Though the question sounds very narrow, I am actually trying to explore a theme. I was reading in a book about Brainwashing about how the Chinese Communists or Christian priests were trying to brainwash people who didn’t believe in their ideology. Protestants trying to convenience Catholics and vice versa. Kidnappers being successful in brainwashing Patty Hearst who being a victim of Kidnapping herself, went on to rob a bank for her captors willingly as she had now believed in their ideology. etc.,.
So, I was wondering, has brainwashing ever worked in reverse where a person who is supposed to be a victim of brainwashing manages to outfox their captors and manages to change the mind of their captors or break free? Maybe a protestant priest managed to convert a catholic priest? You get the theme.
Anna Kendrick’s recent movie Woman of the Hour had a situation like that. Turns out, based on a real story when a victim of the Dating Game Killer tricked him into a situation in which she could escape.
I don’t know if it’s exactly what you want but A Las Vegas boy sang gospel songs for 3 hours straight until his kidnappers brought him back back in 2014
How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like him!
Such an oddly specific situation… Welp, I’m entertained either way!
Thomas Curnow ingratiated himself with the Ned Kelly gang and was allowed to roam freely, after which he escaped and warned about the gang’s plan to wreck the police train.
He technically didn’t brainwash them into setting him free. He convinced the pirates to double his ransom and to let him walk free around the camp, where he often and loudly told them that he would come back and have them all killed, once his ransom was paid and they let him go. Then he did exactly that.
He did somehow convince them into letting him do all of this things though, and according to the source, it was because they thought he was just a weird harmless guy. So yeah. I guess not brainwash. Definitely trolled the shit out of them though
I’m not sure you could exactly call it brainwashing but Josefina Rivera was able to gain the trust of her abductor enough that he let her visit her family. As soon as she was free she called the police which led to his arrest and the freeing of the other abductees.
Lima syndrome
Is this the syndrome that lemmy users have?
Is the Lima syndrome like ligma?
Who is Steve Jobs?
It’s Joe.
Mlohkcots syndrom?
Radiolab has a great episode about Stockholm Syndrome, and how what we think we know is wrong.
I think Benedict Cumberbatch got carjacked/kidnapped. But they let him go cus he was so annoying
Julius Caesar
What book is that? Brainwashing basically is not a real thing, so I advise you to check who the author is. (By the sound of it, I have my money on a prominant Christian)
I don’t think they mean brainwashing like a scientific technique to wipe your mind, but their are countless examples of a person in a cult or church or radical group where the constant bombardment of propeganda and apparent correctness ( by number of believers ) alters the persons belief system.
There’s a history of it meaning some kind of magical personality replacement thing, though. IIRC it was a Cold War excuse for why US soldiers defected sometimes. Cults exist, but the techniques they use to pressure people are a lot more mundane and take time to really take root.
Edit: Yup. More info here.
The book’s name itself is Brainwashing, it’s written by a non-christian. But since she was taking examples from history and European history is rife with turf wars between different flavors of Christianity, that might have seem to be the prime example
Ah, thank you. Here’s the Wikipedia.
It sounds like she takes a more expansive view of what constitutes it.
A good guess. I’m not sure how Evangelical he is, but he sounds like a fellow traveler having worked with Reagan and inflicted abuse on people from other faith groups.
I said a Christian author just because most people are over the Protestant vs. Catholic thing, and Chinese communists are a particular favourite bugbear of theirs.
