Doublethink

Doublethink (English doublethink, in older translations: doublethink ) is a Newspeak term from the dystopian novel 1984 by George Orwell and includes the ability to maintain two contradictory beliefs in one's thinking and to accept both.

This includes with: Intentionally to tell lies and sincerely to believe in them; to forget any fact that has become inconvenient, and then, if it is needed again, they retrieve from oblivion; as long as necessary to deny the existence of objective reality and at the same time to accept the reality that you denied. Even the use of the term doublethink, the use of double thinking is needed. Because if only by using this term, admits one to manipulate reality. Through a re-application of the double thinking but does not delete it from this memory, so the lie the truth is constantly one step ahead.

State control of reality

As Orwell explained in 1984, the party could not get their unyielding grip on power, without whose population damaging psychologically and subjecting them to permanent propaganda. Yet could the recognition of this inhumanity and deception, even within the party, as a result of the general indignation lead to an implosion of the state structure (similar to the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the 20th century ). For this reason, the perfected form of government used by Orwell's idea a complex system of reality control. Although the novel is known mainly because of its total surveillance of everyday life, people were primarily held by this cognitive reality check in check. Control of reality meant the ability to control and manipulate the population by changing everyday language and thought. Newspeak was the method to control the thinking about language. Doublethink was the method to manipulate the thinking immediately.

Doublethink was a kind of conditioned, intentional denial of internal contradictions of the prevailing state ideology. In the case of Winston Smith, Orwell's protagonist, this meant the Ministry to work for truth, to delete potentially subversive data in the State Archives, and then really be able to believe in the new version, which he himself had written.

Self-deception by reality shift

As a result of the double Denks the party was not only able to terrorize their own people militarily and to convince their citizens of the attacks were caused by the enemy, but also all party members, even those who had ordered the attacks, were in the able to believe that the terrorist attacks had been driven from outside. In addition, the double-think of the party great goals and realistic expectations allowed to maintain equally:

" If you want to prevail, we must be able to shift its relation to reality, because the secret of domination is to believe in his own infallibility, and to combine this with the ability to learn from past mistakes. "

In this way, every party member could be a credible pawn to be without ever relevant in the absence of knowledge. The party is both fanatical and well-informed and would therefore hardly stagnate or soften and collapse. The " killing the messenger " can disrupt the command and control structure of conventional totalitarian power structures, but would not affect in such a system. So the doublethink worked as a key tool of party discipline, the state propaganda, and as a supplement to police apparatus. Together, these tools were able to conceal the state malignancy not only before the population, but also from the government itself, but without the confusion and misinformation that are associated with primitive totalitarian regime. The doublethink was essential for the ability of party members the ability to identify the real intentions of the party, without flinching guilty before these intentions.

Psychotherapy and cognitive dissonance

Over the years, since the publication of 1984, the concept of double Denks became a synonym of mental relief, which is done by simply ignoring the contradiction of two perspectives (see also: cognitive dissonance ). Some psychotherapeutic schools such as cognitive behavioral therapy, patients encourage to modify their thinking in order to treat various mental disorders that can be maintained by ignoring contradictions (see also cognitive distortion).