This was a challenging book to read, not least because of its length but the heavy topic was also galling at times. Since it is an academic book, I decided to take the "academic reading approach - rather than reading every word cover to cover as I usually do. I focussed on the chapters with the analysis which I thought would be most relevant to my research, skipped over a lot of the case studies (although they were interesting, a lot of the content felt anecdotal compared to the broader collective insights given in the analysis) and skim read as much as possible. Below are the quotes I've picked out which contain the insight which is most useful to my research topic.
Quotes
‘Behind this web of semantic (and more than semantic) confusion lies an image of “brainwashing” as an all-powerful, irresistible, unfathomable, and magical method of achieving total control of the human mind. It is of course none of these things, and this urges towards submission, justification for failure, irresponsible accusation, and for a wide gamut of emotional extremism.’ (page 4)
‘Whatever its setting, though reform consists of two basic elements: confession, the exposure and renunciation of past and present “evil”; and re-education, the remaking of a man in the Communist image. These elements are closely related and overlapping, since they both bring into play a series of pressures and appeals - intellectual, emotional, and physical - aimed at social control and individual change.’ (page 5)
‘From the imperialistic side we are not criminals; from the people’s side we are criminals. If we look at this from the imperialists’ side, re-education is a kind of compulsion. But if we look at it from the people’s side, it is to die and be born again.’ (page 20)
‘At first he simply gave lip service to what he knew to be the “correct” point of view, but over a period of weeks and months, he began to accept these judgements inwardly, and to apply them to himself.’ (page 27)
‘You feel guilty, because all of the time you have to look at yourself from the people’s standpoint, and the more deeply you go into the people’s standpoint, the more you recognise your crimes.’ (page 30)
‘Dr. Vincent might appear to be a highly successful product of thought reform. But when I saw him in Hong Kong, the issue was much more in doubt. He was a man in limbo, caught between the two worlds. In his confusion and fear he felt that he was being constantly observed and manipulated. Much of the paranoid content was an internal extension of his prison environment.’ (page 32)
‘one theme kept recurring. It was not that of the pain and humiliation of his prison experience, but rather his sadness at leaving China. He told me that he had cried bitterly upon boarding the ship, deeply disturbed at the thought that he would never have the chance to return.’ (page 39)
‘so this is the way of the Communists – using good words to do bad things: to help means to maltreat people.’ (page 40)
‘He became increasingly confused, and straining his faculties in his attempts to understand just what it was he was expected to say’ (page 42)
‘it was made clear that the “reactionary spy” who entered the prison must perish, and that in his place must arise a “new man,” resurrected in the Communist mold. Indeed Dr. Vincent still used the phrase, “To die and be reborn” – words which he had heard more than once during his imprisonment… Death and rebirth, even when symbolic, affect one’s entire being, but especially that part related to loyalties and beliefs, to the sense of being a specific person and at the same time being related to and part of groups of other people – or in other words, to one’s sense of inner identity.’ (page 66)
‘They were being forced to betray – not so much their friends and colleagues, as a vital core of themselves… Although there is a continuing tension between holding on and letting go, some degree of self-betrayal is quickly seen as a way to survival. But the more of one’s self one is led to betray, the greater is one’s involvement with his captors; for by these means they make contact with whatever similar tendencies already exist within the prisoner himself – with the doubts, antagonisms, and ambivalences which each of us carries beneath the surface of his loyalties.’ (page 69)
‘A sudden change in official attitude – the institution of leniency – supplies this relief. The unexpected show of kindness, usually occurring just when the prisoner is reaching his breaking point, breaks the impasse between him and the environment. He is permitted – even shown how – to achieve some degree of harmony with his outer world.’ (page 72)
‘Although this crisis occurs outside the thought reform milieu, it must be regarded as the final “step” in reform; it cannot be separated from what has gone before. The presence of this post-release identity crisis in virtually all of my Western subjects during the time of our interviews was what enabled them to describe so vividly the identity conflicts of their thought reform experiences.’ (page 84)
‘After his release, his “lost” appearance reflected both his emotional ad ideological confusion. Sometimes, like Vincent, he seemed to be longing for the security he had known in prison. At other times he would criticize the unfair practices of the Communists, but then temper his criticism, using the thought reform language’ (page 112)
‘Their common problems were mainly the result of the thought reform emotions they had shared; but they were also related to another heritage common to all these men, that of the Westerner in China.’ (page 222)
‘A second major emotional conflict for these men and women was the problem of separation. At first I was surprised when Western subjects, almost without exception, put as much emphasis on their sadness at being separated for China as on their conflicts over thought reform, and wondered if their doing so was a means of avoiding more disturbing emotions… They were clearly experiencing a “grief” reaction.’ (page 226)
‘The expatriate’s return then is a confrontation with elements of one’s identity which one has long denied, repressed, or modified beyond easy recognition. The Westerners had originally become expatriates only in relation to their own identity: the emotions which had led them to choose careers in China included a need to deny or repress, at least temporarily, portions of their heritage in the search for a newer synthesis.’ (page 228)
‘Nonetheless, thought reform can also produce a genuinely therapeutic effect. Western subjects consistently reported a sense of having been benefited and emotionally strengthened, of having become more sensitive to their own and other’s inner feelings, and more flexible and confident in human relationships.’ (page 238)
‘Many intellectuals said that their initial enthusiasm for Communism had given away to disillusionment. A lecturer in science warned the regime that things had gotten so bad that unless it gave up its “arrogant and conceited” attitudes, “the masses will bring you down, kill the Communists, and overthrow you”.’ (page 404)
‘Since many students had, according to Li, a “religious” belief in Communism’s perfection, their disillusion was “like that of a person with a sincere belief in God who suddenly discovers there is no God”.’ (page 407)
‘There the students set up a “Democratic Wall,” a large bulletin board devoted to criticism and protest. The wall space near the bulletin board was devoted to the same purpose, and, true to the horticultural metaphor, was called “The Garden of Democracy.” Students, individually or in groups, prepared sharp commentaries, satirical poems, cartoons and slogans.’ (page 408)
‘One external condition which encourages their expression is the release of environmental controls. This in turn leads to the breakdown of the individual’s defense mechanisms, particularly repression, which ordinarily keep resentment in check. Thus, liberalisation of the milieu can create a quick surge of resentment, which mounts until it is again forced underground by the restoration of a suppressive atmosphere. This leads to more hostility of suffocation, and thought reform is then on a treadmill of extremism.’ (page 411)
‘Another limitation in the effectiveness of thought reform is its dependency on the maintenance of a closed system of communication, on an idea-tight milieu control. If information from the outside which contradicts thought reform’s message breaks through this milieu control, it can also be a stimulus for resentment.’ (page 411)
‘thought reform cannot be conducted in a vacuum; milieu control can never be complete. The one-sided visions of thought reform are always threatened by the world without, a world which will neither live up to these visions nor cease to undermine them.’ (page 412)
‘This too is part of the Communist leaders’ own treadmill, since it means that they can neither achieve every wave of thought reform makes the next wave even more necessary. The stagers of thought reform are in this sense the victims of their own cult of enthusiasm.’ (page 413)
‘When we enquire into psychological themes, which may be grouped under the general heading of ideological totalism. By this ungainly phrase I mean to suggest the coming together of immoderate ideology with equally immoderate individual character traits – an extremist meeting ground between people and ideas.’ (page 419)
‘The most basic feature of the thought reform environment, the psychological current upon which all else depends, is the control of human communication. Through this milieu control the totalist environment seeks to establish domain over not only the individual’s communication with the outside … but also – in its penetration of his inner life’ (page 420)
‘Many things happe psychologically to one exposed to milieu control; the most basic is the disruption of balance between self and outside world. Pressured toward a merger of internal and external mileux, the individual encounters a profound threat to his personal autonomy. He is deprived of the combination of external information and inner reflection which anyone requires to test the realities of his environment and to maintain a measure of identity separate from it.’ (page 421)
‘When trust gives way to mistrust (or when trust has never existed) the higher purpose cannot serve as adequate emotional sustenance. The individual then responds to the manipulations through developing what I shall call the psychology of the pawn. Feeling himself unable to escape from forces more powerful than himself, he subordinates everything to adapting himself to them. He becomes sensitive to all kinds of cues, expert at anticipating environmental pressures, and skillsul in riding them in such a way that his psychological energies merge with the tide rather than turn painfully against himself. This requires that he participate actively in the manipulation of others, as well as in the endless round of betrayals and self-betrayals which are required.’ (Page 423)
‘once an individual person has experienced the totalist polarisation of good and evil, he has great difficulty in regaining a more balanced inner sensitivity to the complexities of human morality. For there is no emotional bondage greater than that of the man whose entire guilt potential – neurotic and existential – has become the property of ideological totalists.’ (page 425)
‘Confession is carried beyond its ordinary religious, legal, and therapeutic expressions to the point of becoming a cult in itself. There is the demand that one confess to crimes one has not committed, to sinfulness that is arbitrarily imposed. Such demands are made possible not only by the ubiquitous human tendencies toward guilt and shame but also by the need to give expression to these tendencies.’ (page 425)
‘The language of the totalist environment is characterised by the thought-terminating cliché. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorised and easily expressed. These become the start and finish of any ideological analysis. In thought reform, for instance, the phrase “bourgeois mentality” is used to encompass and critically dismiss ordinarily troublesome concerns like the quest for individual expression, the exploration of alternative ideas, and the search for perspective and balance in political judgements.’ (page 429)
‘The totalist environment, however, counters such “deviant” tendencies with the accusations that they stem entirely from personal “problems” (“thought problems” or “ideological” problems) derived from untoward earlier (“bourgeois”) influences.’ (page 432)
‘The message of coercion is: you must change and become what we tell you t become – or else. The threat embodied in the “or else” may be anything from death to social ostracism, any form of physical or emotional pain. The goal of naked coercion is to produce a cowed and demoralised follower.’ (438)
‘This open confrontation causes a questioning of identity rather than thought reform’s assault upon identity. It calls forth the most specifically human of faculties – introspection and symbolisation – rather than stunting these faculties by use of totalist coercion and dogma.’ (page 464)
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