Naomi Richman explores the cultural history of apocalyptic thought and how it can guide us in imagining a better future.
Narratives of Apocalypse
Tag: Battles of the Mind
A Faceless Crisis
Naomi Richman examines the language, metaphors and imagery that our minds attach to the ‘invisible enemy’ that is coronavirus.
Gifted Children as Hidden Persuaders in the Cold War
Jennifer Crane explores how gifted children were imagined as potential peacetime leaders, or as dangerous future citizens who might use their unique talents to subvert authority.
Psychological Warfare and Cold War Science
We interview Audra Wolf about her new book, Freedom’s Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science.
Manipulation Out of Control: J.A.M. Meerloo’s ‘Menticide’
Maarten Derksen uncovers the history of ‘menticide’, an alternative way to understand brainwashing made popular in Meerloo’s 1956 The Rape of the Mind.
A New Documentary Film: ‘David Hawkins: A Battle of the Mind’
Nasheed Qamar Faruqi writes on the making of her film about the youngest of the 21 American POWs who ‘chose’ Mao’s China at the end of the Korean War.
Brainwashing in Communist Czechoslovakia – And After
Sarah Marks on how ‘brainwashing’ was used as a Cold War code-word for Communist mass indoctrination; and to express anxieties about consumerism after ’89.
Dictators on the Couch
Producer David Stenhouse on psychological profiling, as featured in BBC Radio 4’s Dictators on the Couch, presented by Hidden Persuaders’ Daniel Pick.
Edward Hunter and the origins of ‘brainwashing’
Marcia Holmes considers the oft-told story of how Edward Hunter, an American journalist, introduced the term ‘brainwashing’ into English. Was Hunter working for the CIA when he doggedly promoted the threat of ‘brainwashing’ to his Western readers?
What We’re Reading Now: Across the Iron Curtain
Sarah Marks reflects on histories of the human sciences across East and West, and what we could still learn about the ‘psy’ professions in the Cold War.
