Brain-Washing (book)

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 Goff 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.

It is also sometimes referred to as The Communist Manual of Psycho-Political Warfare or the Communist Manual of Instructions of Psychopolitical Warfare.

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.

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