In the book by renowned American psychiatrist Joel Dimsdale, the evolution of a phenomenon that throughout the 20th and 21st centuries has remained at the intersection of politics, medicine, ideology, and science — brainwashing — is traced in detail. From medieval torture and religious conversion rituals to Pavlov’s experiments, LSD trials, isolation methods, and modern digital technologies, the author shows how approaches to controlling human consciousness have shifted across different historical contexts. Particular attention is given to Soviet, American, and North Korean practices, and to the involvement of intelligence agencies, scientists, the military, and religious movements.

The author critically examines the ideological myths surrounding brainwashing while also revealing how concepts of mind control have become increasingly embedded in modern technologies of mass influence. This is a book about dangerous tools of manipulation that continue to evolve, about the people who created them, and about the communities that became their testing grounds.

Translation by Andrii Ishchenko.

288 pages. Hard cover