My daughter is taking classes in college that are brainwashing her?
an honest opinion : if u don't like it don't read it. i think the term "feminist" is sooo misunderstood - everybody seems to have a different opinion here about what being a feminist is. sorry, your daughter got it wrong too. i can tell u one thing : it certainly does not mean a men hater. it stands for equality of sexes. it says nowhere that a feminist believes that women are better than men (or vice versa for that matter). they are EQUAL. as for the extend of exaggeration ur daughter got to - well, i think college can't force beliefs into someone. it merely gives information. what u do with it is ur problem. and what the heck... - we live in a civilized world were few polite people are left....opening doors is polite. that's all....
Is brainwashing real?
The subconscious will always remember the hurt. Which is basically how most people with mental illness suffer. The brain won't let you remember the pain and memory and you can't deal with what your going through and grow. So the mind protects the person but it can come out in irrational ways thoughts feeling images etc. I really unsure if you can brainwash someone. I think it all TV and movies that have a little understanding of the mind works and just added to it for entertainment purposes. Even with hypnotic suggestions it can only plant a suggestion in your subconscious that your own personality will decide if it harmful or harmless ie if you think jumping of a cliff will kill then your not going to do it and with some people that can't be hypotised and some it just doesn't take. The mind's very complecated and there is a lot we do not know. But even if you where the chances are you'd have dreams and memories about the process as that will be quite a painful process to start with and not being a fame of mind at the time to repress the memory you will remember or the mind will try to remind you ending up with you back where you where.
Is brainwashing real?
Depends what you mean by brainwashing. The fictional idea of a person having their entire identity erased and replaced by the application of some combination of drugs, torture and indoctrination is just that: a fiction. However certainly people can be indoctrinated into a belief system. In fact we are all "brainwashed" as children to adopt the values and beliefs of our family and culture. That of course doesn't really count because there's not much to "wash" if one is an infant. Cults provide a better example, where a charismatic leader's teachings combined with strong peer pressure conspire to cause a person to adopt a new set of beliefs at odds with most other people in their culture. But such a cult will have little effect on a person who is not psychologically vulnerable in some way. A young, impressionable and insecure person is always the best candidate for such brainwashing because they do not have a secure foundation of beliefs in place to rely on. Note however that the adoption of a given set of beliefs by a "brainwashed" person does not occur by some mysterious process different from normal processes of social influence. A person adopts the beliefs because to do so is easier than to resist and/or because those beliefs serve some psychological need. Under extreme stress a person may adopt previously alien beliefs because to do so helps them to survive those stressors. That is essentially no different from our decision to adopt the values and beliefs of our peers in order to achieve social acceptance and other rewards. However tyrants throughout the ages have all discovered that people are not infinitely malleable. You cannot brainwash gay people into being straight, or vice versa. You can force compliance but you cannot force love. Brainwashing is just social influence on steroids, and social influence has limits.I should mention that the Soviets did attempt something like brainwashing of prisoners using drugs, propaganda and torture. Needless to say, subjects appeared to comply with the brainwashing, but there's no evidence this was any more meaningful or lasting than a confession extracted by torture.
Prader-Willi Syndrome - does it actually exist?
Read this article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2038255/Prader-Willi-syndrome-Our-son-10-eat-death.html I'm sure that the parents aren't responsible for their son's PSYCHOLOGICAL problems, no, not at all. Just look at them. Look at their son. Of course he 'can't tell when he's full', that's REALLY likely, isn't it. There is no such thing as "Prader-Willi Syndrome".Giving a BEHAVIOUR a fancy (and stupid) name, doesn't mean it's a physical 'condition', it just means some other fraudster is unable to face the psychological causes behind this bullshit. Cue brainwashed idiots who can't even think for themselves, telling me that I'm wrong...
Does television actually affect the brain negatively?
That would depend on what you watch and how much you watch.If you start your week with mapping out 44 hours of awake time at home and planning out your Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon binge watching to see if there is any time left to attend your sister's wedding, I would say you have a serious problem. If the only news you get is Fox, then you could find yourself brainwashed into the 1940′s and lose any social standing amongst people who attended college. If you are stay at home and have it on during the daytime, we will all pray for your recovery. But, if you limit yourself to a few hours per day and some balance of real life and positive, educational, viewing, you are pretty safe.If you leave it on as background because you are not comfortable with silence, and you read and write and work crosswords and make dinner or talk to your significant other while it is on, again, not a real problem. However, you might have a greater benefit by playing music, or better yet, listening to NPR radio, instead. It is the greatest source of interesting and balanced coverage of topical news, author and celebrity interviews, and interesting stories available through any media.
How can you brainwash yourself?
So I decide to do something which is totally out of my comfort zone. Similar adventures in the past led to almost near death experiences. I am freaked out and already started several self helping approaches. Some more ideas how to brainwash yourself, if you really feel you need to achieve the hitherto for you impossible thing would be highly appreciated? Thanks heaps, fellow philosophers.