Joost Meerloo
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Joost Abraham Maurits Meerloo (March 14, 1903 – November 17, 1976) was a Dutch/American
Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...
and
psychoanalyst PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: + . is a set of Theory, theories and Therapy, therapeutic techniques"What is psychoanalysis? Of course, one is supposed to answer that it is many things — a theory, a research method, a therapy, a bo ...
. He authored ''Rape of the Mind'', an analysis of brainwashing techniques and thought control in totalitarian states.


Biography

Born as Abraham Maurits Meerloo in
The Hague, Netherlands The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
, Meerloo came to United States in 1946, was naturalized in 1950, and resumed Dutch citizenship in 1972. Dr. Meerloo practiced
psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psych ...
for over forty years. He did staff work in the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
until 1942 under
Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
occupation Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...
, when he assumed the name Joost (instead of the more Jewish-sounding Abraham) to fool the occupying forces. In 1942 he fled to Belgium, and from there he escaped to England (after barely eluding death at the hands of the Germans). He became a colonel and was chief of the Psychological Department of the Dutch Army-in-Exile in England. After the war, he served as High Commissioner for Welfare in the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, and was an adviser to
UNRRA United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) was an international relief agency, largely dominated by the United States but representing 44 nations. Founded in November 1943, it was dissolved in September 1948. it became part o ...
and SHAEF. An American
citizen Citizenship is a "relationship between an individual and a state to which the individual owes allegiance and in turn is entitled to its protection". Each state determines the conditions under which it will recognize persons as its citizens, and ...
since 1950, Dr. Meerloo was a member of the faculty at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the New York School of Psychiatry. He was the author of many books, includin
''Rape of the Mind''
(a classic work on
brainwashing Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwash ...
), ''Conversation and Communication'', and ''Hidden Communion''. He was the son of Bernard and Anna Frederika (Benjamins) Meerloo. He was the youngest of six children and the only one to escape his occupied country and survive the Holocaust. He married Elisabeth Johanna Kalf Den Haag, on May 16, 1928. The couple divorced on February 19, 1946. He married Louisa Betty "Loekie" Duits (a physical therapist) in New York City on May 7, 1948. Meerloo specialized in the area of
thought control Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwash ...
techniques used by
totalitarian Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and regul ...
and other regimes.


Education

Dr. Meerloo received an M.D. degree at the University of Leiden in 1927. He then did postgraduate work in psychiatry and psychoanalysis, receiving a Ph.D. at the University of Utrecht in 1932. He later continued psychiatric studies in Paris.


''Rape of the Mind''

Meerloo's best-known book is ''Rape of the Mind,'' published in 1956. This book received wide attention in part because it dealt with totalitarian applications of brainwashing techniques during the
Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
''.'' It explains how scientific brainwashing is done and argues that "hardly anyone can resist such." "Fear, and continual pressure are known to create a menticidal hypnosis. The conscious part of the personality no longer takes part in the automatic confessions. The brainwashee lives in a trance, repeating the record grooved into him by somebody else." Like their totalitarian counterparts, democratic societies are subject to the insidious influences of mind control. Such influences surround the citizens of free societies, "both on a political and a nonpolitical level and they become as dangerous to the free way of life as are the aggressive totalitarian governments themselves." People must guard against the creeping intrusion into their minds by technology, bureaucracy, prejudice, and mass delusion. Meerloo writes that freedom and democracy depend in part on education for mental freedom—helping children and adults to think for themselves and to see the essentials of a problem—helping them to understand concepts, not merely to memorize facts. Throughout most of the book, Meerloo's targets are the historic roles of the Nazis and of the Communists in the post-1945 world. However, he also attacks the witch-hunting of individuals through the
House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
: "the Congressional right to investigate can be abused and misused. The power to investigate may become the power to destroy -- not only the man under attack, but also the mental integrity of those who, in one way or another, are witnesses to the investigation. In a subtle way, the current wave of
Congressional investigation A United States congressional hearing is the principal formal method by which United States congressional committees collect and analyze information in the early stages of legislative policymaking. Whether confirmation hearings (a procedure unique ...
s may have a coercive effect on our citizenry." (117)


Bibliography

* ''Total War and the Human Mind: A Psychologist's Experience in Occupied Holland'' (1944, Published for The Netherlands Government Information Bureau by George Allen & Unwin Ltd.) * ''Delusion and Mass-Delusion'' (1949, NMD Monographs) * ''Patterns of Panic'' (1950, International Universities Press, Inc.) * ''Conversation and Communication'' (1952, International Universities Press, Inc.) * ''The Two Faces of Man'' (1954, International Universities Press, Inc) * ''The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing'' (1956, World Publishing Company)(Reprinted 2009, Progressive Press, ) * Dance Craze and Sacred Dance, 1960 * The dance, from ritual to rock and roll--ballet to ballroom, 1960, Philadelphia, Chilton Co., Book Division * ''Guidance in an Age of Technology'' (1961) * ''Suicide and Mass Suicide'' (1962, Grune & Stratton, Inc.) * ''Hidden Communion'' (1964, Garrett Publications/Helix Press) * ''A Psycho-Analytic Study of Culture and Character'' (1965, John Wiley) * "Creativity and Eternization: Essays on the Creative Instinct" (1967, Koninklijke Van Gorcum & Comp. N.V.; Assen, The Netherlands) * ''Along the Fourth Dimension: Man's Sense of Time and History'' (1970, The John Day Company) * ''Unobtrusive Communication. Essays in Psycholinguistics'' (1964, Koninklijke van Gorcum & Co. N. V.)


See also

*
Brainwashing Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and forced re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques. Brainwash ...
*
Brave New World Revisited ''Brave New World'' is a dystopian novel by English author Aldous Huxley, written in 1931 and published in 1932. Largely set in a futuristic World State, whose citizens are environmentally engineered into an intelligence-based social hierarch ...
* Edward Bernays *
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies explained as originatin ...
*
Totalitarianism Totalitarianism is a form of government and a political system that prohibits all opposition parties, outlaws individual and group opposition to the state and its claims, and exercises an extremely high if not complete degree of control and reg ...


Sources

* Biography Resource Center * Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002 * Publisher's notes on dust cover ''Along the Fourth Dimension: Man's Sense of Time and History'' (1970, The John Day Company)


References


External links


Quotes by Joost Meerloo
Zaadz.com.

(full online text of the 1956 World Publishing Company edition).

(full online text of the 1949 NMD Monographs first printing, 1949 ''Delusion and Mass-Delusion'').
''Rape of the Mind''
(full online text of the 1973 GROSSET & DUNLAP'S UNIVERSAL LIBRARY).
''Delusion and Mass-Delusion''
(full online text with index). __NOTOC__ {{DEFAULTSORT:Meerloo, Joost 1903 births 1976 deaths Dutch psychiatrists Physicians from The Hague Dutch psychoanalysts American Jews Dutch Jews Dutch emigrants to the United States