BATTLE FOR THE MIND

A British professor and physician here illustrates the ""physiology of conversion and brain-washing"" in a popular presentation of the several mechanistic methods which can be used to influence a man's beliefs- the ""problem of policemen, priests or psychiatrists"". Much material has been assembled: on Pavlov's experiments and findings in dogs which can be paralleled in humans- particularly under conditions of stress; on the use of drugs in psychotherapy (and the importance of arousing excitement); of shock treatments and leucotomy; on the techniques of religious conversion which go back to the earliest times; on mass excitation and the implantation of beliefs; on political conversion in Soviet Russia today, on coercion in the criminal courts; etc., etc. All of this material- while not new- is documented and demonstrated, not defended, but the danger is of course self-evident. It offers a background book on some of the more puzzling phenomena of individual and collective behavior.