brainwashing

n. A process of attempting drastic change in attitudes and beliefs through prolonged coercive tactics such as sensory and sleep deprivation, starvation, physical torture, social pressure, and intense interrogation and verbal manipulation. Also known as thought reform. Brainwashing was first described during the treatment of POWs during the Korean War and widely practiced in China during the Cultural Revolution and has continued up to the present day in U.S. and other countries’ treatment of suspected terrorists.