military and government laid charges of brainwashing in an effort to undermine confessions made by POWs to war crimes, including biological warfare. Ford and British army Colonel James Carne also claimed that the Chinese subjected them to brainwashing techniques during their imprisonment. Hunter and others used the Chinese term to explain why, during the Korean War (1950-1953), some American prisoners of war (POWs) cooperated with their Chinese captors, and even in a few cases defected to their side. Hunter was an outspoken anticommunist and was alleged to be a CIA agent working undercover as a journalist.
The Oxford English Dictionary records the earliest known English-language usage of the word "brainwashing" in an article by a journalist Edward Hunter, in Miami News, published on 24 September 1950. The term punned on the Taoist custom of "cleansing / washing the heart / mind" ( xǐxīn，洗心) before conducting ceremonies or entering holy places. The Chinese term xǐnǎo (洗腦，"wash brain") was originally used to describe the coercive persuasion used under the Maoist government in China, which aimed to transform "reactionary" people into "right-thinking" members of the new Chinese social system. The concept of brainwashing is not generally accepted as a scientific term. In casual speech, "brainwashing" and its verb form, "brainwash", are used figuratively to describe the use of propaganda to persuade or sway public opinion. It can also be a theme in science fiction and in political and corporate culture. The concept of brainwashing is sometimes involved in lawsuits, especially regarding child custody. In the late 1960s and 1970s, there was considerable scientific and legal debate, as well as media attention, about the possibility of brainwashing being a factor when Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was used, or in the conversion of people to groups which are considered to be cults. Research into the concept also looked at Nazi Germany, at some criminal cases in the United States, and at the actions of human traffickers. The term "brainwashing" was first used in English by Edward Hunter in 1950 to describe how the Chinese government appeared to make people cooperate with them during the Korean War.
Brainwashing is said to reduce its subjects' ability to think critically or independently, to allow the introduction of new, unwanted thoughts and ideas into their minds, as well as to change their attitudes, values and beliefs. Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques.
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