''The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing?'' is a 1984

book A book is a medium for recording information in the form of writing or images, typically composed of many pages (made of papyrus, parchment, vellum, or paper) bound together and protected by a cover. The technical term for this physical arr ...

written by British sociologist

Eileen Barker Eileen Vartan Barker (born 21 April 1938, in Edinburgh, UK) is a professor in sociology, an emeritus member of the London School of Economics (LSE), and a consultant to that institution's Centre for the Study of Human Rights. She is the chairpe ...

Blackwell Publishers Wiley-Blackwell is an international scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly publishing business of John Wiley & Sons. It was formed by the merger of John Wiley & Sons Global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business with Blackwell Publish ...

, Oxford, United Kingdom, . The book describes the

religious conversion Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...

process to the

Unification Church The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church, is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists, or "Moonies". It was officially founded on 1 May 1954 under the name Holy Spi ...

, whose members are sometimes informally referred to as "

Moonies The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, widely known as the Unification Church, is a new religious movement, whose members are called Unificationists, or " Moonies". It was officially founded on 1 May 1954 under the name Holy Sp ...

". Barker spent close to seven years studying Unification Church members. She interviewed in depth and/or gave probing questionnaires to Unification Church members, ex-members, "non-joiners," and control groups of uninvolved individuals from similar backgrounds, as well as parents, spouses, and friends of members. She also attended numerous Unification Church workshops and communal facilities.Review

William Rusher William Allen Rusher (July 19, 1923 – April 16, 2011) was an American lawyer, author, activist, and Conservatism in the United States, conservative columnist. He was one of the founders of the Conservatism in the United States, conservative mo ...

, ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief i ...

'', December 19, 1986. Barker writes that she rejects the "

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 ...

" theory as an explanation for conversion to the Unification Church, because, as she wrote, it explains neither the many people who attended a Unification Church recruitment meeting and did not become members, nor the voluntary disaffiliation of members. Reviewers have quoted her conclusions: "I have not been persuaded that they are brainwashed zombies," and "Moonies are no more likely to stagnate into mindless robots than are their peers who travel to the city on the 8.23 each morning." In 2006

Laurence Iannaccone Laurence Robert Iannaccone ( ; born May 24, 1954) is a Professor of Economics at Chapman University, Argyros School of Business and Economics, Orange County, California. Before moving to Chapman in 2009 he was a Koch Professor of Economics at Geor ...

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

, a specialist in the

economics of religion The economics of religion concerns both the application of the techniques of economics to the study of religion and the relationship between economic and religious behaviours. Contemporary writers on the subject trace it back to Adam Smith (1776). ...

, wrote that ''The Making of a Moonie'' was "one of the most comprehensive and influential studies" of the process of conversion to

new religious movement A new religious movement (NRM), also known as alternative spirituality or a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin or th ...

s. Australian psychologist Len Oakes and British psychiatry professor

Anthony Storr Anthony Storr (18 May 1920 – 17 March 2001) was an English psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and author. Background and education Born in London, Storr was educated at Winchester College, Christ's College, Cambridge, and Westminster Hospital. H ...

, who have written rather critically about

cult In modern English, ''cult'' is usually a pejorative term for a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal. This ...

guru Guru ( sa, गुरु, IAST: ''guru;'' Pali'': garu'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: traditionally, the guru is a reverentia ...

s and their leaders, have praised ''The Making of a Moonie''. It was given the Distinguished Book Award for 1985 by the

Society for the Scientific Study of Religion The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (founded in 1949) was formed to advance research in the social scientific perspective on religious institutions and experiences. The ''Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion'' is published by ...

.Past Winners

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Making of a Moonie Sociology books Books on the Unification Church Unification Church controversies Religious conversion Religious studies books Books about mind control 1984 non-fiction books