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  • The Rape of the Mind

  • The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing
  • Written by: Dr. Joost A.M. Meerloo
  • Narrated by: Chris Matthews
  • Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
  • 4.9 out of 5 stars (14 ratings)

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The Rape of the Mind

Written by: Dr. Joost A.M. Meerloo
Narrated by: Chris Matthews
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Publisher's Summary

Since 1933, when a completely drugged and trial-conditioned human wreck confessed to having started the Reichstag fire in Berlin, Dr. Joost A. M. Meerloo has studied the methods by which systematic mental pressure brings people to abject submission, and by which totalitarians imprint their subjective "truth" onto their victims' minds. The first two-and-one-half years of WWII Dr. Meerloo spent under the pressure of Nazi-occupied Holland, witnessing firsthand the Nazi methods of mental torture on more than one occasion.

Then, after personal experiences with enforced interrogation, he escaped from a Nazi prison and certain death to England, where he was able, as Chief of the Psychological Department of the Netherlands Forces, to observe and study coercive methods officially.

After the war, he came to the United States. As more and more cases of thought control, brainwashing, and mental coercion were disclosed - Cardinal Mindszenty, Colonel Schwable, Robert Vogeler, and others - his interest grew. It was Dr. Meerloo who coined the word menticide, the killing of the spirit, for this peculiar crime.

It is Dr. Meerloo's position that through pressure on the weak points in men's makeup, totalitarian methods can turn anyone into a "traitor". And in The Rape of the Mind, he goes far beyond the direct military implications of mental torture to describing how our own culture unobtrusively shows symptoms of pressurizing people's minds. He presents a systematic analysis of the methods of brainwashing, mental torture, and coercion, and shows how totalitarian strategy, with its use of mass psychology, leads to systematized "rape of the mind".

He describes the new age of Cold War with its mental terror, verbocracy, and semantic fog, the use of fear as a tool of mass submission, and the problem of treason and loyalty, so loaded with dangerous confusion. The Rape of the Mind is written for the interested layman, not only for experts and scientists.

©2022 Joost Meerloo (P)2022 Joost Meerloo

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This book helped me understand humans and war

Fascinating how the way we are raised effects our ability to withstand abuse and torture. I enjoyed this book and how it looked at how humans deal with governments abuse. I would recommend this book for anyone wanting to understand how humans deal with crappy governments. Please read this book to prepare for future trouble. This is a great book.

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