Dark Persuasion
A History of Brainwashing from Pavlov to Social Media
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Narrated by:
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Eric Jason Martin
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By:
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Joel E. Dimsdale
About this listen
A harrowing account of brainwashing's pervasive role in the 20th and 21st centuries
This gripping book traces the evolution of brainwashing from its beginnings in torture and religious conversion into the age of neuroscience and social media. When Pavlov introduced scientific approaches, his research was enthusiastically supported by Lenin and Stalin, setting the stage for major breakthroughs in tools for social, political, and religious control.
Tracing these developments through many of the past century's major conflagrations, Dimsdale narrates how when World War II erupted, governments secretly raced to develop drugs for interrogation. Brainwashing returned to the spotlight during the Cold War in the hands of the North Koreans and Chinese. In response, a huge Manhattan Project of the Mind was established to study memory obliteration, indoctrination during sleep, and hallucinogens. Cults used the techniques, as well. Nobel laureates, university academics, intelligence operatives, criminals, and clerics all populate this shattering and dark story - one that hasn't yet ended.
©2021 Joel E. Dimsdale (P)2021 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Mr. A. was admitted to Dr. Joel Gold’s inpatient unit at Bellevue Hospital in 2002. He was, he said, being filmed constantly, and his life was being broadcast around the world "like The Truman Show" - the 1998 film depicting a man who is unknowingly living out his life as the star of a popular soap opera. Over the next few years, Gold saw a number of patients suffering from what he and his brother, Dr. Ian Gold, began calling the "Truman Show Delusion," launching them on a quest to understand the nature of this particular phenomenon and the nature of madness itself.
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helpful extension of the genre
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What listeners say about Dark Persuasion
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- Kilgore Trout
- 06-06-22
i would like more info about social media influenc
the book shows the influence of psycholocal research on brainwashing and how cults and hostage takers can control their victims, however on the effects of social media is rather thin.
I worth remembering 3 D of brainwashing Dependency Debility Dread
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- H.B.
- 08-31-23
good book but it says little about social media
the book is good and offers analysis and factoids pertaining to the MKULTRA experiments and cults like the Jim Jones and Marshall Applewhite ones among others. It gets 4/5 stars because I find the title deceptive. The book says very little about social media.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Khepera42
- 12-09-21
Great
Absolutely loved it. The author filled in a lot of holes in my understanding.
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2 people found this helpful
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- JohnDoe
- 11-06-21
very nicely done
I listened to some of his presentations on YouTube before buying this. i greatly appreciated the author's even handed, clearly stated professional opinions re: the subject of groups united by their beliefs in collective delusions delusions. Regardless, the implications of the destructive effects of THOSE beliefs. Certaily mankind has nothing to be proud of in our susceptibility to these irrational beliefs. I have suffered a lifetime of PTSD symptoms, because of my parents' Pentecostalism. this book is not self help, but it's very informative
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3 people found this helpful
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- Richard A Burns
- 08-19-23
So relevant to us all
This book has Hidden truths about the mind control of humanity. Dark history but so fascinating learning about how we humans’ minds do function.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Isaac McDonald
- 02-25-24
I'm disappointed
If you're interested in learning how governments utilize social media to brainwash the populace, this book isn't for you. This book discusses the history of brainwashing.
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- gil benmoshe
- 11-14-21
enjoyable and engaging, but lacks scientific depth
it is largely narrative based rather than analytic. it fails to investigate how free contemporary civilization is, or what the upsides of conformity might be
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- Jim
- 06-13-23
Worn and Fuzzy
Dr. Martin's over-qualifying almost everything dissipates his points. That is, he doesn't have a personal center from which he evaluates the events he describes. All the way through the book it seems implicit: Who's to say what "normal" is. How could one look at the imbecility of the Heaven's Gate cult and not come to the conclusion it was a group willfully following a complete fool who had the gift of gab? Due to this non-judgmental mindset the thrust of the good doctor's conclusions are fuzzy. Another thing . . . he writes that "brainwashing" is an inadequate word coined after the Korean War, which the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders refutes. (Psychiatry's precious guidebook that is always playing with words and phrases.) But it's a damn good generic word, easily understood by us non-clinicians, and a word the good doctor himself uses over and over again in his writing. This book is worthwhile in spots but not overall. It's greatest strength, in my opinion, is for understanding the history leading up to events and clinical procedures.
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