Human Behaviour: "Criteria For Thought Reform"

Vercingetorix

Active member
What is this 'Criteria For Thought Reform'?

🙂As individuals, and as administrators, who are/or ought to be, responsible for communities of other individuals. We should therefore be highly knowledgeable of human behaviours, individually and collectively. The psychology, the sociology and much more.

I was reading this fascinating article by Dr. Robert J. Lifton earlier and wondered whether many fellow Xenforo Community members were also interested &/or knowledgeable on this subject matter?

Tbh I absolutely love reading, learning and discussing all matters of human behaviour.


•Intro from Dr. Robert J. Lifton's - 'Criteria For Thought Reform'

Any ideology -- that is, any set of emotionally-charged convictions about man and his relationship to the natural or supernatural world -- may be carried by its adherents in a totalistic direction. But this is most likely to occur with those ideologies which are most sweeping in their content and most ambitious or messianic in their claim, whether a religious or political organization. And where totalism exists, a religion, or a political movement becomes little more than an exclusive cult.

Seems he's alluding to what could essentially be defined as viral ideological infections, or similar doesn't it?

Here you will find a set of criteria, eight psychological themes against which any environment may be judged. In combination, they create an atmosphere which may temporarily energize or exhilarate, but which at the same time pose the gravest of human threats.

Sounds sketchy...

What kinds of environments though?

(a brief outline)

MILIEU CONTROL

The most basic feature is the control of human communication within an environment

Wouldn't that apply for all electronic/digital & other man-made communications technologies?

If the control is extremely intense, it becomes internalized control -- an attempt to manage an individual's inner communication

Sounds like when groups of individuals peer pressure isolated individuals into self-censoring don't it...

Control over all a person sees, hears, reads, writes (information control) creates conflicts in respect to individual autonomy

🤔...interesting.

Groups express this in several ways: Group process, isolation from other people, psychological pressure, geographical distance or unavailable transportation, sometimes physical pressure

Definitely not pleasant being on the receiving end. That's for damn sure.

Often a sequence of events, such as seminars, lectures, group encounters, which become increasingly intense and increasingly isolated, making it extremely difficult-- both physically and psychologically--for one to leave

Pretty much 'Grooming' aye(?)

Sets up a sense of antagonism with the outside world; it's "us against them"

It'd probably induce a persistent state of significant anxiety for the victim. An extremely serious form of torture.

Not too many people know, and I don't really talk about this in public often. As someone who lives with a severe anxiety disorder, I can confirm that this is an experience I would never wish upon any other.

A ceaseless waking nightmare.

Unfathomable for those who have not ever experienced it.

At some point ya just learn to live with it if lucky.

As if having to carry a crushing weight everywhere constantly...

...one benefit being that eventually ya end up built like a bricks-hit-house.

Closely connected to the process of individual change (of personality)

What do you think?
 
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