Psychology Wiki

Milieu control

Revision as of 19:41, September 13, 2012 by Dr Joe Kiff (Talk | contribs)

34,191pages on
this wiki



Milieu control is a term popularized by psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton to describe tactics that control environment and human communication through the use of social pressure and group language; such tactics may include dogma, protocols, innuendo, slang, and pronunciation, which enables group members to identify other members, or to promote cognitive changes in individuals. Lifton originally used "milieu control" to describe brainwashing and mind control, but the term has since been applied to other contexts.[1]

Background Edit


Additionally, Milieu control "includes other techniques to restrict members' contact with the outside world and to be able to make critical, rational, judgments about information." [2]

Proponents of such methods claim that group solidarity and preference compared to "outsiders" unifies a subculture into a community.[citation needed]

Critics[attribution needed] claim that this isolates people from their society and Template:Cn-span, and that engaging in shared cult-like behaviors and actions within a group can have a tendency to limit human cognition amongst those group members. In this respect, intentional actors whom actively engage in stated milieu controlling behaviors begin to habituate those distinctly abnormal behaviors as normative, which then become ingrained into their subsequent behavior patterns through the use of frequent repetition.

See alsoEdit


  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Dr. Lifton, Robert J.Thought Reform: Milieu Control. Retrieved on August 24, 2008.

External linksEdit

Look up this page on
Wiktionary: Milieu control


Around Wikia's network

Random Wiki