Explosion Norway

[Jan Klimkowski]

de-emotionalisation training? dehumanisation?

Danny - check out the work of Lt Commander Thomas Narut and themes explored in the Clockwork Orange thread here.

The conditioning of Narut's assassins was accomplished
by audio-visual desensitization, a standard behavior modification
process. These men were "desensitized" to mayhem
by being shown films of people being killed or injured in a
number of different ways. At first the films would show
only mild forms of bloodshed. As the men became acclimated
to the scenes of carnage, they would see progressively
more violent scenes. The assassin candidates, Narut
explained, would eventually be able to dissociate any feelings
they might have from even the goriest scenes they
viewed.
Narut said that of course U.S. naval psychologists would
have first selected the candidates for training by their psychological
makeup. Those selected for assassination assignments
were often from submarine crews and paratroops.
Others were convicted murderers from military prisons
who had already shown a proclivity for violence.
Still others were men who had been given awards for
valor. World War II Medal of Honor winner Audie Murphy
was a subject of extensive research.
The best killers, according to Narut, were men whom psychologists would classify as "passive-aggressive" personalities.
These were people with strong drives that were
usually kept under tight control. Such types were usually
calm, but from time to time would exhibit outbursts of temper
during which they could literally kill without remorse.
Narut said that through psychological testing, he and his
colleagues were looking for more such men, for further
conditioning.

Also the notorious montage scene in The Parallax View.

Narut's "The Use of a Symbolic Model and Verbal Intervention in Inducing and Reducing Stress" can be seen as a variant of Ipcress File techniques: where IPCRESS stands for "Induction of Psychoneuroses by Conditioned Reflex under Stress". The (fictional?) Ipcress was based in part on Cameron's psychic driving.

See also the MK-ULTRA Iceberg thread here.