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Dr Kathleen TaylorResearcher and science writeraffiliated to the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics,University of Oxford. To email me click here. |
(Please note that, though I have considerable sympathy with cult survivors, I have been advised against acting as a consultant on individual cases.)
Find Brainwashing on Amazon.co.uk |
Find Brainwashing on Amazon.com |
How are some people able to make others change their beliefs, sometimes very radically, and sometimes at great cost to themselves?
| Summary | Reviews | Internet and other media | Sample text | Citation |
Brainwashing: the science of thought control
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published by Oxford University Press, November 2004
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translations into eight languages (published or in process)
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longlisted for the Aventis Science Prize 2005
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shortlisted for the MIND Book of the Year Award 2005
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shortlisted and highly commended (runner-up) for the THES Young Academic Author of the Year Award 2005
Summary
- What is brainwashing?
- Does it really happen?
- What happens in cults?
- What makes people commit atrocities?
- Do we have free will?
- Can brain science help us understand thought control?
- How can we resist thought control?
Brainwashing is the first book to apply modern neuroscience to the topic of thought control. It combines psychology, history and cultural studies with cutting-edge brain research and case studies ranging from modern-day cults to sixteenth-century England. From free will to fanaticism, neurons to 9/11, Brainwashing brings a neglected phenomenon to life and traces its continued relevance to us today.
The term 'brainwashing' was born in the crucible of war ...
Ever since the Korean War, when it was first coined, the idea of brainwashing has fascinated, baffled, frightened, and appalled us. Around the world people are being pressured, deceived, or persuaded into adopting beliefs which are extremely and obviously harmful to them and to others. How does this thought control happen, and how can we resist it?
Social psychologists have studied beliefs and belief change for many years. Yet until very recently one crucial aspect was missing from their research: the human brain. Brainwashing changes brains, so to understand brainwashing we need to understand brain science.
That science has made huge conceptual and technological advances in recent years. Uniquely among books on the subject, Brainwashing draws on this wealth of new material, bringing together findings from social psychology and contemporary research in neuroscience to explain how beliefs form and change, and how we can be manipulated into committing ourselves to dangerous ideas.
From the workings of brain cells to the philosophy of free will, from the history of brainwashing to the politics of how to minimise its dangers, this book ranges across a multitude of topics to investigate the past, present and future of brainwashing. For the first time, it sets the phenomenon within a wider scientific, social and political context, showing how advances in brain science may hold the key to resisting the malign effects of thought control.
To read an excerpt from Brainwashing, click here.
To read more about the neuroscience of belief, as described by Alok Jha in the Guardian, click here.
To read my Guardian essay on brainwashing and terrorism (October 2005), click here.
Sample reviews
"magisterially detailed survey ... never less than direct and engaging ... This is an outstanding book" (Focus Magazine)
"Just how brainwashing can be achieved is very well conveyed, and the complexities of brain function are clearly explained" (Publishing News)
"a prime example of that rarest of species -- a book that is both academic and readable" (Popular Science online)
"I would highly recommend this volume to the reader" (Metapsychology Online)
"Taylor does a great job" (Amazon.co.uk)
Media and talks
- OUP's 'Meet the author' video on Youtube.
- In April 2005 I was invited onto Radio Four's Start the Week and All in the Mind to talk about brainwashing. In September 2005 I spoke on Irish radio channel RTE's Dialogues.
- I have spoken at the Edinburgh Science Festival, the Cheltenham Science Festival (on fundamentalism), and at the Dartington and Hay-on-Wye literary festivals, as well as at Cafe Scientifiques in Oxford and London.
- I have also done interviews for international radio and television, e.g. for Spanish TV (available in Spanish on Youtube).
Citation
Taylor, K. (2004), Brainwashing: the science of thought control. Oxford, Oxford University Press.
