Brainwashing is a term used to describe the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. It is also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education. Brainwashing is said to reduce a persons ability to think critically or independently, to allow the introduction of new, unwanted thoughts and ideas into their minds, as well as to change their attitudes, values, and beliefs. The term "brainwashing" was first used in English by Edward Hunter in 1950 to describe how the Chinese government appeared to make people cooperate with them during the Korean War.

During the Korean War, Korean and Chinese captors reportedly brainwashed American POWs held in prison camps. However, there are psychologists who say the apparent conversion of American POWs during that particular war was the result of psychological experiments and torture techniques used to extract confessions and information, not "brainwashing". In fact, most POWs in the Korean War were not converted to communism at all, which leads to the question of reliability: is brainwashing a system that produces similar results across cultures and personality types, or does it hinge primarily on the targets susceptibility to influence? .

Brainwashing is a systematic effort to persuade nonbelievers to accept a certain allegiance, command, or doctrine. The techniques of brainwashing typically involve isolation from former associates and sources of information; an exacting regimen requiring absolute obedience and humility; strong social pressures and rewards for cooperation. The nature of brainwashing as it occurred in communist political prisons received widespread attention after the Chinese Communist victory in 1949 and after the Korean and Vietnamese wars. More recently, its reported use in fringe religious cults and radical political groups has aroused concern in the United States. Deprogramming, or reversing the effects of brainwashing through intensive psychotherapy and confrontation, has proved somewhat effective.

The term "brainwashing" had multiple definitions that changed depending on who used it. For example, for Edward Hunter, who turned out to be an agent in the CIA’s propaganda wing, it was a mystical, Oriental practice that couldn’t be understood or anticipated by the West. But for scientists who actually studied the American POWs once they returned from Korea, brainwashing was altogether less mysterious than the readily apparent outcome: The men had been tortured. The concept began as an Orientalist propaganda fiction created by the CIA to mobilize domestic support for a massive military build-up. This fiction proved so effective that the CIA’s operations directorate believed it and bega...