PSYC8CD - COURSEWORK DISSERTATION: PSYCHOLOGY Brainwashing in a Large Group Awareness Training? The Classical Conditioning Hypothesis of Brainwashing John Hunter - 213569345 11/9/2015 Supervisor: Professor Kevin Durrheim Table of Contents DISCLAIMER............................................................................................................................................. 1 ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ 1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................................................................... 3 Structure of the literature review ....................................................................................................... 3 Brainwashing ....................................................................................................................................... 4 The contentious definition of brainwashing ................................................................................... 4 Brainwashing as currently defined ................................................................................................. 5 Key theories .................................................................................................................................... 5 Effectiveness (or lack of effectiveness) of brainwashing .............................................................. 18 Criticisms of brainwashing theory ................................................................................................ 19 Reponse to criticisms .................................................................................................................... 22 Large Group Awareness Trainings (LGATs) ....................................................................................... 27 The history of LGATs ..................................................................................................................... 30 LGATs in South Africa .................................................................................................................... 34 The relationship between reason and emotion ............................................................................... 34 Classical Conditioning ....................................................................................................................... 35 Symptoms of hypomania/mania ....................................................................................................... 39 THE CLASSICAL CONDITIONING HYPOTHESIS FOR BRAINWASHING .................................................... 40 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................................... 44 Autoethnography .............................................................................................................................. 44 Contextualisation of autoethnographic account .............................................................................. 45 Data collection .................................................................................................................................. 47 Data analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 48 Validity, reliability and rigour ............................................................................................................ 49 Research design ................................................................................................................................ 51 DATA ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................................... 52 “Death” and “rebirth” in the 2010 LGAT .......................................................................................... 52 The alternation between abuse and compassion ............................................................................. 53 Abuse: ........................................................................................................................................... 53 Compassion: .................................................................................................................................. 65 i Confession and education ................................................................................................................. 67 Confession ..................................................................................................................................... 67 Education ...................................................................................................................................... 69 Reframing .......................................................................................................................................... 74 Thought-terminating clichés (TTCs) .................................................................................................. 78 Uncertainty/quick decisions ............................................................................................................. 81 Lifton’s twelve steps of death and rebirth ........................................................................................ 82 (1) Assault upon Identity ........................................................................................................ 83 (2) Establishment of Guilt ....................................................................................................... 86 (3) Self-Betrayal ...................................................................................................................... 87 (4) Breaking Point: Total Conflict and the Basic Fear ............................................................. 88 (5) Leniency and Opportunity ................................................................................................ 91 (6) Compulsion to Confess ..................................................................................................... 94 (7) Channeling of Guilt............................................................................................................ 95 (8) Re-education: Logical Dishonoring ................................................................................... 96 (9) Progress and Harmony ...................................................................................................... 97 (10) Final Confession: The Summing Up ................................................................................... 99 (11) Rebirth ............................................................................................................................. 100 (12) Release: Transition and Limbo ........................................................................................ 101 THE LGAT “EXPERIENCE” ..................................................................................................................... 104 DISCUSSION ......................................................................................................................................... 114 Dissertation summary ..................................................................................................................... 114 Limitations ...................................................................................................................................... 114 Tentative explanation of the LGAT “experience” ........................................................................... 115 Optimal duration/structure of abuse ............................................................................................. 116 Extinction/spontaneous recovery ................................................................................................... 116 Application to other “cult-like” organisations ................................................................................ 117 Application to Evangelical Christianity (“Evangelicalism”) ............................................................. 120 Implications of thesis ...................................................................................................................... 124 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 125 REFERENCES ........................................................................................................................................ 126 APPENDIX 1 - ETHICAL CLEARANCE CERTIFICATE ............................................................................... 132 ii DISCLAIMER It is crucial when considering Large group Awareness Trainings (LGATs)1 to pass judgment cautiously - while there are similarities between organisations (and within organisations) the factors potentially leading to harm and manipulation – the screening of participants, the degree of abuse and the use of supposed brainwashing techniques – may vary between trainings. It is evident that these trainings have similar sources, and they have multiplied through copies of the original trainings and copies of those copies. While highly scripted (and thereby easy to emulate) there would,