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→Brainwashing
== Themes and Receptions ==
== Themes and Receptions ==
=== Brainwashing ===
=== Brainwashing ===
: ''Main Article: [[Brainwashing]]''
The 1950s was a time of intense interest in accounts of mind control, and the term "brainwashing" was coined in 1950. At a time of high Cold War tension, the book ''I Was Stalin's Prisoner'' (1952), a first-person account of US executive Robert A. Vogeler's experiences with [[mind control]] as a political prisoner in Hungary, produced derivative fiction. ''Brain-Washing in Red China'' (1951) and other writings by Edward Hunter proclaimed the danger and potentially devastating possibilities of brainwashing. Inaccurate reports to the effect that numerous American POW's had defected to the Chinese in Korea caused alarm; in fact there were only a few. Richard Condon's novel ''The Manchurian Candidate'' (1959), the basis for this film tapped into public fascination and concern over mind-control techniques. Novels by William Burroughs, A. E. van Vogt, and Francis Pollini all incorporate brainwashing themes. By the time of Walter Wager's ''Telefon'' (1975), the subject of brainwashing techniques had become passé.<ref>David Seed, "Brainwashing And Cold War Demonology." ''Prospects'' 1997 22: 535-573.</ref>
The 1950s was a time of intense interest in accounts of mind control, and the term "brainwashing" was coined in 1950. At a time of high Cold War tension, the book ''I Was Stalin's Prisoner'' (1952), a first-person account of US executive Robert A. Vogeler's experiences with [[mind control]] as a political prisoner in Hungary, produced derivative fiction. ''Brain-Washing in Red China'' (1951) and other writings by Edward Hunter proclaimed the danger and potentially devastating possibilities of brainwashing. Inaccurate reports to the effect that numerous American POW's had defected to the Chinese in Korea caused alarm; in fact there were only a few. Richard Condon's novel ''The Manchurian Candidate'' (1959), the basis for this film tapped into public fascination and concern over mind-control techniques. Novels by William Burroughs, A. E. van Vogt, and Francis Pollini all incorporate brainwashing themes. By the time of Walter Wager's ''Telefon'' (1975), the subject of brainwashing techniques had become passé.<ref>David Seed, "Brainwashing And Cold War Demonology." ''Prospects'' 1997 22: 535-573.</ref>