Battle for the Mind [Paperback]

As well as being a practising psychiatrist, William Sargant was a Minister of Religion for the Congregationalist Church (as it was then). I heard him preach when he was an old - but still charismatic - man. I saw for myself how greatly he was loved. Perhaps it was because he was loved that he could quietly institute an evil, while being trusted as doctors are. The subtitle of 'Battle for the Mind' - 'A Physiology of Conversion and Brain-Washing' - gives a clue to the fact that this book combines Sargent's two great interests, psychiatry and religion. In tandem with Cameron, his intention is to restate in medical terms the fruits of a careful study of the methods of evangelical, and even of African religions, in order that psychiatrists might take over and develop the 'science' of brainwashing. Occasionally, he says as much. In his opinion, "if a simple medical means of breaking up chronic obsessions is ever discovered, one of the final weapons will have been forged for the armoury of the religious and political conversion practitioners." (Emphasis added.) Away from Sargant, the term employed was 'depatterning' rather than the populist 'brainwashing,' but the euphemism was no more scientific. What mattered in those days was authority and not science. Sargant depended on it. In 1951, Sargant and Slater had stated, "...methods of treatment are discussed which have no adequate theoretical basis. Theoretical notions that now no longer gain much credence often led their discoverers. The reason why these methods are still used is because they are actually found to work."

('Physical Methods of Treatment in Psychiatry,' British Medical Journal, June 9, 1951) In wartime Britain, Sargant was an influential authority, at the forefront when it came to advising on the best ways to deal with battle trauma. He helped to get ECT machines humming across the land, ostensibly to treat shell shock, and he was keen on psychosurgery too. Anyone seeking insights into the thinking behind the psychiatric treatment of war casualties would find Chapters 2 and 3 revealing, if somewhat garbled in places. It is possible some of the reality behind the words was experimentation, as a hidden agenda of which he approved motivated the militarily inclined Sargant - that the West should develop mind control before the Russians and Chinese did.

It is clear from the book that a lot of the reality was, in Sargant's eyes, treatment for mental distress. He suggests cures occur with the physical physiological techniques, including ECT, "when states of excitement produced in the brain go on to reach the phase of protective inhibition and collapse." In fact the roots of this particular appreciation came not from religion but from Pavlov whose experiments on dogs led him to certain conclusions respecting cortical inhibition. Sargant becomes obscure discussing the intricacies of "transmarginal inhibition," which unfortunately makes the opening chapter heavy going. He also sees psychological 'brainwashing' techniques as abreactive - releasing, and in this connection he does kid himself, for he goes on to admit "Suggestibility in many can be enhanced...by repeated abreaction." Sargant acknowledges that inducing suggestibility is a brainwashing technique, stating, "The mechanism of increasing states of suggestibility will be discussed repeatedly...; since this is one of the means of indoctrinating ordinary people both religiously and politically."

Hopefully it will be discerned that this is a dense work in a rambling style and the reader is required to engage with the text if s/he is to gain maximum benefit. However, this is a seminal work for the understanding of the history of psychiatric theory and practice and deserves recognition as such.

Battle for the Mind contains a good scientific review and sufficient information from religeous history to convince me it is correct; its validity is further enhanced by the fact that the methods work. There is no point in shooting the messenger; if the facts are correct, describing them is not sinful.

There seems to be little interest in the viewpoint expressed by W Sargant in the general public, which is unfortunate and dangerous. Knowledge is not itself a danger, what is done with it is critical.

The book needs to be widely read and understood because the manipulation of the mind by cults or evil regimes can be better understood once the knowledge has been acquired. This is surely the point of knowledge and this book joins the (short) list of books that have charged my way of seeing the world.

I recommend it to anyone who wants to understand how the world really works, rather than dream about how they would like it to work.