Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief

by Lawrence Wright

The pamphlet opens with what is claimed to be a purloined speech given by Lavrenti Beria, the head of the Soviet secret police under Joseph Stalin, to American students studying at Lenin University, on the subject of “psycho-politics.” The term is defined as “[t]he art and science of asserting and maintaining dominion over the thoughts and loyalties of individuals, bureaus, and masses, and the effecting of the conquest of enemy nations through ‘mental healing.’ ” The text specifies how to realign the goals of the individual with those of the group. The first task is to undermine the ability of the person to act and to trust himself. Next, his loyalty to his family is destroyed by breaking the economic dependency of the family unit, lessening the value of marriage, and turning over the raising of children to the State or the group. The individual’s trust and affection for his friends is shattered by anonymous reports to the authorities, supposedly from people close to him. Ultimately, all other emotional claims on the person have been broken; only the State or the group remains. “A psychopolitician must work hard to produce the maximum chaos in the fields of ‘mental healing,’ ” Beria says in his introductory speech. “You must labour until we have dominion over the minds and bodies of every important person in your nation.”