God and Tania at Yale

“Cults In Our Midst: Patty Hearst And The Brainwashing Of America,” examined by Stella Morabito at the Federalist:

The Fundamental Transformation of Patty Hearst

So that’s what it looked like to an impressionable, politically unseasoned contemporary. But what was going on in the background?

Hearst’s 1983 book Every Secret Thing describes the kidnapping and the aftermath in meticulous, ghastly detail. Hearst also granted a fascinating interview with Larry King in 2002.

For several weeks, she was blindfolded, confined to a smelly closet, tormented, periodically raped, and subjected to a coarse Maoist style program of indoctrination and re-education. Her life depended on anticipating and meeting the demands of her captors. The leader Donald “Cinque” DeFreeze and the others propagandized and interrogated her constantly, explaining that “Amerikkka” was a racist and evil society, repeatedly calling her a privileged “bourgeoise bitch” and her father a “pig” of the “corporate fascist state.” But then her captors would let up a bit, offering food or tea—then continue more intensely with cruelty and degradation.

This cycle—isolation, threats, and humiliation, punctuated by a little peace (reward) for compliance—broke down Hearst’s sense of self. As she later told Larry King, “Most of the time I was with them, my mind was going through doing exactly what I was supposed to do… I had no freewill.”

So pretty much like life at the average elite university, minus the increasingly swanky dorms — which if you read on, is sort of Morabito’s point. No wonder they morphed into Occupy gangs so easily.

Update: Once successfully brainwashed, it is necessary to re-educate the victim about the basics of society — and reality in general — at an extremely slow pace, lest potentially debilitating shock and trauma occur.