Techniky brainwashingu využívané pracovníky Státní bezpečnosti a jejich následky [Brainwashing Techniques Used by Officers of the State Security and the Consequences of These]

Pages

5-12

Citation

PINEROVÁ, Klára. Techniky brainwashingu využívané pracovníky Státní bezpečnosti a jejich následky [Brainwashing Techniques Used by Officers of the State Security and the Consequences of These]. Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae – Historia. Prague: National Museum, 2016, 70(3-4), 5-12. ISSN 2570-6845 (print), 2570-6853 (online). Also available from: https://www.nm.cz/en/periodicals/amnph/70-3-4/techniky-brainwashingu-vyuzivane-pracovniky-statni-bezpecnosti-a-jejich-nasledky-brainwashing-techniques-used-by-officers-of-the-state-security-and-the-consequences-of-these

Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae – Historia | 2016/70/3-4

After 1948 the offices of the State Security used various methods of both psychological and physical coercion in order to force anyone accused to sign a confession and learn the defendant’s deposition, later recited in court. The present article aims to point out that the investigators’ intention was also to force the arrested person to change their previous views on their “subversive” activities to the extent they themselves would perceive them as harmful and hostile. If the accused person adopted the views the investigators were trying to put in their mind, the probability that they would not deviate from the prepared script in court was higher. Another consequence of these methods was the changes in the personality of the accused person. The present article not only analyses and assesses in terms of the foreign psychological research the methods used by the State Security, it also explains the individual psychological stages of the interrogated, for instance the split personality, washing away one’s personality and creating a new one, the Stockholm syndrome and so forth. The article focuses primarily on the experiences of the former communist party’s prominent members.

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