Battle for the Mind: A Physiology of Conversion and Brainwashing
Author: William Sargant
List Price: $19.00
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ISBN: 1883536065
Publisher: Malor Books (October, 1997)
Sales Rank: 28,956
Average Customer Rating: 4.85 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
One of the best!
This is one of very few books that I have read twice, and like several previous reviewers it would be very high on my list of essential reads. The first time I read it was soon after it was published. I was in my late teens, and it was a friend's recommendation. It made little immediate impact on me, but as time when by its resonance gave me insights into life changing incidences that I saw in others and myself (religious conversion, career changes, etc.).The book is a clear exposition of those mechanisms for growth adaptations (or changes) within all our personalities, how these changes occur naturally, and how they can be artificially induced. He also discusses techniques that can inhibit the natural mechanisms for change.
I read it again 10 years ago to regain some insight into several intelligent and capable friends that, although hating their work, appeared to have had their ability for change inhibited by their use of soft drugs.
This book has a curiously positive unanimity amongst its reviewers, could we have been brainwashed :-)
I am pleased that it is back in print and feel almost honour bound to buy a copy (I borrowed it previously from our local lending library)
Rating: 5 out of 5
Lists in my top 3 lifetime books: a must for self-knowledge
For anyone who has questioned 'what is me' and 'what has been put into my brain', this book (first published in 1959) is the par-excellence guide to religio/political indoctrination. Read it and challenge your faith, your political views, your very self. But, after the challenge emerge from the test as a more fuller 'you'. A more aware self. If 'to know thyself' is the most important aspect of life, then this book is the most important guidebook I have ever read. It can get technical. It can get disruptive in terms of belief. However, belief is what we take into ourselves, freely - not what is pumped into us by others. In my view,The Bible, The Life of Edgar Cayce and 'The Battle for the Mind' are the most important books I have ever read. I am glad to see this book back in print, happy for all the people who can now access, again, this superb revelation of the mind, it's processes and it's infinite ability to overcome the challenges of living and believing.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Battle for the mind
This book belongs on every bookshelf. Though, at times a little too technical for the lay readers, but the stuff inside are important for us to understand how people's belief patterns and behavior throughout life are susceptible to change by techniques employed by many professionals and establishments. This is a book that will be read and read over again. Similar Products
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