"Total War" Ideology- Psychological Warfare

The Psychological element of warfare has almost as long a history as the history of warfare itself, as the dynamic of submission and the disabling of ability to conduct warfare and resist is a main goal of war itself. It is with this broader view and goal that the practice of torture is aimed.

An informal general introduction to different elements of psych. warfare could be found in a variety of publications on peripheral topics. These elements were found in editions in the 1990's of 'The Art of War', 'On War' by Clauswitz, 'The Gulag Archipelago'- which enumerated interrogation and torture techniques, 'The Body in Pain' by Elaine Scarry, and even 'How to Master the Art of Selling' by Tom Hopkins. Of course Naomi Klein's 'The Shock Doctrine' deals with elements as well, as do movies that deal with the holocaust- like 'Schindler's List', 'Sophie's Choice', and even 'The Mission'.

A few processes:

In 'The Body in Pain' edition read in the 1990's, Scarry performed an analysis of torture, and noted that the most effective torturers in WWII used everyday objects as instruments to deliver pain, so as to dismantle over time the recipients built-up normal trust in those objects in later experiences. Scarry also noted the torturer's use of the body itself- muscle processes, sleep deprivation etc.. to defeat the sense of control that the recipient even had over their own body. Scarry termed the goal with respect to the individual recipient- "the unmaking of the world" of the recipient.

In 'Schindler's List', the commandant and the guards use random and constant acts of violence in order to serially defeat the recipient's sense of reason, one of our most primary means of sense of safety- our deeply rooted operative faith that we can use our intelligence to figure out "what to do" to stay safe. A variation of this is for the practitioner to give repeated negative physical feedback to the every "response" or "change in response" of a recipient. Call this variation the "everything you try is wrong" technique, with the goal of getting the recipient to question their own intelligence and capability.

More modern research showed that the use and provocation of emotional cycles- anger, sadness, fear, happiness, doubt, sympathy, and especially fatigue- were used to provoke the physiological reactions that come with decision making to effect the cooperation wanted from the recipient. (Hopkins- 'Buying decisions' are emotional).

Cognitive science researchers in the 1980's were interested in the physiological mapping of the different processes that produce emotional states- like the electrical impulses initiated in the brain that trigger the release of endorphins in running, and adrenaline in fear. Nanotech advances in medicine with valves and catheter insertion in invasive medical procedures now could be used in devices targeted to these control centers in the brain and elsewhere to actually cause a reasonably close re-creation of an "emotional state" in an unwitting subject. Perhaps it goes on in China as we speak.

These produced internal affective stimuli can then be utilized in combination with external stimuli, including the use of appeals targeting the thinking processes and patterns of the subjects- in false appeals to induce bargaining. This is done with a short term goal of incremental change, while it works toward the larger goal of behavior wanted.

Modern communication technology and the use of deception to get others to unwittingly cooperate, could actually be used by tyrants to utilize the voices and presence of loved ones and friends as delivery vehicles of psychological warfare. Anecdotal evidence has been related that this also goes on in China.

The production of "trauma" in different types of torture is specifically designed to implement a type of human brain "software virus"- to use the memory of the recipient to relive the event and the psychological effects over and over again long after the event has been physically experienced.

Significant breakthroughs in the 80's have found that recipients who themselves approach these events as pscyh. warfare, and fight each and every one of them- merely mentally- can withstand continuous events with negligible or no effect. These breakthroughs found that the normal "grieving" processes that occur after a normal event of emotional loss and minor trauma are actually, in major trauma, as harmful or more to the recipient as the physical event itself. This is because normal grieving processes allow and provide release of tension for the end of an isolated or rare event, where because of memory, trauma is a "continously recurring" event.

With major trauma it doesn't work that way, and the focus on "how one feels emotionally" is useless. This was depicted on an episode of Dr. Phil. This is because memory studies show that traumatic events are remembered best and longest because of the release of adrenaline, and because they are then relived. Because of this the effects of lack of control and debasement of being the subject of the attack, are "reimplemented" and reinforced by the memory itself over and over again.

It was discovered that the most effective way to combat torture, if one is a subject, was to fight the "trauma" mentally at the point of the event(it can't be stopped or controlled, but how one feels about it can) by mentally attacking all acts, conditions, noises and practitioners...as mere LIES etc., while simultaneously NOT ALLOWING the feeling of "debasement", "shame"...etc. Afterward subjects actually prompted the memory of the event repeatedly while fighting it mentally in order to "disarm" the effect of memory. Once this was accomplished, simple image replacement with event association triggers- sounds, etc- with images positive to one's life- completely disarmed the triggers and actually over time worked repetitively in favor of the recipient.

Of course the "Sophie's Choice" technique has already been discussed on this blog. It is conceivable then to extend that technique to a type of "collective Sophie's Choice" that could be used to attempt to convince a subject that had little real authority of the false appearance that he/she then had control over, and was saving a multitude of lives by agreeing to participate in the death of hundreds or more- as depicted in the decision of the Cardinal to sacrifice South American Jesuits in 'The Mission'.

Fraud statistics show that the most effective scam device is “easy money”, and that the 2nd most effective scam device is to immediately approach the victim of a fraud with the false promise “pay just this and I'll get your money back”.

The most effective mental counter-tactics to psychological warfare/torture by those who experienced the least effects were: 1) The ability to identify the tactic at work being experienced, neutralizing the effect of the common "experience" of the tactic by locating the source in the intent of the practitioner; 2) Understanding the basic TRUTH of human identity- that an individual is the sum total of his or her own ACTS and the intentions that formed them. This review is only performed ONCE by the recipient- it does not need to be sold as it is already established AS TRUTH in the FACTS of the individual's life; 3) Therefore the ugliness associated with the particular experience being utilized as a tactic is NOT the Recipient's, but the practitioner's; and 4) the more control one utilizes over the images/sounds being received, the better the environment produced.

It is in these senses, when put together, that the powers of mental concentration and the will to defeat these techniques, and the power of the will to use the process of forgiveness to move forward, are not passive whatsoever. It can be seen collectively as the power of the recipient to literally "make nothing" of the hate and anger of the torture practitioner, to "make nothing" of the pain received, and thus to "make nothing" of the aims of the torture practitioner

The above 1990's editions of books provide such an introduction.

Other elements of practitioners co-opting others with deception and other techniques involved utilization of the normal "lures of advertising", and of course the "7 deadly sins" etc.. However the most effective techniques were: 1) the use of the self-conception of the target to co-opt, by discovering what the target liked to THINK ABOUT HIMSELF/HERSELF as personal strengths, and then employing these as reasons that the co-opt target is "incredible" etc.., and 2) the power of "too"-- "you TOO are like us", "join us". etc.

Addendum- Authority Based Disinformation/False Feedback

In the study of small-group psychology by National Training Labs, Bethel Maine(NTL)(offered as an honors program behavioral laboratory seminar at SIU in the 1980's), the power of authority based feedback/information was undeniable in laboratory exercises. Applied to a psych. warfare situation on an unsuspecting subject, the result could be terrible. If the recipient is young, the recipient could operate under long-term false misconceptions of diminished ability, will-power, and character.

Two examples of the ill-intended use of authority based feedback on unsuspecting targets of Psych. warfare can be illustrated from the dictum in Sun Tsu's 'Art of War' - "Sacrifice an agent". In this phrase the agent of the authority may actually be a member of the target group themselves and not know it, and in the reception of misinformation from the authority figure, act in a way that leads to their own physical damage, and FALSELY based real psychological damage.

1) The first instance is the use of authority-based false feedback/information on skill/capability functions of people to direct behavior towards action intended by the authority while simultaneously producing doubt in the capability and intelligence of the recipient. In this case the authority merely gives false negative feedback concerning performance evaluation of the mental capability or physical capability of the function being tested- publicly- in comparison to other members of a group. Group psych. studies show that individuals that receive
consistent negative comparative feedback in activities often leave the group, and/or cease the activity in order to cease the "failure".

In this way someone without any lack of ability in a function at all is led to believe that he or she does have lack of ability in that particular area, and the production of a self-conscious "stigma" then becomes falsely accepted in the individual.

WWII German false feedback and teaching to children would be the particular historical reference to this example. This is undeniably illustrated throughout child development activities of sports and classroom, where those that are consistently regarded as the least capable players or students cease playing that particular sporting or intellectual activity.

If utilized against the most central childhood development functions of learning such as language development and skills - i.e. intentional incorrect grammar instruction, false negative feedback in reading and arithmatic, or in false behavioral health diagnoses- such as a false ADHD diagnosis- the result could likely put the target on a path of poor self-confidence and poor self-esteem, while also leading to lower life expectations and aspirations.

2) The encouragement by authority to engage in self-damaging behavior. In this instance the authority uses the physiological processes of the body unwittingly against the agent by ordering or encouraging behavior of the agent that leads the agent down the path into dependency or some other self-damaging behavior. The agent is then falsely led to believe that the dependency was the result of some personal inner "weakness", when the dependency and/or the appearance of it were the desired goal of the authority from the start.

Such deception then allows the authority later to discredit the agent and associates of the agent with widely held and publicly accepted perceptions of the character and will-power "weakness" of those with dependencies. In this example the behavior of the authority is no different from the average drug dealer giving free samples to grade school children, but with the power of authority behind them the success rate of such inducements, and thus results, would be tremendously higher.

3) In such instances above, the realization that no such capability or character deficiency ever existed led- in looking forward - to greater confidence, and performance improvements in the subject's life.

This is an addendum to the post '...Psychological Warfare' and will be featured here temporarily.

A class lecture attended once addressed the subject of the structure of human Hope as false and damaging. The reasoning put forth was that what is properly reserved to what we call hope is the expectation of the attainment of an aim when the probability of attainment is less than certain. It was stated that if the probability of attainment is high, then what is experienced is confidence, and that it is only in the face of diminished odds of attainment that we Hope for a positive outcome despite the probability of failure.

The inference made from this was that Hope, by it's very structure was damaging to human endeavor because it keeps individual focus and effort on aims that waste our time. It was further stated that behavior studies showed that the more pressure was put on an individual through harshness of negative consequences of non-performance of an activity that achieved the relief of that pressure and those consequences, the more individuals are willing to make attempts with less and less numerical probability of success, and of extraordinary nature, in order to avoid those consequences. He then summarized it from another angle, saying that it was the dynamics of the Freudian "death instinct"- or hope turned against the person.

It was my point that what the professor was describing was not in fact Hope, but the illusion of hope- false hope- and that the dynamic he described was what would be more properly called a logic of desperation.

I replied further that the structure of hope as the attainment of an end against the statistics of probability, but within some horizon of attainment or failure, through long term effort, was something very normal and healthy in the human condition. It was what each of our grandparents and parents did every day, and what parents today do for the betterment of the lives of their children and their families.

On Health Issues Sometimes First Ladies Get It Right

1) Nancy Reagan put out a program in the 80's that was widely discredited in the media by experts for it's simplicity- "just say no." Her program made the simple point that all human beings had bodies and thus ALL are susceptible to chemical dependency, and that the main factor then was merely the mental act of decision(literally the "deciding factor").

According to this program over time all that is needed is a) the knowledge that the process is that simple, & b) the personal discipline to make healthy choices. Shortly thereafter these choices then become unconscious healthy habits. One of the strengths about this program is that according to it individuals don't NEED all kinds of sophisticated professional medical help, they don't need the useless "pity party", and they don't need help from others who are "stronger".

In this program individuals already have all the strength needed in themselves, and always did have it. In this program a) individuals just need the right information, b) they need RESPECT for their intelligence, capabilities and character, c) they need to know what is the real community standard, and d) they need those individuals(acting from proper blog etiquette I will suppress a myriad of more accurate strongly negative word choices that come to mind) that invite and encourage such behavior to leave them alone, or they need to remove themselves from those individuals that repeatedly invite and encourage the self-damaging behavior.

2) Dr. Phil & other experts know at least a dozen ways to continually and daily re-enforce poor self-esteem & that lead to the repetition of bad behavior. These ways therefore act like a spiral staircase downward. These ways keep individuals focused on perceived personal weakness, guilt, and feelings of vulnerability, rather than on: a) the simple powerful facts of their past actions that already UNDENIABLY proved their good character and worth, and b) the simple positive things they can do to move on, utilize and develop their talents (even if only for personal enjoyment), help others and fulfill their lives.


1)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-ysg62GmFo

2)- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfyPxvdmwv0