Robert Jay Lifton

“Thought reform is a coordinated program of psychological manipulation, aimed at bringing about a drastic change in an individual's beliefs and behavior.”

“The survivor is one who has encountered, been exposed to, or witnessed death and has remained alive.”

“Doubling is the psychological means by which one invokes the evil potential of the self.”

“The most dangerous people in the world are those who are certain they are right.”

“Ideological totalism is a psychological state in which an individual's entire identity is merged with a totalistic ideology.”

“Protean man is a new kind of man, a man of many forms, a man who is constantly re-creating himself.”

“In the death-haunted life of the survivor, guilt is a central theme.”

“The apocalyptic imagination is part of the human psychic equipment.”

“Trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body.”

“We are all survivors of Hiroshima.”

“The genocidal mentality is a state of mind in which the perpetrators believe they are cleansing the world of an evil.”

“The human being is the only animal that knows it is going to die.”

“We have to be able to imagine the end of the world in order to prevent it.”

“To be a survivor is to be in a special relationship with death.”