“To Use This Word … Would Be Absurd”

How the Brainwashing Label Threatened and Enabled the Troubled-Teen Industry

Bibliographic Data

ID21341486
AuthorsMark M Chatfield (0000-0002-3915-6913, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume58
Issue3
Pages357-389
Publication date2024-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of American Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-8758 • E-ISSN: 1469-5154
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0021875824000112
OpenAlexW4394854317
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited17

From the early 1960s to the early 1990s, a range of concerns about “brainwashing” in youth reeducation programs obfuscated professional and political discourse, influencing key outcomes that shaped the development of the troubled-teen industry in the United States. The most significant historical developments related to this controversy involved three different youth programs. In response to accusations of “brainwashing,” program executives created elaborate counterarguments and public-relations campaigns. Instead of working to address inherent risks associated with therapeutic reeducation, the brainwashing label obscured the potential for harm and enabled an unethical teen program industry

Absurdism · Advertising · Aesthetics · Art · Business · Law and economics · Linguistics · Literature · Sociology · Threatened species · Word (group theory) · Philosophy · Psychology · Race, History, and American Society

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