My temperature is 99.3. Sometimes I don't feel like I have one and am surprised to learn that I do, and other times I feel crumby but end out not having a fever, so since I've been fighting this apparent virus since December I haven't been able to predict when I have a fever or not.
Meanwhile I worked more on laundry, washed the dishes and puttered around in the garden a bit. I have one more definite cucumber on the way (you'd think I was getting ready to give birth or something).
I also think there might be a squash starting on one of my hubbard squash plants. The funny thing about that is that since I have very limited land to work with (just what's on either side of my entryway door), I've built this network of posts and strings for the cucumber and squash plants to grown on. I've been sort of afraid that I might have a squash start to grow 3 feet off the ground or something and then I'd have to figure out a way to support it so that it could grow to maturity. The thing is that hubbard squashes can be 10 to 15 lbs! The one that I think might be starting now is right on top of my window air conditioner unit! I guess there are worse places it could be. I'll have to take some pictures one of these days to show you.
Anyway, back to the subject at hand...
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These next quotes are from this article:
Lynn, R. (1966). Brainwashing techniques in leadership and child rearing. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 5(4), p. 270-273.
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"It used to be thought that brainwashing techniques for manipulating the beliefs of others were the sole prerogative of sinister interrogators behind the iron curtain. This view received something of a jolt from Sargant (1957), who argued that the essentials of the method - which lie in arousing anxiety in the victim and then offering an escape from it - are used by a variety of practitioners in the west, notably policemen, certain religious leaders, and psychoanalysts." (p. 270)
I remember those good ol' naive days, for me they were ante-Vienna, for psychologists it was ante-Sargant. At least the psychologists presumably didn't have to experience it first hand (but they may have been the ones using it, presumably for benevolent ends).
This experience of arousal of anxiety with the concomitant offer of relief sounds a lot like the socialization process in Vienna. The newcomer ends out having problems at work which make her feel inadequate and somehow at fault, although (in my experience) they are verbally assured their worries are unfounded, all while the problems continue. Finally, the person begins to discuss with her boss her feelings of inadequacy and that eventually leads to wise and loving council that helps the newcomer rise up from what Lynn calls "anxiety in the victim" and begin to grow spiritually while becoming all the while more useful to the mission.
In this scenario, according to my experience, the inadequacy/anxiety is artificial and engineered so that that the person can be properly socialized into the group.
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In talking about Pavlovian classical behavior therapy, Lynn has this to say:
"[Classical behaviour theory] is simply that learning and and performance are greatly facilitated if there is both a drive and a reinforcement. The brainwasher provides both in his dual role: as a threatener he induces the drive (anxiety); as protector and friend he provides the reinforcement (anxiety-reduction)." (p. 271)
I remember first learning about Pavlov and his dogs in junior high and the teacher mentioning that you could actually use it to get something you want from your parents. I don't think I ever consciously used it, but that stuck with me. I wonder if the leadership in Vienna, even some of them, think consciously along these lines? They are an unusually educated bunch (the secretaries were the least educated; I think everyone else had at least a master's degree).
As my time in Vienna wore on I got fewer and fewer of the anxiety-reduction treatment.
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"At an empirical level a case has been made out for the universality of the brainwashing law: a superior moulds the behaviour of an inferior most effectively by adopting the dual role of threatener and protector, that is to say by using the alternating signals technique of the brainwasher." (p. 272)
I wish I knew what some of the leadership were thinking in the process of how I was treated there. I think that they did use these methods though. They were also versed in techniques of East Bloc police, border patrols, etc. and knew how to effectively deal with them and try to avoid trouble while in East Bloc countries. So maybe this was part of training newbies experientially in this kind of thing. Or that could be part of it anyway.
I don't know that I'm a representative case, but from what I know of what was going on in Vienna, I think they did use both the threatener and protector roles, but the threatener role was used very benignly as long as you were reasonably moving along in the socialization process. If not it would get harsher and more and more predominant vis a vis the protector role.
Since I don't think I ever left the initial socialization stage in Vienna, I don't know so much about relations after that process is basically finished. I do know, however, that they could come together as a unified body in censoring an individual if need be. That would be me (the censored individual) I'm referring to specifically.
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It really helped me and does still to find literature that could help explain what I was experiencing. It helped me try to find some concrete facts to validate my experience and sort out my thoughts about it. Apart from that the emotional could just take over, so these kinds of theoretical pinnings gave me something to hang my hat from, so to speak. It's hard to describe what a relief that is now and was when I was initially doing this research.
Enjoy the rest of your day...
~ Meg
