Review: Dark Persuasion: A History of Brainwashing from Pavlov to Social Media, by Joel E. Dimsdale

Abstract

Joel Dimsdale begins Dark Persuasion by acknowledging that the term brainwashing is “silly and unscientific” (viii), but adds that it is also a powerful metaphor that describes processes used by political, military, scientific, and religious actors to direct and control human behavior. He also admits that readers may be offended by his grouping brainwashing, torture, and religious conversion in a single chapter. Psychiatrists like himself, however, see the dark side of religious commitment. Scholars are coming to grips with “identifying, naming, and treating harm in NRMs” as well, if the rise of roundtable discussions at Harvard Divinity School and the American Academy of Religion are any indication.The first half of the book is a compelling read, beginning with Pavlov and his famous dogs, Stalin and the show trials, and Chinese reeducation of prisoners of war. Most fascinating, and grotesque, was the experimentation done by American and Canadian scientists upon unwitting or unwilling volunteers—research sponsored by the CIA and laundered through reputable foundations. A chapter on the Stockholm Syndrome provides the backstory to the paradoxical effect hostage-taking may have. It dovetails nicely with an account of the Patricia Hearst kidnapping and trial, in which the jury “concluded that she had been converted, rather than coerced, to join the SLA” (158). So much for being locked in a closet for two months.Two chapters address religious groups: Peoples Temple and Heaven’s Gate. Unfortunately, factual errors mar the discussion of Jonestown. Dimsdale’s assessment of Heaven’s Gate is stronger, and the psychiatrist rejects the argument that its members were delusional or brainwashed, but rather shared “a contagion of belief” (201). The last two chapters of the book, dealing with social media and the future, are the weakest. Nevertheless, they issue a cautionary note. “When Pavlovian behaviorism meets sophisticated neuroscience, the dark potential of coercive persuasion is clear” (221). This book makes that quite evident.