menticide

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Latin mēns (mind) or mentālis (mental) +‎ -cide (killing), from Latin -cīdium, by analogy to homicide, genocide, etc. Coined during the 1950s.

Noun

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menticide (countable and uncountable, plural menticides)

  1. Brain-washing, conditioning people to abandon their beliefs.
    • 1957, Joost Abraham Maurits Meerloo, Mental Seduction and Menticide: The Psychology of Thought Control and Brainwashing, London: Jonathan Cape, →OCLC, page 87:
      In the last phases of brainwashing and menticide, the self-humiliating submission of the victims serves as an inner defensive device annihilating the prosecuting inquisitor in a magic way.
  2. Efforts to destroy the mind or the will of an individual or group of people.
    • 1974, Herbert Foster, Ribbin', Jivin', and Playin' the Dozens: The Unrecognized Dilemma of Inner-city Schools, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger, →ISBN, page 6:
      In response, black groups accuse school personnel of practicing genocide and "menticide" (miseducation) for allowing black children to get away with conduct they would not condone in white children.
    • 1989, Fielding McGehee, Rebecca Moore, The Need for a Second Look at Jonestown: Remembering its People, Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen Press, →ISBN, page 151:
      I wanted then — and I want today — no laws against "mental kidnapping" or "mentacide" or any other socially unacceptable state of mind.

Derived terms

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Translations

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