Hunter was an outspoken anticommunist and was alleged to be a CIA agent working undercover as a journalist. The Oxford English Dictionary records the earliest known English-language usage of the word "brainwashing" in an article by a journalist Edward Hunter, in Miami News, published on 24 September 1950. The term punned on the Taoist custom of "cleansing / washing the heart / mind" ( xǐxīn,洗心) before conducting ceremonies or entering holy places. The Chinese term xǐnăo (洗腦,"wash brain") was originally used to describe the coercive persuasion used under the Maoist government in China, which aimed to transform "reactionary" people into "right-thinking" members of the new Chinese social system. It can also be a theme in science fiction and in political and corporate culture, but is not generally accepted as a scientific term. The concept of brainwashing is sometimes involved in lawsuits, especially regarding child custody.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, there was considerable scientific and legal debate, as well as media attention, about the possibility of brainwashing being a factor when Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) was used or in the conversion of young people to some new religious movements, which were often referred to as cults at the time. Research into the concept also looked at Nazi Germany, at some criminal cases in the United States, and at the actions of human traffickers. The term "brainwashing" was first used in English by Edward Hunter in 1950 to describe how the Chinese government appeared to make people cooperate with them.
Brainwashing is said to reduce its subjects' ability to think critically or independently, to allow the introduction of new, unwanted thoughts and ideas into their minds, as well as to change their attitudes, values and beliefs. Brainwashing (also known as mind control, menticide, coercive persuasion, thought control, thought reform, and re-education) is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques.