Mystical Manipulation In George Orwell’s Novels
Mystical Manipulation In George Orwell’s Novels

Summary/Abstract: My paper statement is that the main political message that George Orwell was deliberately trying to put forth into his novels attacking totalitarianism - Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm - was a warning meant to draw attention to the hidden mechanisms by which totalitarian systems come into power and maintain themselves into force, emphasizing manipulation as basic method of maintaining total control over the population, and violence only as a backup technique employed only where the former fails. Therefore the paper approaches George Orwell’s novels from an interdisciplinary point of view with a focus on political psychology in an attempt to make a pragmatic analysis of the inner psychological mechanisms that enabled totalitarian systems to manipulate masses in their quest for the total submission of the individual. The line of research proposed in the present paper centers around dr Robert J. Lifton’s criteria for thought reform with a focus on what he called ‘mystical manipulation’ and its related theories: ‘sacred science’ , ‘doctrine over person’ ‘a demand for purity’ , the cult of ‘confession’. According to Lifton, ‘mystical manipulation’ consists in the creation of an almost mystical aura around the totalist doctrines and their leaders. He develops the idea that totalist systems build up an aura of sacredness around their doctrine by claiming that it represents the highest moral vision that governs the human existence, leaving no room for questioning or debate. Subsequently, an actual cult of personality is subtly developed, which enables the Leader to project himself as a God-like figure watching over his followers. My research reveals the fact that George Orwell understood the above mentioned covert psychological mechanisms that enabled totalitarian systems to conquer people’s minds and consequently he purposely included them in his novels. All in all, the paper aims at providing an in-depth analysis on the techniques of manipulation - that may be explained with the help of Lifton’s theory - employed by totalitarian systems in order to consolidate and safeguard the State’s and the Leader’s power, with concrete examples in Orwell’s novels.

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