SARGANT, William. Battle for the Mind: A Physiology of Conversion and Brain-Washing. London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1957.
First edition, first impression. Octavo. Original grey cloth, red spine labels lettered in white, Heinemann device to upper board. In the original Alfred Seiler dust jacket, priced 25s net. Illustrated with photographic plates, diagrams, and a Hogarth frontispiece.
Presentation copy from the author to Rosemary Portal, daughter of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Portal of Hungerford, Britain’s wartime Chief of the Air Staff. Inscribed by Sargant on the front free endpaper:
“To Miss R Portal / with best wishes / William Sargant / May ’57.”
A striking association copy of one of the most provocative books of post-war psychology. Sargant, a physician in psychological medicine, examines the mechanisms by which belief may be broken down, redirected, or imposed, ranging across battle exhaustion, religious conversion, shock treatment, psychoanalysis, political indoctrination, confession, and brain-washing. The contents include chapters on “The Use of Drugs in Psychotherapy”, “Psycho-analysis, Shock Treatments and Leucotomy”, “Techniques of Religious Conversion”, and “Brain-washing in Religion and Politics”, with a chapter on ancient brain-washing contributed by Robert Graves.
The Portal provenance gives the copy a particularly resonant setting. Lord Portal had directed the Royal Air Force through the psychological and physical pressures of total war; this copy, presented to his daughter in the year of publication, belongs naturally beside the wider Portal family library of books on war, command, belief, pressure, and the modern state.
The original dust jacket has been professionally conserved and retains its powerful red, black and cream design. A compelling copy of a work that remains disturbing, influential and deeply collectible.
