The Manipulation of Human Behavior: Your Tax Dollars at Work

Brian Doherty | September 6, 2007

Speaking of "monstrous acts directed against human dignity," I've long been fascinated with the social-control-science of the cybernetics (and other) varieties that the government and some major private foundations were fascinated by in the postwar era.

Via Boing-Boing, here's a very interesting document of that era: the 1961 Wiley title The Manipulation of Human Behavior.

Boing-Boing's quick exegesis from Xeni Jardin's correspondent hombre sin nombre. An excerpt:

Based on the compelling title and the fact that just about every publication in the subject area cites it, you would then probably try to seek it out for yourself--only to discover that it has never been reprinted.

Then you'd find out a bit more: the book is a compilation of seven research reports, and funded at least in large part by the United States government. You can even track down the table of contents online, and your jaw may drop when you read the chapter titles:

* The Physiological State of the Interrogation Subject as it Affects Brain Function
* The Effects of Reduced Environmental Stimulation on Human Behavior: A Review
* The Use of Drugs in Interrogation
* Physiological Responses as a Means of Evaluating Information
* The Potential Uses of Hypnosis in Interrogation
* The Experimental Investigation of Interpersonal Influence
* Countermanipulation through Malingering

These articles were written by the people who were paid by the US government, mostly in the 1950s, to research brainwashing and interrogation techniques by giving people drugs, placing them under sensory deprivation, hypnotizing them, etc. etc....

Access to the full text.

A review essay from me back in May 2003 touching on some of the milder aspects of research into the control and manipulation of opinion, thought, and behavior.