Battle for the Mind

In Battle for the Mind, British psychiatrist William Sargant investigates the physiological mechanisms through which deeply established beliefs and patterns of behavior can be disrupted and replaced. Drawing on Pavlovian experiments, wartime psychiatry, religious revivals, political indoctrination, psychotherapy, interrogation, and brainwashing, Sargant examines how fear, anxiety, emotional excitement, exhaustion, and prolonged stress can impair judgment and heighten suggestibility. Comparing methods used by physicians, evangelists, political movements, and interrogators, he explores how remarkably similar techniques can produce conversion, confession, and radical changes of belief. A provocative study of indoctrination and human suggestibility, the book also considers how individuals might recognize and resist attempts at thought control.