Abstract

> ‘WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.’ The slogan of the Ministry of Truth in Orwell’s, Nineteen Eighty-Four ,1 is my favourite literary example of the use of words to influence the thoughts of the masses. The official language of Oceania, Newspeak was designed to diminish the range of thought of the poor inhabitants of the totalitarian state. Strictly speaking, Newspeak was the opposite of old speak but I wonder if a deliberate ambiguity was intended by Orwell by calling it Newspeak; a subtle reference, perhaps, to the power of the media in being able to alter the thoughts and ideas of the masses. A new kind of vocabulary has started to take hold among my patients too. April was spent mainly discussing the daily death rates mentioned at the evening …

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