Buch, Englisch, 352 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm
The Dream of Mind Control
Buch, Englisch, 352 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm
ISBN: 978-0-19-280496-9
Verlag: Oxford University Press
There are no other books on this fascinating subject that combine research from both social psychology and neuroscience
* Many aspects of society today, including the power of the media, the practice of psychotherapy, and acts of terrorism, have been associated with forms of brainwashing
* Kathleen Taylor has a brilliant writing style, and won first prize in the 2003 THES/OUP Science Essay competition
* This book has unanimous support from the experts in the field
DESCRIPTION:
The term 'brainwashing', although first recorded in 1950, is an expression of a much older concept: the forcible and full-scale alteration of a person's beliefs. Over the past 50 years the term has crept into popular culture, served as a topic for jokes, frightened the public in media headlines, and slandered innumerable people and institutions. It has also been the subject of learned discussion from many angles: history, sociology, psychology, psychotherapy, and marketing. Despite this variety, to date there has been one angle missing - any serious reference to real brains. Descriptions of how opinions can be changed, whether by persuasion, deceit, or force, have been almost entirely psychological.
Kathleen Taylor's fascinating and informative book is the first to combine the findings from the previously mutually exclusive doctrines of social psychology and neuroscience. She looks at the ethical problems involved in carrying out the required experiments on humans, the limitations of animal models, the frightening implications of such research, and the realization that the workings of the human brain are incredibly complicated.
We now have the knowledge to reconsider brainwashing in physiological as well as psychological terms. It is important that we do so, if only for our self-protection. As the events of September 11th showed, secular liberal societies are vulnerable to smaller groups united by strong, hostile, and often irrational beliefs. This book takes the view that understanding is the first step towards prevention, and so tries to understand the mechanisms by which such groups achieve their potency. It is time to look again at what modern neuroscience can tell us about human beliefs, and how humans can forcibly change them.
Zielgruppe
The general reader with an interest in popular science or psychology, anyone with an interest in how the mind works.
