Abusive Psychological Techniques used during Covid-19

Following the outbreak of Covid -19 Pandemic in March 2020, this paper will describe the use of various psychological and emotional techniques which were used by most Governments in the Western world who consider themselves to be Democracies, to gain compliance with measures designed to limit the spread of Covid -19. Chief among these techniques were the use of “nudges”, processes and procedures similar to Domestic Abuse and techniques of Brainwashing (Lifton, 1989) as used by the Chinese authorities following the Communist takeover in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The 8 aspects of Lifton’s model will be described in detail and how these were used by Western Governments during the Covid-19 pandemic. The conclusions reached regarding the use of such techniques demonstrate the unethical and abusive nature of how many Western Governments treated their citizens during the pandemic.

In or around March 2020 most Western Liberal Democracies introduced very quickly, draconian limits on core democratic values of free association, freedom to practice religion, economic activity and commerce, free speech and respect for private dwellings of their own citizens in an effort to control the spread of COVID-19 (C19), with one notable exception (ie) Sweden.1,2 In 2 weeks in March 2020, democratic freedoms were taken away in nearly all developed countries. Bizarrely, even the most ridiculous policies spread like a virus from country to country. For example, you could not try on new clothes in a shop in London, Sydney, New York or Christchurch, NZ, even though it was well established that the C19 virus was least likely to live on fabrics, unless the wearer had symptoms of C19. Compliance with these severe restrictions on personal liberty in most of these democracies was high and was quickly achieved without much protest from citizens on the whole. That the compliance achieved with these restrictions was obtained by using psychological methods is what these paper addresses and whether such psychological methods were ethical or desirable. 

https://www.stephypublishers.com/jpssr/pdf/JPSSR.MS.ID.000528.pdf