Conversion, Religion and Brainwashing

Following his experience of the treatment of acute war neuroses during the Second World War, WWS observed parallels between this, the ideas of Pavlov and religious conversion, particularly Wesley's mass-conversion techniques. During his visit to Duke University, 1947-1948, he studied methods of religious revival and the psychiatric aspects of conversion in the American context. Later he also observed similar, comparisons between Freudian analysis, possession, faith healing, mass hysteria, political techniques of brainwashing, the stress conditions suffered by hostages, and the illegal eliciting of criminal confessions. He wrote widely on these and related subjects and acted as a consultant in a number of high-profile cases, such as those of Patty Hearst and Vladimir Kachenko.

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Copyright in most records will be held by Sargant's family, and researchers wishing to publish copies from this collection should contact them for permission. Belmont Hospital, from which some records originated, is closed, and there is no record of who would have inherited the copyright of records originating here.