Brainwash

Vivid and disturbing, Brainwash is essential insight into the modern practice of interrogation and torture from the acclaimed author of Cocaine.

With access to formerly classified documentation and interviews from the CIA, US Army, MI5, MI6, and British Intelligence Corps, Dominic Streatfeild traces the evolution of mind control from its origins in the Cold War to the height of today’s war on terror.

Behind the front lines of every war in the world, prisoners are forced to sit for interrogation: manipulated, coerced, and sometimes tortured—often without ever being touched. Brainwash is a history of the methods intended to destroy and reconstruct the minds of captives, to extract information, convert dissidents, and lead peaceful men to kill and be killed.

“A gripping survey of the post-war history of interrogation techniques.” —Telegraph on Sunday (UK)

“Breathless . . . reads like a spy thriller.” —The Guardian (UK)

“Marvelously engrossing. This book is a series of wonderfully detailed and cleverly told stories, each of which debunks the brainwashing myth. Streatfeild’s narrative control cannot be faulted. His research is formidable.” —The Sunday Times (UK)

“An expansive and multifaceted exploration of brainwashing in its multitude of forms.” —Booklist