The Instability of Truth

Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-Persuasion

By: Rebecca Lemov

Narrated by: Patty Nieman

An acclaimed historian of science uncovers the hidden history of brainwashing—and its troubling implications for today.

Because brainwashing affects both the world and our observation of the world, we often don’t recognize it while it’s happening—unless we know where to look. As Rebecca Lemov writes in The Instability of Truth, “Brainwashing erases itself.” What we call brainwashing is more common than we think; it is not so much what happens to other people as what can happen to anyone.

The Instability of Truth exposes the myriad ways our minds can be controlled against our will, from the brainwashing techniques used against American POWs in North Korea to the “soft” brainwashing of social media doomscrolling and behavior-shaping. In our increasingly data-driven world, anyone can fall victim to mind control. Lemov identifies invasive forms of emotional engineering that exploit trauma and addiction to coerce and persuade in everyday life. Tracing the word “brainwashing” from deep in the files of an operative of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services in the 1950s to the pioneering research of Robert Jay Lifton, to the public trials of cult leaders and the case of Patty Hearst, Lemov also studies how the idea of mind control has spread across the globe and penetrated courtrooms, secret labs, military schools, and today’s digital sites.

The Instability of Truth offers lessons from mind-control episodes past and present. Truth is always subject to question in more mundane walks of life than most people believe, and Lemov equips us for the increasing challenges we face from social media, AI, and an unprecedented, global form of surveillance capitalism. The Instability of Truth develops a rigorous new understanding of both brainwashing’s paradoxes and its emotional roots, by giving voice to brainwashers, the brainwashed, and third-party observers alike.

Critic reviews

One of those books whose mere title prompts a shudder… [Lemov] brilliantly chronicles chillingly true attempts to program other people’s minds and control their actions.—Kate Tuttle, Boston Globe

Convincing and compassionate… Lemov's arguments are shaped by her expertise.—Katie Joice, Science

Thoughtful, well supported… Offers vivid snapshots of individual cases.—Leah Greenblatt, New York Times

If the lessons of history in Lemov’s book coupled with the ongoing insights of the political neuroscientists are even half right, we should all be paying very, very close attention.—Liz Else, New Scientist

A superbly crafted analysis of a universally deplored but seemingly irresistible technique.—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Provocative and illuminating…. Lemov’s deeply researched exploration reveals how the persuasive power wielded by charismatic figures can answer, in a warped way, a person’s yearning for self-reinvention and meaning.—Publishers Weekly, starred review

A chilling and spellbinding history of mind control, from prison camps to online algorithms.—Jill Lepore, author of If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future

Tracking moments of mind control from techniques of political conversion in war camps to the suasions of religious cult groups, the airwave appeals of mass influence to the emotional experiments of recent social media and the charms of astrological cryptocurrency communities, Rebecca Lemov reveals the tantalizing historical through line of brainwashing. Its truth always just out of reach, it nonetheless asserts itself over us and implicates us in its dynamics.—Natasha Dow Schüll, author of Addiction by Design

From the Korean War to Facebook, this riveting volume tracks the history of systems built to bend our wills and rewire our minds. Timely, frightening, and impossible to put down.—Fred Turner, Harry and Norman Chandler Professor of Communication, Stanford University

Great research. But too hard to listen to.

I watched the author on Joe Rogan. It was great. The book voice seems AI, with fake emotion. Didn’t finish, Wasted my credit.