Book review of Dark Persuasion: A History of Brainwashing from Pavlov to Social Media by Joel E. Dimsdale

The time period “brainwashing” dates to 1950, when a journalist and former OSS member named Edward Hunter wrote an article explaining why, within the waning days of the Korean Warfare, American POWs defected to Korea and China. In response to Hunter, the prisoners had been embracing neither the enemy nor its beliefs. As an alternative, that they had been subjected to what the Chinese language known as “xi nao,” or “wash mind,” and had, in consequence, misplaced any sense of cause. And this was solely the start, Hunter warned.