The purpose of this research is to examine the case of Patty Hearst as an illustration of the phenomenon of brainwashing. The plan of the research will be to set forth the social and historical context of the events of Hearst's life in the mid-1970s and then to discuss how her experience demonstrates the power of the wealthy class, American capitalist corporatism and education--indeed the entire American establishment--to exert undue influence on the development and enactment of human psychology.
The manifest events of Patricia Hearst's adventure into the unknown are embedded in popular imagination. On the night of February 4, 1974, Patricia Campbell Hearst, heiress to the Hearst publishing empire, was forcibly taken from her Berkeley, Calif., apartment by two men (Donald DeFreeze, Bill Harris) and one woman (Angela Atwood), in the process beating her live-in companion, Stephen Weed. Hearst and Weed were both students at the University of California, Berkeley. The FBI was called into the case immediately. Over the next two months, the abduction became a mass-media event, punctuated by various demands and one "ransom" in the form of food distribution to the poor. No less significant were the series of written and audiotape "communiquTs" containing the voice of Hearst, as well as that of leader of the group that revealed itself to be the agent of the event: the Symbionese Liberaton Army, or SLA.
Initially, Hearst was heard on audiotape stating that she wanted to "get out of here, but the only way I'm going to is if we do it their way" (Stone, 2005). However, by April 3, 1974, Hearst's sentiment was expressed very differently:
I have been given the choice of one: being released in a safe area, or two: joining the forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army and fighting for my freedom and the freedom of all oppressed people. I have chosen to stay and fight (Stone, 2005).
What accounts for this dramatic change? How is it possible ...