American psychiatrist who studied Chinese thought reform programs and Nazi doctors — developing the concept of 'thought reform' (brainwashing) and identifying the eight criteria of totalist environments in cults and totalitarian regimes.
Eight criteria of totalism: Lifton's Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism (1961) identified eight psychological themes of totalist environments: milieu control (control of the environment and communication), mystical manipulation, demand for purity, confession, sacred science, loading the language (thought-terminating clichés), doctrine over person, and dispensing of existence (only true believers have valid existence). This framework has been applied to cults, totalitarian regimes, and — more recently — to social media environments and ideological movements. His later work on the Nazi doctors (1986) and 'malignant normality' applied these concepts to institutional evil.
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