Editing Brainwashing (section)

==In popular culture==
{{Main|Mind control in popular culture}}
[[File:Sinatra and Harvey in Manchurian Candidate NYWTS.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Laurence Harvey]] and [[Frank Sinatra]] in ''[[The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)|The Manchurian Candidate]]'']]
In [[George Orwell]]'s 1949 [[dystopian]] novel ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', the main character is subjected to imprisonment, [[isolation to facilitate abuse|isolation]], and torture to conform his thoughts and emotions to the wishes of the rulers of the book's fictional future [[totalitarian]] society. The torturer representing the authorities says, "We make the brain perfect before we blow it out...Everyone is washed clean."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Orwell |first1=George |title=Nineteen Eighty-Four |date=1949 |isbn=978-0-451-52493-5}}</ref> Orwell's vision influenced [[Edward Hunter (journalist)|Hunter]] and is still reflected in the popular concept of brainwashing.<ref>{{cite book|author=Leo H. Bartemeier|title=Psychiatry and Public Affairs|date=2011|publisher=Aldine Transaction|page=246}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Clarke, Peter|title=Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements|date=2004|publisher=Routledge|page=76}}</ref>

In the 1950s, some American films were made that featured brainwashing of POWs, including [[The Rack (1956 film)|''The Rack'']], ''[[The Bamboo Prison]]'', ''[[Toward the Unknown]]'', and ''[[The Fearmakers]]''. ''[[Forbidden Area]]'' told the story of Soviet secret agents who had been brainwashed through [[classical conditioning]] by their own government so they wouldn't reveal their identities. In 1962, [[The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)|''The Manchurian Candidate'']] (based on the 1959 novel by [[Richard Condon]]) "put brainwashing front and center" by featuring a plot by the Soviet government to take over the United States by using a brainwashed [[sleeper agent]] for political assassination.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sherman, Fraser A.|title=Screen Enemies of the American Way: Political paranoia about Nazis, Communists, Saboteurs, Terrorists and Body Snatching Aliens in Film and Television|date=2010|publisher=McFarland}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Seed|first=David|url=https://archive.org/details/brainwashingfict0000seed/page/51|title=Brainwashing: A study in Cold War demonology|publisher=Kent State University Press|year=2004|isbn=978-0-87338-813-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/brainwashingfict0000seed/page/51 51]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Steven a.k.a. Superant|title=Mind-control movies and TV|url=http://www.listal.com/list/mind-control-movies-tv|access-date=12 March 2016|website=listal.com|archive-date=12 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312064916/http://www.listal.com/list/mind-control-movies-tv}}</ref>

The concept of brainwashing became popularly associated with the research of Russian psychologist [[Ivan Pavlov]], which mostly involved dogs as subjects.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Feeley, Malcolm M.|title=Judicial Policy Making and the Modern State: How the courts reformed America's prisons|author2=Rubin, Edward L.|date=2000|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=268}}</ref> In ''The Manchurian Candidate'' the head brainwasher is "Dr.&nbsp;Yen Lo, of the Pavlov Institute."<ref>{{cite book|author=Ma, Sheng-mei|title=Asian Diaspora and East-West Modernity|publisher=Purdue University Press|year=2012|page=129}}</ref>

The [[science fiction]] stories of [[Cordwainer Smith]] (pen name of Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (1913–1966), a U.S. Army officer who specialized in [[military intelligence]] and [[psychological warfare]] during the Second World War and the Korean War) depict brainwashing to remove memories of traumatic events as a normal and benign part of future medical practice.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Wolfe, Gary K.|title=Voices for the Future: Essays on major science fiction writers|author2=Williams, Carol T.|publisher=Popular Press|year=1983|editor=Clareson, Thomas D.|volume=3|pages=53–72|contribution=The Majesty of Kindness: The dialectic of Cordwainer Smith}}</ref>

Brainwashing remains an important theme in science fiction. A subgenre is ''corporate mind control'', in which a future society is run by one or more business [[corporations]] that dominate society, using [[advertising]] and [[mass media]] to control the population's thoughts and feelings.<ref>{{cite book|author=Schelde, Per|url=https://archive.org/details/androidshumanoid00sche|title=Androids, Humanoids, and other Science Fiction Monsters: Science and soul in science fiction films|date=1994|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-0-585-32117-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/androidshumanoid00sche/page/n180 169]–175|url-access=limited}}</ref> Terry O'Brien commented: "Mind control is such a powerful image that if [[hypnotism]] did not exist, then something similar would have to have been invented: The [[plot device]] is too useful for any writer to ignore. The fear of mind control is equally as powerful an image."<ref name="O'Brien, Terry 2005"/>