Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2008, Page 11
Experienced terrorists in another part of the world, Sri Lanka, also put recruits through a
brainwashing program, according to Christoph Reuter, who is an international correspondent
for the German magazine, Stern. Writing about the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),
Reuter reported:
Brainwashing methods have played a significant role in the Tamil Tiger
organization. In its training camps, one hears heroic songs blaring from
loudspeakers from dusk to dawn. LTTE recruits are not allowed to marry they
are already married to the ‗Tamil Eelam.‘ Nor are they allowed to have sex,
for anyone who is chaste and who saves his sperm bestows a magical potency
on it or gives it superhuman powers which are then set free at the critical
moment. The highest goal, drummed repeatedly into the heads of the youths,
is to be ready to die for the common cause…. [T]he highest honor is to be
invited by [their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran [b. 1954]) to a ‗last supper‘—
an opulent meal normally available only to those who have been chosen for a
suicide attack (Reuter, 2004:160).5
Here we have a reputed brainwashing program that does not orient one to an afterlife
paradise but instead to ―the privilege of being at the side of God‘s chosen one in the here-
and-now, for the first and last time, at an evening feast‖ (Reuter, 2004:160). Nevertheless,
the outcomes of both the Palestinian and Tamil Tiger brainwashing programs are the tragic
loss of life, coupled with untold pain and suffering.6
Dysfunctional Corporate Culture
Terrorist training might involve the most extreme situations of brainwashing programs that
do use forcible confinement and physical coercion. By contrast, highly focused and
ideologically filled corporate training has neither aspect to it. Nevertheless, anthropologist
and psychoanalyst Michael Maccoby described General Electric‘s (or GE‘s) corporate
executive officer (from 1981 to 2000), Jack Welch, as a narcissist, and then added that his
organizational
‗teaching‘ involves a personal ideology that he indoctrinates into GE managers
through speeches, memos, and confrontations…. GE managers must either
internalize his vision, or they must leave. Clearly, this is incentive learning
with a vengeance. I would even go so far as to call Welch‘s training
brainwashing. (Maccoby, 2000:76)
This evaluation of Welch‘s rule may sound exaggerated, but a management study of his
tactics indicated that ―For several years, GE managers were encouraged to carry in their
wallets a card listing GE values, just as Chinese party members, soldiers, and students had
to carry Chairman Mao‘s Little Red Book” (Abetti, 2006:79).
Important to note about Maccoby‘s evaluation of Jack Welch‘s program is that people were
neither forcibly restrained to stay nor physically threatened if they tried to leave. Social,
professional, and financial pressures likely kept many people in the company (although tens
of thousands were fired) and acted as incentives for those employees to successfully
internalize the values that Welch imposed but if these pressures resembled brainwashing,
then he and GE did not conduct it with a sanction of violence toward those who quit.
Interpersonal Violence
In the examples of alleged brainwashing cited thus far, all of the abuses took place within
group contexts of four or more people. Two legal cases occurred early in the new decade,
however, that involved only dyads, in which defense lawyers argued that the less powerful
individuals had suffered brainwashing. Both cases involve deeply disturbing behaviour.
Experienced terrorists in another part of the world, Sri Lanka, also put recruits through a
brainwashing program, according to Christoph Reuter, who is an international correspondent
for the German magazine, Stern. Writing about the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE),
Reuter reported:
Brainwashing methods have played a significant role in the Tamil Tiger
organization. In its training camps, one hears heroic songs blaring from
loudspeakers from dusk to dawn. LTTE recruits are not allowed to marry they
are already married to the ‗Tamil Eelam.‘ Nor are they allowed to have sex,
for anyone who is chaste and who saves his sperm bestows a magical potency
on it or gives it superhuman powers which are then set free at the critical
moment. The highest goal, drummed repeatedly into the heads of the youths,
is to be ready to die for the common cause…. [T]he highest honor is to be
invited by [their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran [b. 1954]) to a ‗last supper‘—
an opulent meal normally available only to those who have been chosen for a
suicide attack (Reuter, 2004:160).5
Here we have a reputed brainwashing program that does not orient one to an afterlife
paradise but instead to ―the privilege of being at the side of God‘s chosen one in the here-
and-now, for the first and last time, at an evening feast‖ (Reuter, 2004:160). Nevertheless,
the outcomes of both the Palestinian and Tamil Tiger brainwashing programs are the tragic
loss of life, coupled with untold pain and suffering.6
Dysfunctional Corporate Culture
Terrorist training might involve the most extreme situations of brainwashing programs that
do use forcible confinement and physical coercion. By contrast, highly focused and
ideologically filled corporate training has neither aspect to it. Nevertheless, anthropologist
and psychoanalyst Michael Maccoby described General Electric‘s (or GE‘s) corporate
executive officer (from 1981 to 2000), Jack Welch, as a narcissist, and then added that his
organizational
‗teaching‘ involves a personal ideology that he indoctrinates into GE managers
through speeches, memos, and confrontations…. GE managers must either
internalize his vision, or they must leave. Clearly, this is incentive learning
with a vengeance. I would even go so far as to call Welch‘s training
brainwashing. (Maccoby, 2000:76)
This evaluation of Welch‘s rule may sound exaggerated, but a management study of his
tactics indicated that ―For several years, GE managers were encouraged to carry in their
wallets a card listing GE values, just as Chinese party members, soldiers, and students had
to carry Chairman Mao‘s Little Red Book” (Abetti, 2006:79).
Important to note about Maccoby‘s evaluation of Jack Welch‘s program is that people were
neither forcibly restrained to stay nor physically threatened if they tried to leave. Social,
professional, and financial pressures likely kept many people in the company (although tens
of thousands were fired) and acted as incentives for those employees to successfully
internalize the values that Welch imposed but if these pressures resembled brainwashing,
then he and GE did not conduct it with a sanction of violence toward those who quit.
Interpersonal Violence
In the examples of alleged brainwashing cited thus far, all of the abuses took place within
group contexts of four or more people. Two legal cases occurred early in the new decade,
however, that involved only dyads, in which defense lawyers argued that the less powerful
individuals had suffered brainwashing. Both cases involve deeply disturbing behaviour.
