Uncovering the Effects of Mental Manipulation: Examining the Impact of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing

MAJA: And to think this book was written more than 50 years ago!
Read it! It will open your eyes if you still have illusions about the benevolence of governments.

Canada on Sep 07, 2023

Vince: I approached this book with some skepticism but found myself fascinated almost immediately. The way Meerloo writes evokes a kind of nostalgia for the period in which it was written. The concepts described in this book can be seen at work, intentionally and unintentionally, throughout society today.

United States on Jul 22, 2023

John Roeslein: Hard to read but gives you an excellent understanding about how marxisam and communism takes hold.

United States on Jul 22, 2023

Mr John Robinson BA (hons): It's interesting to note that this book, despite being written before I was born, actually deals with some themes which are very relevant even today. Specifically that used by the North Korean's in the Korea war, the Nazis in the second world war, and the Russians. Actually I can see some comparisons with Russia's war today. Less so much to do with the battlefield tactics, so much as the way the Soviets then, used mind control to literally fool the way through their actions. In a similar way as the Russian press have justified their aggression, through twisting the truth, to suit their agenda. This Is a relevant book today.

United Kingdom on Apr 10, 2023

Parveen Bhasin: it is a very rare book and giving the good information on psychotic behaviour in humans....

India on Mar 25, 2023

JamieL: Very troubling and scary in places yet a very interesting and thought provoking read. Slightly lost my way in the latter part of book but as said, a very interesting read.
The author's account is very scary. I hope to move onto studying WW1 and WW2, which I think is a good thing as I never got into History at School, yet it's quite important.
JamieL

United Kingdom on Mar 05, 2023

Amazon CustomerAmazon Customer: This book has done more to help me piece together the early life events that led to my adult apathy and feelings of brokenness, guilt, and shame than any other psychology book -- including books like The Drama of the Gifted Child, For Your Own Good, The Body Keeps the Score, and King, Warrior, Magician, Lover.

You might ask how all the segments on totalitarianism relate to parents and authority figures in a child's life? Well, the archetype for totalitarianism is the Steward who falsely thinks himself King: the shadow Steward.

When you read about the torture and forced confessions, look back to when you were surrounded by mobs of peers at school ready to humiliate you if you re/acted with emotion and spontaneity.

The book concerns itself way more on psychodynamics of children -- despite not trying to -- than books that actually focus on childhood trauma.

Bonus: the book also happens to teach you about what happens when governments get their hands on the most subversive techniques available in psychology.

United States on Mar 03, 2023

Monkster: Know going in that you are reading a 50s perspective and you might be surprised to discover a text that foreshadows many of the challenges (and offers some solutions) we face at the individual and societal levels today.

Canada on Jan 25, 2023

Dr. C.H.E. Sadaphal: The Rape of the Mind attempts to depict the strange transformation of the free human mind into an automatically responding machine. In the modern era, this transformation was previously executed overtly (e.g., the former Soviet Union and Nazi Germany) but is currently being brought about by cultural undercurrents and deliberate, covert experiments in the service of an ideology. Accordingly, the rape of the mind is the psychological weapon of choice used to overwhelm, invade, usurp and pillage a person’s mental faculties so that an opportunist can imprint his thoughts upon the minds of those he plans to use and destroy.

Subsequently, in this book, Meerloo successfully communicates the specifics of planned and deliberate mental coercion (e.g., torture) and moves to the more general question of the influences of the modern world that tend to robotize and automate people (e.g., technology). Likely the most important section of the book is Part IV (“In Search of Defenses”) where the author talks about individual freedom (our “mental backbone”) and the steps a person can take away from menticide and toward liberation of the mind. An urgent lesson the text will...

United States on Feb 05, 2022

Bernie Gourley: This book, first published in 1956, describes the various tactics used by Totalitarian states, and explores why some people stand up to them better than others. It discusses brainwashing, menticide (a term coined by the author), attaining false confessions, and the gamut of tactics of mental submission -- be they active or passive in nature and whether they target individuals or the whole of society. The author, Joost Meerloo, was a Dutch psychiatrist who fled the Nazis, served as a Colonel and psychiatric expert in the Dutch military-in-exile during the Second World War, and then immigrated to the United States where he taught at Columbia University and continued his research on this subject.

The first question a reader might have is whether the book is worth reading, given that it was written so long ago and so many books have come since. In other words, does it hold up? It’s true that it’s a little bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, there’s occasional referencing of psychoanalytic notions that have fallen out of favor (e.g. Freudian ideas.) On the other hand, I found the section on technology as a means of indoctrination and mass manipulation to be even truer now...

United States on Mar 13, 2018