Brainwash: The Secret History of Mind Control - Paperback

by Dominic Streatfeild (Author)

Vivid and disturbing, Brainwash is essential insight into the modern practice of interrogation and torture.

With access to formerly classified documentation and interviews from the CIA, U.S. Army, MI5, MI6, and British Intelligence Corps, Dominic Streatfeild traces the evolution of mind control from its origins in the Cold War to the height of today's war on terror.

Behind the front lines of every war in the world, prisoners are forced to sit for interrogation: manipulated, coerced, and sometimes tortured--often without ever being touched. Brainwash is a history of the methods intended to destroy and reconstruct the minds of captives, to extract information, convert dissidents, and lead peaceful men to kill and be killed.

Front Jacket

What would it take to turn you" into a suicide bomber?"
"How would" you" interrogate a member of Al Qaeda?"
With access to formerly classified documentation and interviews from the CIA, the U.S. Army, MI5, MI6, and the British Intelligence Corps, acclaimed journalist Dominic Streatfeild traces the history of the world's most secret psychological procedure.
From the cold war to the height of today's war on terror, groups as dissimilar as armies, religious cults, and advertising agencies have been accused of brainwashing. But what does this mean?
Is it possible to erase memories or to implant them artificially? Do heavy-metal records contain subliminal messages? Do religious cults brainwash recruits? What were the CIA and MI6 doing with LSD in the 1950s? How far have the world's militaries really gone?
From the author of the definitive history of cocaine," ""Brainwash" is required reading in an era of cutting-edge and often controversial interrogation practices. More than just an examination of the techniques used by the CIA, the KGB, and the Taliban," ""it" is also a gripping, full history of the heated efforts to master the elusive, secret techniques of mind control. Praise for "Brainwash"
" Meticulously researched and superbly readable . . . acutely observed . . . evenhanded and even-tempered." "--The Daily Telegraph" (UK)
" A gripping survey of the post-war history of interrogation techniques." --"Telegraph on Sunday" (UK)
" Vivid . . . Streatfeild does an important service by bringing [brainwashing] to our attention again. It is especially relevant in the light of AbuGhraib and the war on terror." "--Financial Times "(UK)
" Breathless . . . reads like a spy thriller." "--The Guardian "(UK)
" Gripping." "--Time Out "(UK)
" Marvelously engrossing. This book is a series of wonderfully detailed and cleverly told stories, each of which debunks the brainwashing myth. Streatfeild's narrative control cannot be faulted. His research is formidable." "--Sunday Times "(UK)

Author Biography

Dominic Streatfeild is a writer and documentary filmmaker. His television work includes the Discovery Channel's series Age of Terror, which examined the roots of political violence. Airing in over 150 countries, Age of Terror featured interviews with members of eighteen terrorist groups, including FARC, the IRA, the Shining Path, and Hezbollah, and won a British Broadcast Award in 2003. He is the author of Cocaine, which the Sunday Times (UK) described as a definitive history