Originally published 1979 Editor Kenneth Goff | ||
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Brain-Washing: A Synthesis of the Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics, sometimes referred to as The Brainwashing Manual, is a book published by the Church of Scientology in 1955. It purports to be a condensation of the work of Lavrentiy Beria, the Soviet secret police chief. The book states Kenneth Goff as author. Its true authorship is not clear, the three common hypotheses being: Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard, Kenneth Goff (alias Oliver Kenneth Goff), or both L Ron Hubbard and Kenneth Goth based on an acquired US agency report. The third hypothesis is questionable as there is not proof that the two men ever knew each other. Claims that L Ron Hubbard was the author are also dubious as the only source of this claim is his estranged son, L Ron Hubbard Jr., who made it his life work trying to intentionally discredit his father in every possible way, and in addition to withdrawing all his accusations before his death, has been discredited in courts of law.
Contents
It is also sometimes referred to as The Communist Manual of Psycho-Political Warfare or the Communist Manual of Instructions of Psychopolitical Warfare.
L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology
It says that it is a transcript of a speech on the use of psychiatry as a means of social control, given by Lavrenty Beria in the Soviet Union in 1950. However L. Ron Hubbard, Jr., estranged son of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, stated:
"Dad wrote every word of it. Barbara Bryan and my wife typed the manuscript off his dictation."
Although Hubbard Jr.'s broad criticisms against his father were later discredited Hubbard's former editor, John Sanborn, confirmed Hubbard Jr.'s testimony.
Hubbard tried to present the Federal Bureau of Investigation with a copy, but the Bureau expressed skepticism about the document's authenticity. The book supposedly has Beria using obvious Hubbardisms such as "thinkingness" or "pain-drug-hypnosis", and making an unlikely mention of Dianetics side by side with Christian Science and Catholicism as major worldwide "healing groups". Modern versions of the book, make no mention of these so-called "Hubbardisms" thus refuting whether they in fact did appear in the original texts and thus the so-called authorship of Hubbard in the first place.
In 1963 the Australian Board of Inquiry regarded the book as written by Hubbard, something that neither Hubbard nor the Church of Scientology's HASI Hubbard Association of Scientologists International refuted at the time.
Kenneth Goff and the American far right
Morris Kominsky in his The Hoaxers: Plain Liars, Fancy Liars and Damned Liars (1970) attributes the authorship to a Rev. Kenneth Goff (alias Oliver Kenneth Goff) of Englewood, Colorado, an assistant of Gerald L. K. Smith. The entirety of chapter twelve is devoted to analysis of the text and the author's correspondence with others to determine the authenticity of the text or points within it, and other publications which make reference to it. All current copies of the book including Kominsky's copy have a preface by Goff, but he does not give the publication date. The introduction begins:
"From May 2, 1936, to October 10, 1939, I was a dues-paying member of the Communist Party, operating under my own name, Kenneth Goff, and also the alias John Keats. In 1939, I voluntarily appeared before the Un-American Activities Committee in Washington, D.C., which was chairmanned at that time by Martin Dies, and my testimony can be found in Volume 9 of that year's Congressional Report. During the period that I was a member of the Communist Party, I attended their school which was located at 113 E. Wells St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and operated under the name Eugene Debs Labor School. Here we were trained in all phases of warfare, both psychological and physical, for the destruction of the Capitalistic society and Christian civilization. In one portion of our studies we went thoroughly into the matter of psychopolitics. This was the art of capturing the minds of a nation through brainwashing and fake mental health -- the subjecting of whole nations of people to the rule of the Kremlin by capturing their minds. We were taught that the degradation of the populace is less inhuman than their destruction by bombs, for to an animal lives only once, any life is sweeter than death. The end of a war is the control of a conquered people. If a people can be conquered in the absence of war, the end of war will have been achieved without the destructions of war."
Kominsky owned another copy published by the "Ultra-Rightist women of the Burbank, California area who call themselves the American Public Relations Forum, Inc." That copy included an introduction by Charles Stickley and with additional items by Usher L. Burdick, claiming a publication date of 1955. Goff asserted Stickley plagiarized him, and that he had seen yet another publication which had done so. Nonetheless, the Goff version also makes no mention of so-called "Hubbardisms", which further disproves the alleged authorship by L. Ron Hubbard.