Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of 'brainwashing' in China - Softcover

Lifton, Robert Jay

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807842532 ISBN 13: 9780807842539

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 1989

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Book Description:

"While exploring the dynamics of Chinese Communist 'thought reform,' Lifton has performed the extraordinary feat of successfully linking . . . distinctly Chinese experiences with universal knowledge about human behavior."-- Journal of Asian Studies

About the Author:

Robert Jay Lifton is lecturer on psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima and The Nazi Doctors.

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0807842532
• ISBN 13: 9780807842539
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 524