Yale University Press
Dark Persuasion: A History of Brainwashing from Pavlov to Social Media
Key Metrics
- Joel E Dimsdale
- Yale University Press
- Paperback
- 9780300271034
- -
- -
- Psychology > History
- English
Secure TransactionBook Description
Riveting. . . . Dimsdale . . . shows how the art of dark persuasion a generation ago led almost inevitably to today's misinformation, cyberbullying and cultlike behavior on the Internet.--Dina Temple-Raston, Washington Post
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.
Author Bio
JOEL DIMSDALE, MD, is distinguished professor emeritus and research professor in the department of psychiatry. He was born in Sioux City, Iowa and obtained his BA degree in biology from Carleton College.
He then attended Stanford University, where he received both a MA degree in Sociology and an MD degree. He obtained his psychiatric training at Massachusetts General Hospital and then completed a fellowship in psychobiology at the New England Regional Primate Center.
He was on the faculty of Harvard Medical School from 1976 until 1985, when he moved to University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
His clinical subspecialty is consultation psychiatry. He is an active investigator, a former career awardee of the American Heart Association, and is past-president of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, the American Psychosomatic Society, and the Society of Behavioral Medicine.
He has served on numerous editorial boards in psychiatry, psychology, anthropology, medicine, and pharmacology and is Section Editor of UpToDate. He is editor-in-chief emeritus of Psychosomatic Medicine, and is a previous guest editor of Circulation, Drug Therapy, Psychiatric Clinics of North America, J Psychosomatic Research, and International Journal of Hypertension.
He has been a consultant to the President’s Commission on Mental Health, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences and NASA and is a long-time reviewer for NIH. Dr. Dimsdale is the former Chair of the UCSD Academic Senate and is a recipient of the Oliver Johnson Award for distinguished leadership.
Source: UC San Diego
Videos
No Videos
Community reviews
Write a ReviewNo Community reviews