The Art of Psychological Warfare

Dear Reader,
This week I decided to take a trip down the path of the mind.  I believe that literature is meant to teach us something, and I think authors are the ones who do so with their contextualized statements on society.  These works, whether deliberate or not, divulge various dark secrets in society that need to be openly addressed.  Authors take it upon themselves to open up the mind for all to see.

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Psychological warfare is the intent to reduce the morale of the enemy or opponent.  Fiedler writes in Love and Death in the American Novel of the "break-through is characterized not only by the separation of psychology from philosophy, the displacement of the traditional leading genres by the personal lyric and analytic prose fiction (with the consequent subordination of plot to character); it is also marked by the promulgation of a theory of revolution as a good in itself and, most notably perhaps, by a new concept of inwardness. One is almost tempted to say, by the invention of a new kind of self, a new level of mind; for what has been happening since the eighteenth century seems more like the development of a new organ than the mere finding of a new way to describe old experience. The triumph, for instance, of the theory that insanity is not possession by forces out
side the psyche but a failure within the psyche itself is a representative aspect of the change-over" (xxviii).  In many instances, American literature often focuses on the psychological warfare between the author and his or her narrator, the writer and his or her audience. Those who read may feel life is okay or their opinions on certain matters are normal, but it sometimes takes an author or other work to make society realize that something needs to change.

Are authors, as the dictionary defines this practice, attempting to mislead or demoralize society through the use of literature? Maybe.  But I propose that writers themselves may be attempting to do more than that.  They shape our world through their use of rhetoric and are guides in establishing what society thinks and feels.  How many people have changed their minds on the justice system in the South or race in general simply by reading To Kill a Mockingbird?  How many reflected that Jim in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was not the unfeeling slave so many thought he would be?  In reading a work like Of Mice & Men did readers learn about the situations of the intellectually disabled?  Reverse psychology has been played for many years by parents, and my dear friends, it is being played upon us by the very words we consume.    

It isn't even the idea of manipulating us to do or act on the opposite.  Cleverly, authors present the situation in a plot that the reader connects to or intrigued by.  He or she presents the idea of humanity to the reader.  The reader generally accepts this character or setting on some level possibly making a connection of some kind.  And before the audience realizes it, the reader is hooked and feeling something for the issue at hand.  A head game begins to play out before the reader's eyes.  A monologue spoken by the protagonist steers the reader in a different path than before.  A simple act of kindness or internal thought made by the narrator concerning an injustice of some kind guides the reader into an enlightened way of thinking.  So whether the intent of the book is to change the mentality of the world or not, we may never know.  But think about it - literature is a reflection of our society.  What writers say about the world and its occupants is written down not just for readers of today but for generations to come.  What better way to design society's ideologies than by using the tools of psychological warfare?