24threeminds

In three minds

By John Soderlund

Psychology's had a questionable relationship with the general public for decades. Ask why and, if you can sift through the platitudinous apologetics, you'd probably find its about the irrational fear that many people harbour about the capacity of psychologists for insight into and manipulation of the thoughts and feelings of the average Joe Citizen.

You may find that assuring people of the falsity of the assumption doesn't lead them to linger any longer over their cocktail alongside the stranger they have just discovered is a shrink.

And, to be fair, mind control has been part of our professional agenda often enough to understand why it's not so easy to dismiss the fears of cocktail party-goers out of hand.

Mind control 101

B. F. Skinner, perhaps the archetypal proponent of the capacity for controlling thoughts and behaviours, was unashamed about it. So unashamed that he set about raising his daughter, Debbie, in a Skinner Box, a small box in which the stimuli could be carefully controlled to engineer the kind of daughter he thought he most wanted.

Skinner's assertion, both theoretical and in the dispatch of his daughter to the Skinner Box, was that:

"... it should be possible to design a world in which behavior likely to be punished seldom or never occurs. We try to design such a world for those who cannot solve the problem of punishment for themselves, such as babies, retardates, or psychotics, and if it could be done for everyone, much time and energy would be saved." (Skinner, 1971)

Debbie Skinner took her own life at the age of 20.

But some way from the efforts of Skinner, a landmark book, first released in 1969, had also been annexing some of the mind control turf as a psychological domain. Zimbardo and Ebbesen's (1969) Influencing Attitudes and Changing Behaviour was a most convincing and thorough early attempt to delineate the parameters of what most powerfully influenced the attitudes of people.

But even that far back, Zimbardo and Ebbesen were well aware of the potential implications of their work:

"We are avoiding any editorializing about the moral or ethical value of any of these practical approaches to changing attitudes and behavior. They exist in our lives and are in constant use, to the advantage of some people and to the possible detriment of others. Those who object to these methods must first understand how and why they are so effective." (p 113)

Deprogramming the programmed

Arguably those who most insistently claimed to understand the machinations of mind control are what are referred to as exit counselors, deprogrammers, anti-cult counselors and mind control experts.

They abound on the internet and seem to work up against the thin membrane between alleged cult-like organisations and family members who'd like to see their kin out of what they perceive to be a dangerous place.

Steve Hassan is a good example. He began his "apprenticeship" in the late 1970's with a self-professed religious adherence to the teachings of Sun Myung Moon, the South Korean leader of the Unification Church. As a prominent and upwardly mobile member of the church, he was a vigourous and committed fundraiser.

Shortly after his departure from the Moonies, his anti-cult feelings now on the boil, Hassan turned his sights on the Church of Scientology, which he has charged exists primarily for unholy profit.

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