Dr. Robert Jay Lifton on the importance of survivors telling their stories: January 13, 2020
8 mars 2025
Dr. Hassan interviews Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, author of the seminal 1961 book, “Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism” about Chinese brainwashing programs under Mao. Dr. Lifton, now 95 years old, mentored Hassan starting in 1976 and it was his 8 criteria of thought reform or mind control that was the foundation for all subsequent work.
https://www.youtube.com/@drstevenhassan
Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism – A Study of Brainwashing in China
(1961. 1989, new author‘s preface)
Robert Jay Lifton
Informed by Erik Erikson’s concept of the formation of ego identity, this book, which first appreared in 1961, is an analysis of the experiences of fifteen Chinese citizens and twenty-five Westerners who underwent ”brainwashing” by the Communist Chinese government.
Robert Lifton constructs these case histories through personal interviews and outlines a thematic pattern of death and rebirth, accompanied by feelings of guilt, that characterizes the process of ”thought reform.”
In a new preface, Lifton addresses the implications of his model for the study of American religious cults.