Gray Hall II: Interlude #1

INTERLUDE #1: I DON'T THINK, THEREFORE I AM IN A CULT
It is important to understand that destructive mind control can be determined when the overall effect...promotes dependency and obedience to some leader or cause. . . . Mind controlled cult members can live in their own apartments, have nine-to-five jobs, be married with children, and still be unable to think for themselves and act independently.
--Steven Hassan, Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves

"Brainwashing" is not an English term, but instead, comes from Mandarin Chinese. The original phrase, x¹ naú literally translates into "to wash brain." When converted into an English equivalent, one gets the term "brainwashing." The term came into the English language during the Korean War by journalist Edward Hunter.
According to the American Heritage College Dictionary, Third Edition, the term brainwashing is defined as follows:

"1. Intensive, forcible indoctrination aimed at replacing a person's basic convictions with an alternative set of beliefs.
2. The application of a concentrated means of persuasion in order to develop a specific belief or motivation."

Robert Lifton, a psychiatrist who was one of the first researchers to interview former prisoners of war, prefers the term "thought reform" instead of "brainwashing." Dr. Lifton considers the term brainwashing to be filled with misconceptions. He likes the term "thought reform." Currently, academics in this field use the terms "coercive persuasion," "coercive psychological systems," or "coercive influence" instead of brainwashing. Dr. Margaret Singer, an expert in mind control and cults, as well as a professor emeritus at the University of California at Berkeley, uses the term coercive psychological systems. Dr. Singer defines coercive psychological systems as "behavioral change programs which use psychological force in a coercive way to cause the learning and adoption of an ideology or designated set of beliefs, ideas, attitudes, or behaviors." In essence, this is an elaboration of the term brainwashing.
The basic strategy of any effective behavioral change program, whether destructive or constructive, is to effectively and systematically use various techniques over a long period of time. The subject of this program is forced to take small steps so they can adapt to these influences. Ideally, these steps are so small and so tiny that the subject is unaware of these subtle changes. The subject will not be consciously aware of these changes to themself or to the inherently coercive nature of these tactics.
In additon to being unaware of the changes to themself and the coercive nature of these tactics, the subject is unaware of the purpose of these changes. The organization wants the subject to become mindless, to only follow what the organization wants them to do. Ideally, the subject has lost most, if not all of their critical thinking skills. Instead of making decisions based upon their own free will and the merit of the idea or proposition presented to the individual, the organization's method of decision making takes over. The cult decides.

There are many models and theories on destructive mind control, the coercive persuasion that fuels destructive cults. Two of these models are explained below, though abbreviated to give a rough understanding of each. One can find a full explanation from other sources.
Steven Hassan has his BITE (Behavior, Information, Thought, Emotional) Model which is considered a general standard for mind control models. In the BITE model, a cult or any organization wishing for complete psychological control attacks these four components. Not every element needs to be attacked, but the overall effect on the four components must be sufficient to promote dependency and obedience to the cult's/organization's leader.
Dr. Singer describes the six conditions for mind control as well as several techniques destructive cults use to persuade recruits. This process is systematic. The subject's mind is forced to think about the group at all times. Once this seed is planted, the recruit feels powerless and the new behaviors are slowly implanted. Rewards and punishments are manipulated to suppress old behaviors while reinforcing the cult's approved behaviors. This system is very elaborate and during the entire process, the subject is unaware of being manipulated.
All of these models repeatedly stress that cults use simple techniques to psychologically manipulate the minds of their recruits. These simple techniques are used by others. For instance, Dr. Phillip Zimbardo in his article What Messages are Behind Today's Cults?, states the following:

"A remarkable thing about cult mind control is that it's so ordinary in the tactics and strategies of social influence employed. They are variants of well-known social psychological principles of compliance, conformity, persuasion, dissonance, reactance, framing, emotional manipulation, and others that are used on all of us daily to entice us: to buy, to try, to donate, to vote, to join, to change, to believe, to love, to hate the enemy."

Or this from Cults in our Midst by Dr. Singer. In Chapter Seven of this book, Dr. Singer talks about commonly used psychological persuasion techniques. One of them is peer pressure and modeling, a technique that many people use:

"We look around and see models, and we comport ourselves to be like them. Most cults train new members either overtly stated policies or by more implicit shaping, to act in ways desired by the group.
Peer pressure is an effective means to get people to fit their behavior to group norms. In cults, this works for new and old members alike, going far beyond what is generally seen in society at large. In an atmosphere that states or implies that there is only one way to be this is it, it is most important to have models around to imitate."

There are numerous persuasion techniques used by cults, so many that the exact number of techniques is unknown. Experts are in dispute on what exactly is a specific technique or a variation of another one. They are very effective. Some commonly used techniques are shown below. The full list is on the Mind Control Techniques Used by Cults webpage located at www.pcrn.org:

"Change Of Diet- Use of special (i.e., nutrient poor) diet to increase susceptibility to emotional arousal, create disorientation, and increase susceptibility.
Confusing Doctrine - Use of complex lectures and hard-to-understand terms to encourage blind acceptance and reject logic.
...
Guilt, Secrecy, Fear - Induction of uncertainty, fear, confusion, with joy and certainty through surrender to the group as a goal
Isolation - Inducing loss of reality by physical separation from family, friends, society, and rational references. Meetings may be conducted far from your home.
...
No Questions - Unquestionable authority
Peer Group Pressure - Suppressing doubt and resistance to new ideas by exploiting the strong need to belong.
...
Sleep Deprivation and Fatigue - Creating disorientation and vulnerability by prolonging mental and physical activity without adequate rest and sleep."

Why would anyone join a cult? What drives a person to consider the cult's influence much more appealing than society in general? Dr. Zimbardo examines this question and others in What Messages are Behind Today's Cults? Not one type of person voluntarily joins a cult. In fact, people from every demographic group--age, sex, race, occupation, plus many others--are cult members. Anyone is a potential cult member which makes the cult so scary. It's that fact--it could be you, your family member, your next door neighbor could be a member--which scares people. Under the right conditions, even you could be a member of a cult like Heaven's Gate, Aum Shurinko, or a host of others.
So, why do people voluntarily join? What drives seemingly normal, intelligent, average people to commit acts that they normally would not do? Dr. Zimbardo posits the following:

"Imagine being part of a group in which you will find instant friendship, a caring family, respect for your contributions, an identity, safety, security, simplicity, and an organized daily agenda. You will learn new skills, have a respected position, gain personal insight, improve your personality and intelligence. There is no crime or violence and your healthy lifestyle means there is no illness.
Your leader may promise not only to heal any sickness and foretell the future, but give you the gift of immortality, if you are a true believer. In addition, your group's ideology represents a unique spiritual/religious agenda (in other cults it is political, social or personal enhancement) that if followed, will enhance the Human Condition somewhere in the world or cosmos."

And who would fall for such a seemingly perfect vision? A lot of people, a whole lot of people. What if the offer was made by a person that we trusted like friends and family? What if it was made in a setting that felt safe? What if we had needs that were being unfulfilled in some deeper way that society just can't? We all have felt this way in one way or another. Cults offer this dream utopia. Cults promise that they can fulfill these needs.
It seems to be a simple solution to a complex problem. You follow a simple path of following the rules that we make. Give us, the cult, every single freedom you have and in return, you will gain happiness, salvation, and success. But this is an illusion of security and glory. It seems to be a "win-win" situation where both sides win, but the cult member loses. Today's society with all of it's problems--fear of crime, fear of environmental apocalypse, fear of being poor, fear of everything collapsing--drives the cult to more and more people. All of this change seems crazy. All of these fears make the world seem like it is falling deeper and deeper into chaos. People cannot believe anything. Everything is suspect. Then the cult steps in with it's constant choir of salvation. An eternal rock in a sea of chaos. And people will follow.

What does this have to do with law school? Surely, law school is not a cult. That is an absolutely correct statement. The problem, however, is that law shcool uses these techniques and the comparison between the two is not all that surprising. Jeff Schmidt writes about the similarities between cult indoctrination and graduate school programs. Both cults and graduate school programs make big promises of increased power and independence. Both involve milieu control such as a lack of outside social life, little time for actual personal reflection, and large amounts of dense reading and large amounts of memorization. Both say that joining and following every rule is the only chance for salvation.
Look at what law school promises. Once you get through all of the hoops, once you pass a seemingly endless series of tests, you will become a lawyer. And, as a lawyer, you will be an influence in the world. The law is a moral compass. By understanding the law (as we define the law), you will be able to cure the ills of society. You can make a change in society, as long as you follow what we say. Just pay us large sums of money, learn the language we want you to learn, and these other little things, and you will succeed. You will be a beacon of light.
Then they discover the grim reality. Law school promises such great things, but the promises are moot. Ethical double standards abound. Law and justice are two different things. It may be sad, but oh well, you have to learn it. Law school and the entire process destroys you mentally and physically. The end result is not what you wanted or expected.
But the most important similarity between law school and cults is the selection process. Both cults and law school use tests to weed out the proverbial bad apples. These tests do not select people who are creative or have actual knowledge. These tests, however, prefer students who excel at rote memory, speed, and close interpretation of text. The successful student like the ideal cult member, shares the same ideological values and thereby "excels" in law school. They will jump through any hoop tossed in their path. These hoops gradually guide the members into a certain mindset, one that is the ideological ideal.
When the testing and the psychological persuasion techniques are combined with the subtle undermining of self-esteem, the subject is primed and ready for total conversion. The messages are repeated over and over again. Next comes the high expectations. But the law school, just like the cult, is ready. They show "compassion" by telling the recruit that they have the potential to be successful. Meet our expectation and you will succeed. You will be another success...as long as you follow our rules and do what we want you to do. Do it or you will fail.
And the final result? Distress and dysfunction. Disassociation. In essence, they become people who are broken versions of what they used to be. People claiming to be happy, but are sad inside. It is no wonder that people talk about their frustration, how they wanted to leave but do not. It is no surprise that people claim that law school, just like cult victims, destroyed (nearly destroyed) all their ideal notions.

Although this quote describes the medical school experience, it seems apt for law school and graduate school in general. Dr. Ware wrote an article called "Professional Development of Medical Students" in the journal Academic Medicine. See volume 72, pages 1056-1062. Law school, like medical school "promotes such fact grubbing and hypercompetitiveness that the goals of caring for anything other than grades and class rank are often lost in the medical school scramble."
There is a solution to the cult problem. People change society to come up with solutions that solve many of the problems that cults claim they have a solution for. By doing this, the appeal of a cult is weakened so that destructive cults hopefully die away. Solutions without deception, without distortion, without the potential for destruction.

Law school. A process of indoctrination or an education? You decide.