Mind Control
Mind control theories propose that an individual's thinking, behavior, emotions or decisions can be manipulated arbitrarily by other people.
The question of mind control has been discussed in conjunction with religion, politics, torture, brainwashing of prisoners of war, totalitarianism, neural cell manipulation, cults, terrorism (see Stockholm syndrome), parental alienation, and even battered person syndrome.
The different views on the subject have legal implications. Mind control was an issue, e.g., in the court case of Patty Hearst and also in several court cases regarding New Religious Movements. Also questions of mind control are regarding ethical questions linked to the subject of free will.
The feasibility of such control and the methods by which it might be attained (either direct or more subtle) have long been subject to debates among psychologists, neuroscientists, and sociologists.
The exact definition of "mind control" and the extent of its influence on the individual are debated and thus it remains a controversial subject. It is often contrasted with hypnosis and other influences like advertising, media manipulation, propaganda, group dynamics, or peer pressure which have been well researched in social psychology.
The belief that one is being manipulated or controlled by outside forces is also recognized as one of the hallmarks of paranoid delusional complexes and other psychoses. Typically these delusions are of invasive and complete control by entities as diverse as orbiting government satellites, U.S. Government agents/agencies/organizations, television sets, animals, aliens, or angels and demons. Those who suffer from this delusion may cling to it despite a complete lack of evidence of anything that might be controlling them. Psychiatric therapy with anti-psychotic medication can often end the delusion or at least mitigate its severity, if it is a delusion. In some cases, however, especially in cases of involuntary commitment, the person may view treatment with anti-psychotics as yet another form of mind control.
A belief that a person may be under mind control is an indicator of psychosis only when it becomes an obsessive fixation or fixed delusion and they are, in fact, not being improperly controlled or influenced.