How Do Programs Brainwash Families and Children?
According to cult-researcher and psychologist, Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer (author of “Cults in Our Midst”), there are six conditions necessary for thought reform/brainwashing: 
 
                1.  Keep the person unaware of what is going on and the changes taking place.
                2.  Control the person’s time, and, if possible, physical environment.
                3.  Create a sense of powerlessness, covert fear, and dependency.
                4.  Suppress much of the person’s old behavior and attitudes.
                5.  Instill new behavior and attitudes.
                6.  Put forth a closed system of logic; allow no real input or criticism.

(excerpt from “Cults in Our Midst”, page 63)

In addition, Dr. Singer has found that the above conditions and tactics are organized to: 
 
                 *  Destabilize a person’s sense of self

                 *  Get the person to drastically reinterpret his or her life’s history and radically 

                     alter his or her worldview and accept a new version of reality and causality

                  *  Develop in the person a dependence on the organization, and thereby turn the

                      person into a deployable agent of the organization.

In our research, we have found that these are the methods and results used and intended by those operating behavior modification programs. These methods are horribly damaging and many victims of this industry never recover.  
 
Here is an excerpt from a World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools Newsletter: 
 
“BRAINWASHING - A process of systematically, forcibly, and intensively indoctrinating a person to destroy or weaken his beliefs and ideas, so that he becomes willing to accept different or opposite beliefs and ideas. (The World Book Dictionary)… If that is brainwashing, which the definition says it is, THEN BRAINWASH HER!!!! Everything her Dad and I tried did not work. We needed a little BRAINWASHING ourselves!!” –Written by Kathy A., a WWASPS participant and parent. (From “Parent Support News”, Holiday 2007 Issue, published by the World Wide Association of Specialty Programs and Schools aka Teen Help.) 
 
While WWASPS may be the only program open about brainwashing and trying to spin it into a positive treatment model, we know it is harmful and considered a form of psychological torture.
 
And, we know that these harmful tactics are widespread throughout the entire industry. These programs typically use a level/phase system that follows the very pattern of breakdown and reconditioning described by Dr. Singer above. 
 
Here is an example of the standard level/phase systems  in place at practically every behavior modification program in operation today: 
 

Phase 1. Deny all contact with outside world. Deny interaction between “students”. Deny basic needs as punishment (food, sleep, clothing, heat, water, etc.). Create confusion and use physical and mental exhaustion as a tool to breakdown “old behaviors”. This causes a complete mental breakdown in the child. (Forced betrayal of one’s self.)

Phase 2. Once a child becomes “agreeable” to submission, small “rewards” are given for obedience and the risk of being returned to the earlier phase is held out as the worst punishment one can receive. Children are persuaded to make up stories (false confessions) about themselves and others in the program in order to get rewarded for their “honesty”. (Forced betrayal of one’s peers.)

Phase 3. The child has no more opinion of him/herself based on own self-image or the reflection of his/her peers. The child completely loses and disassociates between “old life/old behavior” and “new life/new behavior”. (Complete mental/emotional breakdown and intentional creation of disassociative disorder.)

Phase 4. The child is completely submissive and brainwashed. The child hates everything they once were or knew. The child only feels safe in the program and only credits the program with his/her success. Child is given “responsibility” to “lead” other children. (Child is now brainwashed and actively aiding his captors in brainwashing others.)

 

Now, this system can be broken up into more steps, but, this is the basic model and is used throughout the industry to harm children and destroy families.