Milieu control is a term popularized by psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton to describe tactics that control environment and human communication through the use of social pressure and group language.[1] This includes tactics such as dogma, protocols, innuendo, slang, and pronunciation, which enables group members to identify other members, or to promote cognitive changes in individuals. Lifton originally used "milieu control" to describe brainwashing and mind control, but the term has since been applied to other contexts.[2]
Background
editMilieu control involves the control of communication within a group environment, that also may (or may not) result in a significant degree of isolation from surrounding society. When non-group members, or outsiders, are considered or potentially labeled as less valuable without basis for stated group-supported and group-reinforced prejudice, group members may have a tendency to then consider themselves as intellectually superior, which can limit alternate points of view, thus becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy in which group members automatically begin to devalue others and the intellect of others that are separate from their group, without logical rationale for doing so. Additionally, Milieu control "includes other techniques to restrict members' contact with the outside world and to be able to make critical, rational, judgments about information."[3][4]
See also
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References
edit- ^ Taylor, Kathleen (27 July 2006). Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control. OUP Oxford. ISBN 978-0-19-920478-6.
- ^ A Bandura. 1982. The psychology of chance encounters and life paths. American Psychologist, Vol. 37 No. 7, July 1982
- ^ Dr. Lifton, Robert J.Thought Reform: Milieu Control Archived 2006-10-20 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on August 24, 2008. www.ferozegolwalla.com.
- ^ Phelan, John M. (1969). Communications Control: Readings in the Motives and Structures of Censorship. Sheed and Ward. ISBN 978-0-8362-0273-1.
External links
edit- "Robert Jay Lifton's eight criteria of thought reform as applied to the Executive Success Programs", (2013-10-03)
- Attacks on Peripheral versus Central Elements of Self and the Impact of Thought Reforming Technique at the Wayback Machine (archived 2002-11-04)
- Cognitive Impairment in Thought Reform Environments at the Wayback Machine (archived 2011-05-14)
- International Cultic Studies Association
