Brainwashing: Psychology or Demonology?

The article presents the reaction of the American public to "brainwashing." An exceedingly small fraction of American prisoners of war (POWs) defected to the enemy after the Korean War. Another group collaborated with the enemy. The size of this latter group can never be unequivocally defined because of the difficulty of deciding whether a particular act was or was not collaboration. Yet a sizeable proportion of the American public and the American press have taken the position that it is unthinkable for even a single American to fall for Communist propaganda or to collaborate with the enemy unless he has been subject to unnatural influence. It has been particularly disturbing to find a number of otherwise responsible citizens accepting the thesis that "brainwashing" is based on psychiatric principles developed from Pavlovian psychology. Without exception the evidence is inferential. American POWs and prisoners of the Soviet secret police were poorly fed, deprived of sleep, and in their weakened condition often subjected to excessive physical demands.