Christianity and Thought Reform: Definitions and The Basic Process

Thought Reform: Definitions and The Basic Process
Lifton's book is a psychological study of thought reform techniques from Communist China. Lifton conducted extensive interviews with forty people in Hong Kong shortly after their release from prisons (in the case of Westerners) or "revolutionary universities" (in the case of native Chinese) in Communist China in 1954-55. He also did follow-up interviews and surveys with many of the subjects in 1958.

While this is primarily a psychological work (as the title states), it touches on a variety of other significant topics, any of which would be worthy of works on their own-- the spirit of adventure and resilience shown by Westerners living in China before the Revolution, the failed political ideology of Communism, and the absolute horrors of political imprisonment and torture. But the part of this book of most interest here is the discussion of thought reform or "brainwashing."

Chinese Thought Reform or "Brainwashing"
Lifton tells us that the term "brainwashing" was first used by an American Journalist, Edward Hunter, as a translation of the Chinese colloquialism hsi nao, which literally means "wash brain." This was the term used by Chinese informants, apparently in the early 1950's, as knowledge about prison life after the Chinese Communist revolution became apparent.

The term needs to be understood before we can understand the rest of the items we shall discuss. Lifton himself denounces "promiscuous" uses of the term in advertising, education, training and the like. He also cautions against the notion of "an all-powerful, irresistible, unfathomable and magical method of achieving total control over the human mind;" in his analysis such a method does not exist. Lifton offers this brief statement and a list of questions he sought to address with his research as the place to start in understanding this concept:

Whatever its setting, thought reform consists of two basic elements: confession, the exposure and renunciation or past and present "evil"; and re-education, the remaking of a man in the Communist image. These elements are closely related and overlapping, since they both bring into play a series of pressures and appeals-- intellectual, emotional, and physical-- aimed as social control and individual change. ...
Still the vital questions continue to be asked: Can a man be made to change his beliefs? If a change does occur, how long will it last? How do Chinese Communists obtain these strange confessions? Do people believe their own confessions, even when false? How successful is thought reform? Do Westerners and Chinese react differently to it? Is there any defense against it? Is it related to psychotherapy? to religious conversion? Have the Chinese discovered new and obscure techniques? What has all this to do with Soviet Russia and international Communism? with Chinese culture? How is it related to other mass movements or inquisitions, religious or political? What are the implications for education? For psychiatric and psychoanalytic training and practice? For religion? How can we recognize parallels to thought reform within our own culture, and what can we do about them? (pp. 5-6)

Thus, "brainwashing" or "thought reform" is the notion of making someone change his beliefs, especially against his will and without his consent. He distinguishes between education and other forms of consensual influence, yet recognizes the possibility of a blurry line of distinction between some education processes and Chinese thought reform.

Thought Reform with Western Subjects
Lifton presents case histories of Westerners consisting of the following distinct phases:

Arrest
Imprisonment
A repeating cycle of events over a period of time (about three years in most of the cases Lifton mentions.)

interviews with prison officials demanding a "confession of all wrongs against the people"
physical and psychological abuses, such as but not limited to threats of execution, beatings, physical restraints (leg irons, handcuffs), sleep deprivation, badgering, reading of conducive materials, and the like, to "encourage" a better confession.

A final, acceptable "confession" written and signed; read and recorded.
Release and expulsion from the country

There appears to be two goals of thought reform directed towards Westerners:

To obtain information against other "enemies of the people" that they might also be arrested
The eradication of beliefs that themselves were regarded as "enemies of the people"

In his analysis, Lifton described a twelve-step process by which confessions were extracted from prisoners and an eight-item list of characteristics of a thought reform environment. These will be discussed later.

Thought Reform with Native Chinese Subjects
In the cases of the native Chinese that Lifton discusses, similarities and differences in the thought reform process are seen in comparison to Westerners. Lifton identifies the following general phases of thought reform for native Chinese at the revolutionary university: (p. 246)

The denunciation of one's past-- of personal immorality and erroneous views
A description of the way in which one was changing under Communist guidance
A humble expression of remaining defects and a pledge to work hard at overcoming them

While there were same confessions and denunciations of the one's past, there were significant differences. Instead of being arrested and tortured in a prison like the Westerners, the native Chinese were asked (or compelled) to undergo the process of "re-education" at revolutionary universities "as an act of patriotism, as an expression of personal and national rejuvenation" (p. 243). And the "enemy" was not an impersonal foreign imperialistic state or threat to the "people," but their own previous careers, accomplishments and identities.

The goals of thought reform for native Chinese appear to be:

"Manipulation of the passions" and patriotism of intellectuals (p. 243)
The utilization of elite intellectual talent and resources in the cause of Communism

Yet all of Lifton's native Chinese subjects were thought reform failures, electing to leave China on student leaves and the like. Lifton does not consider how many more Chinese would have escaped to Hong Kong if they only had the opportunity or the means to do so.

The Long-Term Impact of Thought Reform
Interestingly, of the twenty-five Western subjects of Lifton's research, only one was regarded as a "true convert."

What can be said about the long-range success or failure of prison thought reform as applied to Westerners? From the standpoint of winning them over to a Communist view of the world, the program must certainly be judged a failure. Only one (Fr. Simon) among my twenty-five subjects (and only one or possibly two more from among the scores of others I heard about) could be regarded as a truly successful convert....
Whatever success thought reform had with most of the Westerners lay in the unconscious influences which they retained from it....
Western subjects consistently reported a sense of having been benefited and emotionally strengthened, of having become more sensitive to their own and others' inner feelings, and more flexible and confident in human relationships. (p. 236-238, emphasis added)

Regarding the success of the thought reform program upon native Chinese, Lifton makes the following assessments:

I was led to the conclusion that thought reform, at least during its early phase, had been much more successful with Chinese than with Westerners-- largely because of the immense appeal of nationalism, the reinforcement of thought reform by the Chinese Communist government, the sense of belonging to a group within one's own society, as well as many of the other historical and cultural influences already mentioned. (p. 400)
I am aware that I have presented versions of thought reform's limitations and accomplishments, which seem almost contradictory. I have done this intentionally, because these opposing effects can and do co-exist, sometimes even within the same person. A true picture of the program's impact can only be obtained by visualizing within the emotional life of individual Chinese intellectuals a fluctuating complex of genuine enthusiasm, neutral compliance, passive withdrawal, and hostility of suffocation-- along with a tendency to accept much that is unpleasant because it seems to be a necessary part of the greater program, or the only way to get things done. (p. 414)

The success of thought reform upon native Chinese had more to do with the lack of options and the exploitation of nationalism than the thought reform techniques themselves.

In conclusion, we may observe that there are some long-term effects of the thought reform process. But true and permanent ideological conversion is not one of those effects. Despite all of the attention and mystery around forced "brainwashing" and thought reform, Lifton proves that it really doesn't work at creating long-term ideological conversion.