New Yorker, demands some comment, particularly since a great many of the points made in these accounts do not agree in substance or emphasis with material in this issue, particularly with the account given by the author. There is also an apparently flat contradiction between statements of the author that Communist "pressure" produced collaboration. Interest in the experiences of the POWs in Korea stems back to the early days of the war, when U.S. Army authorities first became aware that the Chinese Communists intended to exploit U.S. soldiers for propaganda ends. Radio broadcasts and mail, bearing propaganda, were received from a number of POWs, which served as adequate warning that a psychological warfare campaign on a grand scale was being waged by the Chinese.

The article presents correlates of collaboration and resistance behavior among U. S. Army prisoners of war (POWs) in Korea. Many Americans have been led to conclude that collaboration was the result of "brainwashing"-that the Communist captors in Korea used some bizarre and magical techniques to wash their "prisoners" brains clean of Americanism and replace it with Communist faith. Others have concluded that collaboration always followed brutal, physical pressure-that POWs signed Communist propaganda petitions, made anti-American recordings, or informed on their fellows only after they were subjected to excruciating tortures. In effect, American POWs were victims of an old technique, as old as blackmail. POWs were simply put in a position in which they could make a choice--either to submit to the enemy's demands and get off easy, or resist and take the consequences. It wasn't necessary for a POW personally to experience mistreatment at the hands of the captor to know that the threat of punishment was always present; the loaded pistol on the table between the Chinese interrogator and the newly captured prisoner spoke its own message.

The article presents information on the effects of Communist indoctrination attempts on U.S. Air Force prisoners of war. There were widespread impressions after the Korean War that American prisoners in Korea and China had generally been easy marks for Chinese Communist indoctrination methods, and that many prisoners of war were converted into temporary or permanent communists by their captors. The prevailing view was that "brainwashing" converted prisoners into temporary or permanent Communists, which, however, did not occur in the case of any Air Force prisoner of war. Among the returnees of Air Force prisoners of war were a few individuals who had "absorbed," and even some who had "accepted," a considerable amount of the doctrine to which they had been exposed, yet who constituted little or no problem to themselves, the Air Force, or the nation. This was not the case with some U.S. Army personnel who declined repatriation. The significance of indoctrination involves the degree to which the individual is led to act or think in conflict with his own society.

Reports on claims regarding the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations, controlling individual's minds through radio waves, focusing on Russian psychotronic weapons. Reference to the Spring 1998 issue of `Parameters'; Information on Russian's psychotronic weapons; Comments from Lieutenant Colonel Timothy L. Thomas, an analyst at the Foreign Military Studies Office at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Missouri; Warning from Thomas.