Robert Jay Lifton’s Eight Criteria of Thought Reform (Brainwashing, Mind Control)

with Dr. Robert Jay Lifton

The following excerpt is used with permission from Robert Jay Lifton’s The Future of Immortality and Other Essays for a Nuclear Age (New York, Basic Books, 1987) is a concise explanation of Lifton’s eight criteria for defining mind control. His 1961 book, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of “Brainwashing” in China was instrumental in my deprogramming form the Moon cult in 1976. I thought it is long overdue for me to have a full exposition of his ideas presented in his “Chapter 22” of this seminal work. In particular, Chinese “re-education” programs are being used on a reported one million Uighur Muslims today. The Chinese are also reportedly using these programs are government dissidents as well as Christians, buddhists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Falun Gong and others they feel threaten their hegemony. I feel it is of vital importance for everyone but especially those concerned about Chinese authoritarianism to understand the Lifton model.