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玛格丽特,美国的“国宝”

2006-07-12 来源:凯风网

编者按:

  本网发表了美国前心理学会主席玛格丽特博士关于法轮功问题的访谈后,社会反响强烈,连日来收到许多电话和电子邮件。网友们对玛格丽特高度的清醒和深刻的见解表示深深敬佩,同时更加坚信,我们不应低估了美国人民的鉴别力和判断力;法轮功决不可能长期蒙骗美国社会,随着他们一步步充分暴露,必将有更多的美国有识之士挺身出来,捍卫美国社会的和谐与家庭的稳定,抵制邪教法轮功对美国的侵袭。


   也有不少网友要求对玛格丽特博士的背景作进一步的介绍。还有人希望将玛格丽特的经典著作《邪教在我们身边》译成中文出版。
       

  今特发表一组美国教育、学术界当年悼念玛格丽特的文章,以增进中国读者对这位“美国国宝”级专家的认识。另外据了解,《邪教在我们身边》一书尚没有译成中文,如哪家出版社有意,请和我们联系。(editor@kaiwind.com)

 

 

玛格丽特经典著作《邪教在我们身边》

 

众多家庭的损失:玛格丽特辛格的去世

家庭之路 2004年3月1日     梨曼韦恩

 

  2003年11月23号玛格丽特辛格博士的去世引发了公众媒体上大量的哀悼,赞美和缅怀文章。她被认为是全世界关于洗脑问题的最前沿的权威。她的去世不仅让众多"强制性说服"手法的受害者感到悲痛,也同样让他们的家庭,许多的专业工作者和准专业工作者扼腕痛惜,他们一直在努力了解和应对辛格所说的"我们身边的邪教"。

  在上世纪最后25年集中研究邪教之前,玛格丽特已经是两个重要领域的研究和治疗专家了。早在50年代她就是心身医学领先的研究者,并在1972年至1973年期间被选为美国心身医学协会的会长。

  我和她同时都对健康和疾病的变化过程感兴趣,我们在1958年结识。在过去的15年里我们每周一次来往于伯克利和贝塞斯达之间,花大量的时间仔细倾听心理疾病病人的录音带,特别是那些精神分裂症病人。另外我们还注意研究在家庭疗法过程中家庭成员的对话并使研究工作日渐标准化。在这些年里,玛格丽特成为了一位著名的家庭问题研究者和治疗专家。
  
  在八年的时间里,她一直是家庭之路董事会极富贡献的成员。

  从私人的角度讲,这种长期的密切合作,彼此的思想交流是真正的互惠互助。我们的研究方法是多种多样的,但玛格丽特关于罗尔沙赫氏方法的特殊技能和经验使得研究工作成果卓著。和传统方法不同,我们主要的兴趣是研究家庭成员的观念形成过程,无论是独立形成的还是集体范围下形成的。而研究工作在研究者和家庭成员彼此交流的过程中展开。因此我们把家庭的概念理解为一个系统,各种因素彼此关联融合,而其他不相关的因素则不在家庭心理研究的范畴中。

      总而言之,"家庭研究"既是艰辛的工作也是快乐的事业。玛格丽特热切而富有创造力的研究使许多她的同事和学生大开眼界。作为临床医生她帮助了许多病人和求助者,观察和廓清他们的心理难题。她和她那些鞭辟及里的见解,我们将永远怀念。

 

 

"她是我们的国宝。"

 

2003年11月25号,星期二,旧金山纪事报 史蒂芬鲁宾斯坦

 

  玛格丽特  辛格,一位柔语轻声却坚持己见的伯克利心理学家,一位研究洗脑问题的专业工作者,一位研究过人民圣殿教,大卫教,统一教和共生解放军等邪教的学者,一位帮助许多权威和受害者更好了解邪教的教授,她已经去世了。

  辛格教授,享年82岁,经过长期和疾病的斗争,她周日在伯克利大学阿尔塔贝茨医疗中心过世。

  "她是一个和蔼的学者,全世界关于洗脑问题的最权威的专家。",保罗莫兰茨在去年的采访里这么说。莫兰茨领导了70年代反对锡南浓邪教的斗争。"她是我们的国宝。"

  1976年她为报业巨亨后裔帕特里西亚·赫斯特银行抢劫案做证,帕特里西亚被共生解放军所挟持。1977年她又为五个统一教教徒在听证会上做证,这五个人的父母一直试图使他们的孩子脱离该教。
  
  无论是在证人席上,还是在伯克利家中的厨房里(辛格教授主要在这里工作),她都是个平静、权威、睿智、坚定、风趣和彬彬有礼的人。

  她采访了3000名邪教成员,协助了200多个法庭案例,她也是精神分裂研究和家庭疗法研究的主要权威。

  "我也许看上去象个普通小老太太,不过我可不是个容易打败的对手。"她去年接受采访时说,一边喝着她最爱的爱尔兰威士忌。

  "我母亲一生都在帮助别人---无论是弱者,受害者的父母还是律师---从来都不取分文。"山姆辛格,这位旧金山公关专家这样说,"没有什么比帮助别人摆脱困境更让她高兴的了。"

  她经常受到邪教领袖和追随者威胁,但她从不退缩。年过八巡的辛格教授还常常提到一段故事,告诉人们她是如何吓退一个往她邮箱里放恐吓信的跟踪者。

  "我这可有12口径的手枪,小子,你最好从我的走廊滚开,要不你吃不了兜着走!"她从窗口大声吼到"别忘了告诉你们老大别再派你来了。"

  她出生在丹佛,父亲是美国造币厂的总工程师。她在丹佛大学获得了自己的学士、硕士和博士学位。

  50年代她开始在华盛顿特区沃尔特里德研究院研究洗脑问题,在那里她采访了参加过美国朝鲜战争的战俘。她于1958年来到伯克利,并在六七十年代在邪教研究领域取得显著的地位。
 
  "我开始和一些家庭交谈,他们都有家庭成员失踪,许多孩子就是我们学校的学生,他们和我讲述的故事都是如此类似。"她说。"突然间人格发生变化,说话的方式也变了,然后就消失了。对,和那些朝鲜战争战俘一样,同样的思想改造和社会控制的结果。"

  "你一次又一次的发现,任何时候人们都会感到脆弱。"她说"而这世上总有狡猾之徒到处招摇撞骗。"

   她总是在电话里给人提供建议,这些电话很多是打给全世界各地焦躁的父母或是邪教受害者以及他们的律师。

  几十年来,她都会在西伯克利布雷南餐吧登坛开讲,她和丈夫杰罗姆每周二都会到,除了提供治疗帮助以外还会招待他们咸牛肉,卷心菜和一轮又一轮的爱尔兰咖啡。

  她是《邪教在我们身边》的作者,该书是1995年的一部权威的邪教研究专著,今年早些时间她又做了些修改,加入了关于邪教和恐怖主义联系的研究。她曾获得霍夫海默奖,美国精神病医师学院迪恩奖,美国精神健康协会成就奖和美国家庭医疗协会成就奖。她曾任美国身心医学学会主席,凯泽基金研究院董事会成员和美国家庭基金会董事会成员。

  她身后留下共同婚姻生活48年的丈夫杰罗姆,两个孩子山姆和马莎,他们都来自伯克利。

 

 

前美国教育家,自由思想的领袖,邪教问题的专家

 

奥克兰论坛报 2003年11月27日,星期四   凯瑟林普佛默

 

  伯克利---玛格丽特  辛格---教授,心理学家,自由思想的领袖,世界闻名的邪教和洗脑问题专家,于11月23号在伯克利大学阿尔塔贝茨医疗中心过世,享年82岁。

  "我母亲是世界上领先的邪教问题专家,她一生都致力于为人们能自由思考和生活而斗争。"她的儿子山姆辛格这样说,"她所从事的是世界上最重要的知识分子的斗争---对抗乔治奥威尔在《1984》描绘的专制统治以及那些影响人们信仰和行为的邪教的斗争。"

  她对许多邪教都有所了解,包括人民圣殿教,大卫教,共生解放军,统一教和其他类似的组织。辛格女士还为一百多个法庭审判出庭做证,而且她还帮助了许多致电求助的人们。

  "从六十年代起我母亲的厨房就是她反邪教斗争的主战场,直到她今年初病倒为止。"她的儿子说道,"电话一直不断,你都放不下听筒。无论是感恩节,圣诞节,电话总是响个不停。"

  1921年7月29号出生在科罗拉多州丹佛,辛格女士毕业于丹佛大学,在1952年获得临床心理学博士学位。

  50年代她在华盛顿特区沃尔特里德研究院研究朝鲜战争战俘的洗脑问题,在那里她开始热衷于强迫心理技巧的研究---后来这被称作洗脑。

  在华盛顿特区的时候,她在一部电梯里遇到了自己后来的丈夫,杰罗姆辛格。两个人在50年代后期移居伯克利,两人都成为伯克利的教授。两个人结婚48年,育有两个孩子。

  辛格女士注意到运用于战俘老兵和邪教成员上的洗脑技巧的相似性,并描述了六种条件,在这六种情况下只要施加控制,就可以让人非自愿地改变自己的思想。

  她参与了许多的案例,1976年她为报业巨亨后裔帕特里西亚·赫斯特银行抢劫案做证,帕特里西亚一度被共生解放军所挟持,1977年她又为五个试图脱教的统一教教徒做证。

  "她总是乐于抽出自己的宝贵时间帮助别人",她的同事哈尔雷纳德说,雷纳德也是伯克利学生事物办公室主任和邪教问题中心的主任,"这就象随时随地拥有一个智慧的源泉---她总是那么温暖,智慧和坚韧。她为加州大学伯克利分校付出很多。

 

 


洗脑专家肺炎去世

 

洛杉矶时报 丹尼斯麦克莱伦

 

  玛格丽特泰勒辛格,世界上领先的邪教和洗脑问题专家去世,享年82岁。她曾为许多的著名案例作过证,1976年她为报业巨亨后裔帕特里西亚·赫斯特银行抢劫案做证。

  辛格,是一位临床心理学家,加州大学伯克利分校的教授。她还以在精神分裂方面的研究而出名。经过长期与疾病斗争,星期天死于肺炎发作。

  辛格曾在朝鲜战争战俘洗脑问题中做出开创性的研究,她经常在重要案例上为庭审律师和新闻媒体提供咨询,其中包括人民圣殿教和琼斯敦镇集体自杀惨案,洛杉矶山腰扼杀者追捕行动,大卫教和天堂之门教等邪教活动。她曾经访问过4000名邪教成员,包括查尔思曼森和许多他的追随者。

  辛格在赫斯特1975年被劫后对她进行了大量的采访。1974年,赫斯特被共生解放军劫持,最后赫斯特加入她的劫持者武装抢劫银行。

  她后来被邀请研究赫斯特的案例,确定赫斯特是否经过洗脑才加入邪教团体传播其所谓革命的意识形态,辛格在陪审团外听证会上做证,称她研究了赫斯特的言论,并认定七盘共生军发布的赫斯特磁带中,赫斯特都是在朗读其劫持者准备好的声明而已。

  主审法官表达了对辛格工作的赞赏,但认为辛格的结论不应该呈示陪审团,因为该研究是在一个丛未被专家做证的领域做出了结论。
 
  该案最后判定赫斯特有罪,但却提升了辛格作为洗脑问题专家的地位。

  她1921年7月29日出生在丹佛,父亲是美国造币厂的总工程师,母亲是一位联邦法官的秘书。

  在丹佛大学读书期间,辛格曾在丹佛民间交响乐团演奏大提琴,并获得言语学学士学位,言语病理学和特殊教育硕士学位。

  在1943年获得临床心理学博士学位后,她在克罗拉多大学医学院从事心理学研究,长达八年时间。

  1953年,她开始在华盛顿特区沃尔特里德研究院研究朝鲜战争中战俘的洗脑问题。

  她还在国家精神健康研究院、美国空军和麻省理工学院从事其他研究,主要重点是精神分裂症方面。

  50年代后期移居伯克利,成为加州大学伯克利分校副教授。丈夫杰罗姆辛格后来加入该校物理系。从1964年至1991年期间任该校心理学教授。
 
  辛格,曾在世界各地演讲,并因为其出色工作获得许多荣誉,包括1966年美国精神病医师学院霍夫海默奖,并在1976年因其精神分裂方面的研究获得美国精神病医师学院斯坦利迪恩奖。

  她的家人包括丈夫,儿子山姆和女儿马莎以及五个孙辈子女。

 

 

加州大学心理学教授从事洗脑问题研究

 

圣何塞水星报 2003年11月26日,星期三 杰西卡波特

 

  世界闻名的加州大学伯克利分校玛格丽特辛格教授曾在洗脑问题中做出开创性的研究,并在针对统一教和共生解放军的审判中出庭做证,周日她在伯克利大学阿尔塔贝茨医疗中心过世,享年82岁。

  她是一位柔声细语但智慧超凡的研究者。辛格女士一生采访了3000多名邪教成员,并在200多个案件中做证,包括1976年她为报业巨亨后裔帕特里西亚·赫斯特银行抢劫案做证,帕特里西亚一度被共生解放军所挟持。该组织是个成立于越战时期加州伯克利的极端组织,后来劫持了报业大王赫斯特19岁的后裔帕特里西亚,并称呼她'战争囚犯',直到劝说帕特里西亚加入该组织从事犯罪活动。

  辛格女士还为五个试图脱教的统一教教徒的父母做证,这几位父母认定他们的孩子被该教教义洗脑。

  里查奥夫舍,加州大学伯克利大学社会心理学教授,自称自己是辛格的伙伴,他说和她一起工作是每个人的梦想---除非你是那个在法庭上要盘问她的律师。

  "她就象个脚穿钢钉鞋的小老太太。"奥夫舍说,"我常常看到那些在法庭上盘问她的律师自己却哭了起来。要打倒这样一个比他们都聪明的老太太可不是那么容易的。"

  作为一个爱尔兰天主教家庭的唯一孩子,辛格1923年出生在丹佛,父亲是美国造币厂的首席工程师。辛格在丹佛大学获得临床心理学博士学位。

  她对思想控制技巧研究兴趣开始于1952年她在华盛顿特区沃尔特里德研究院工作期间。她采访了一些在朝鲜战争期间做过战俘被迫书写叛变声明的老兵。

  1957年她到伯克利之后,辛格对邪教的兴趣逐渐增长。这里是研究六七十年代日益繁荣的新时代邪教的理想场所,因为象克里希纳派和统一教派这样的组织正在伯克利校园里积极招募新成员。

  2001年水星报对她关于邪教领导人和招募战术的采访中,她说,"从根本上说人类是孤独的,他们都需要加入某种东西。如果它越神秘,就显得越有魅力,越能吸引人。"她指出,邪教招募新人往往运用逢迎,提供友谊、尊敬和假意教授机密等手段。

  最近,辛格女士著有《邪教在我们身边》一书,这本1995年研究邪教的书籍今年又经过她重新修改,加入了邪教和恐怖主义联系的内容。她曾获得霍夫海默奖和美国精神病医师学院斯坦利迪恩奖。

  大卫克拉克,一位美国家庭基金会助手,曾经和一些受到邪教影响的家庭工作过。他说,尽管辛格声名显赫,在过去的许多年里她仍然一如既往地安慰那些邪教成员的家庭。

  "她理解他们的困境,知道他们处境多么孤单。他们通过传统途径寻找律师和牧师的帮助但收获不多。"克拉克说。

  住在内布拉斯加州贝尔维尤的布兰达戴格斯就是一位经常打电话寻求帮助的人。"我在见玛格丽特时简直就是一团糟。"戴格斯说,他曾是无尽的爱使徒团成员,在一次会议上碰到了辛格。"我希望她能帮助我的家庭。她接了我的电话,并且付了电话费。我自己都数不清她救了我多少次。"

  她的儿子,山姆辛格是旧金山辛格咨询公司的总裁。他说他的母亲从来不会被那些意图阻止她的人吓倒。曾经有很多次有人试图闯入她在伯克利的家。她的母亲总是用一把12口径手枪来吓走擅闯者,尽管她从来也不真正拥有一只枪。

  "她总是很小心,因为总有人想要伤害她。"山姆辛格说"但对自己的信念她从来是坚守不移。

 


A Loss for the Family Field: The Death of Margaret T. Singer
 
From Family Process, March 1, 2004; By Lyman C. Wynne

The death of Dr. Margaret Singer on November 23, 2003, has evoked an outpouring of grief, admiration, and tribute in the public press. She has been recognized as "the foremost authority on brainwashing in the entire world." Her loss has distressed not only the many victims of "coercive persuasion," but also those family members, professionals, and paraprofessionals who have struggled to understand and cope with what she called the "cults in our midst."
 
However, before focusing on cults for much of the last quarter century, Margaret had already established herself as a leader in two other arenas of study and treatment. First, during the 1950s she had become a leading researcher in the field of psychosomatic medicine and was elected President of the American Psychosomatic Society as recently as 1972-1973.
 
Meanwhile, because she and I both had been keenly interested in communication, a phenomenon on the path between health and disorder, we were introduced to one another in 1958. For more than 15 years we commuted between Berkeley and Bethesda/Rochester, a week in each setting most months. We spent many, many hours listening closely to tapes of psychiatrically ill persons, especially those identified as schizophrenic patients. More closely still, we examined communication of members of their families in the contexts of family therapy and standardized research tasks. During these years Margaret became best known as a family researcher and therapist.
 
For eight years she was a constructive member of the Board of Directors of Family Process.

On a very personal note, I can say that the long-term, close collaboration, bouncing ideas back and forth with Margaret, was an experience of genuine mutuality. Though we worked with speech samples collected in a variety of ways, Margaret's special skill and experience with Rorschach protocols was most productive. Unconventionally, we were most interested in the conceptualization of family members, individually and conjointly, viewed as a transactional process between tester and family member, or family members with one another. Thus, we were able to use the concept of the family as a system within which some aspects melded together relationally, and other, excluded features were outside the family's psychological boundary.

In retrospect, this "family research" was hard work and good fun. In her research, Margaret engendered a vibrant, creative spark that opened the eyes of many a colleague and student. As a clinician she was able to observe and clarify incredibly nasty problems brought to her by a great diversity of clients and consultees. She, and her astutely penetrating insights, will be sorely missed.

 

"She is a national treasure.''

From San Francisco Chronicle, Tuesday November 25, 2003

By Steven Rubenstein, Chronicle staff writer. Kevin Fagan contributed to this report.

Margaret Singer, the soft-spoken but hard-edged Berkeley psychologist and expert on brainwashing who studied and helped authorities and victims better understand the Peoples Temple, Branch Davidian, Unification Church and Symbionese Liberation Army cults, has died.

Professor Singer, 82, died Sunday after a long illness at Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley.

"She's one of a kind, the foremost authority on brainwashing in the entire world,'' said lawyer Paul Morantz in an interview last year. Morantz led the effort against the Synanon cult in the 1970s. "She is a national treasure.''

She testified in the 1976 bank robbery trial of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, who was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, and at the 1977 hearing for five young members of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church whose parents sought to have them "deprogrammed.''

On the witness stand or in the kitchen of her Berkeley hills home, where Professor Singer did much of her work, she was calm, authoritative, smart, unshakable, funny and unfailingly polite.

She interviewed more than 3,000 cult members, assisted in more than 200 court cases and also was a leading authority on schizophrenia and family therapy.

"I might look like a little old grandma, but I'm no pushover,'' she told a reporter last year,
 
just before tossing back another shot of Bushmills Irish whiskey, her libation of choice.
 
"My mom spent her whole life assisting other people -- victims, parents or lawyers -- and often for free,'' said Sam Singer, a San Francisco publicist. "Nothing gave her greater joy than helping to get someone unscrewed up.''

She was occasionally threatened by cult leaders and their followers, and she never backed down. Professor Singer liked to tell how, at the age of 80, she frightened off a stalker who had been leaving menacing notes in her mailbox.
 
"I've got a 12-gauge shotgun up here, sonny, and you'd better get off my porch, or you'll be sorry!'' she hollered out the window. "And tell your handlers not to send you back!''

She was born in Denver, where her father was the chief engineer at the U. S. Mint. She received her bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Denver.

She began to study brainwashing in the 1950s at Walter Reed Institute of Research in Washington, D. C., where she interviewed U.S. soldiers who had been taken prisoner during the Korean War. She came to Berkeley in 1958 and found herself in a prime spot to study the cult scene of the 1960s and 1970s.

"I started hearing from families who had missing members, many of them young kids on our campus, and they all would describe the same sorts of things, '' she said. "A sudden change of personality, a new way of talking . . . and then they would disappear. And bingo, it was the same sort of thing as with the Korean War prisoners, the same sort of thought-reform and social controls. ''
 
"You find it again and again, any time people feel vulnerable,'' she said.
 
"There are always sharpies around who want to hornswoggle people.''
 
She dispensed much of her advice over the phone, which always seemed to be ringing with anxious parents, victims or lawyers from around the world, all seeking advice. For decades, she also held court at a large table near the front door of Brennan's bar and restaurant in West Berkeley, where she and her husband, Jerome, were Tuesday night regulars and where she would treat friends and admirers to corned beef, cabbage and multiple rounds of Irish coffee.

She was the author of "Cults in Our Midst,'' the authoritative 1995 study on cults that she revised earlier this year with analysis of the connection between cults and terrorism. She was the winner of the Hofheimer Prize and the Dean Award from the American College of Psychiatrists and of achievement awards from the Mental Health Association of the United States and the American Family Therapy Association. She was a past president of the American Psychosomatic Society and a board member of the Kaiser Foundation Research Institute Review Board and the American Family Foundation.

She is survived by her husband of 48 years, Jerome, and by two children, Sam and Martha, all of Berkeley.

 


From the Oakland Tribune

Former UC educator was psychologist, champion of free thought and an expert on cults

By Katherine Pfrommer, STAFF WRITER
 
Thursday, November 27, 2003 - BERKELEY -- Margaret Singer -- a professor, psychologist, champion of free thought and world-renowned expert on cults and brainwashing -- died Nov. 23 at Alta Bates SummitMedical Centerafter a long illness. She was 82.
 
"My mom was really one of the world's leading experts on cults and she spent her lifetime fighting for people's ability to think and act freely," son Sam Singer of Berkeley said. "She was engaged in one of the most important intellectual battles in the world -- the fight against George Orwell's vision of a "1984" state or cult that would affect people's beliefs and behavior."
 
Well-versed with the likes of Peoples Temple, Branch Davidian, Symbionese Liberation Army, UnificationChurchand other groups, Mrs. Singer testified in hundreds of cases in court -- but she also assisted anyone who called her listed home phone number asking for help.
 
"My mother's kitchen was action central for the anti-cult movement from the 60s up until the beginning of this year when she got ill," her son said. "You couldn't put the phone down without it ringing again. It wouldn't matter if it was Thanksgiving or Christmas day, the phone would ring, ring, ring."
 
Born July 29, 1921, in Denver, Colo., Mrs. Singer earned her degrees at the University of Denver, obtaining her Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1952.
 
In the 1950s, she studied the effects of brainwashing on Korean War veterans at Walter Reed Army Institute in Washington, D.C., where she became fascinated with coercive psychological techniques and persuasion -- what became known as brainwashing. 
 
While in Washington, D.C., she met her future husband, Jerome Singer, in an elevator. The two moved to Berkeley in late 1950s and both became professors at UC Berkeley. The couple was married for 48 years and have two children.
 
Mrs. Singer noticed the similarities between the brainwashing techniques applied to the Korean War veterans and cult members early on, and described six conditions which were created to take control over a person's mind against their will, her son said.

Among the cases Mrs. Singer testified for were the 1976 bank robbery trial of Patricia Hearst, who was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, and a 1977 trial about deprogramming members of the Unification Church, or "Moonies."
 
"She was so helpful, so willing to give her time," said colleague Hal Reynolds, student affairs officer and director of cult awareness program at UC Berkeley. "It was like having a wonderful resource -- who was also warm, witty and tough at the same time. She did a lot for UC Berkeley."
 


 
From the Los Angeles Times
 
Brainwashing Expert Dies of Pneumonia

By Dennis McLellan
 
Margaret Thaler Singer, one of the world' s leading experts on cults and brainwashing – who served as an expert witness in numerous high-profile court cases, including testifying for the defense in the 1976 bank-robbery trial of kidnapped newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst – has died. She was 82.

Singer, a clinical psychologist and former psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who also was known for her work on schizophrenia, died of pneumonia Sunday in a Berkeleyhospital after a long illness.
 
Singer, who did groundbreaking research on the brainwashing of U.S. soldiers captured during the Korean War, often was sought out by lawyers as an expert witness and by the news media for comment in high-profile cases, including the People ' s Temple and the mass murder-suicide at Jonestown, Guyana, the search for the Hillside Strangler in Los Angeles, and the Branch Davidian and Heaven 's Gate cults. Over the years, she interviewed more than 4,000 cult members, including Charles Manson and many of his followers.
 
Singer interviewed Hearst extensively after her capture in 1975. Kidnapped by the revolutionary Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974, Hearst eventually joined her captors and participated in an armed bank robbery.
 
Enlisted to determine whether Hearst had been brainwashed into delivering the group 's revolutionary ideology, Singer testified in a hearing outside the jury ' s presence that she had studied Hearst' s speech patterns and concluded that on most of the seven tape recordings issued by the SLA, Hearst was reading statements written by her captors.
 
The judge, although expressing admiration for Singer' s work, agreed with the prosecutor 's argument that Singer ' s conclusion should be kept from the jury because the study was "in a field that has never before been accepted as a subject upon which expert testimony can be given.
 
The trial, which resulted in Hearst' s conviction, greatly boosted Singer' s stature as an expert in brainwashing.

She was born July 29, 1921, in Denver, where her father was the chief operating engineer at the U.S. Mint and her mother was a secretary to a federal judge.

Singer, who played cello in the Denver Civic Symphony while attending the University of Denver, received a bachelor 's degree in speech and a master ' s degree in speech pathology and special education.

After earning a Ph.D. in clinical psychology in 1943, she worked for eight years in the department of psychiatry at the University of Colorado 's School of Medicine.
 
In 1953, she began working as a psychologist for the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in Washington, D.C., where she specialized in studying returned prisoners of the Korean War who had been brainwashed into denouncing the United States and embracing communism..
 
She did further research, with a heavy focus on schizophrenia, with the National Institute of Mental Health, the Air Force and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

She moved to Berkeley in the late 1950s, becoming an adjunct professor at the university when her husband, Jerome R. Singer, joined the physics department faculty. She was a professor of psychology at UC Berkeley from 1964 to 1991.

Singer, who lectured around the world, received dozens of national honors for her work, including the Hofheimer Prize for Research in 1966 from the American College of Psychiatrists and the StanleyR. Dean Award for Research in Schizophrenia in 1976 from the American College of Psychiatrists.

Singer is survived by her husband; a son, Sam; a daughter, Martha; and five grandchildren.
 


From the San Jose Mercury News
 
San JoseMercury News, Wednesday, November 26, 2003
 
By Jessica Portner
 
UC-BERKELEY PSYCHOLOGY PROFESSOR DID RESEARCH ON BRAINWASHING
 
Margaret Singer, the world-renowned professor emeritus of psychology at UC-Berkeley who demystified cults through groundbreaking research on brainwashing and testified at trials against the Unification Church and the Symbionese Liberation Army, died Sunday at Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley. She was 82. 
 
A soft-spoken woman and brilliant researcher, Mrs. Singer interviewed more than 3,000 cult members and testified at more than 200 trials, including the 1976 bank robbery trial of newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst, who had been kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army. The group was a radical band formed in Berkeley during the Vietnam era that abducted the 19-year-old heiress, calling her " a prisoner of war" before she was persuaded to join them in their crimes.
 
Mrs. Singer also took the stand on behalf of the parents of five members of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. The parents alleged their children had been brainwashed by church teachings.
 
Richard Ofshe, a professor of social psychology at the University of California-Berkeley, a self-described "sidekick " of Mrs. Singer's, said she was a dream to work with -- unless you were a
lawyer cross-examining her in court.
 
"She was like a little old lady with steel tips in her tennies, " Ofshe said. " I saw attorneys break into tears trying to cross-examine her. It's hard to beat on a little old lady who was a lot smarter than they were. "

The only child of an Irish Catholic family, Mrs. Singer was born in 1923 in Denver, where her father was the chief engineer at the U.S. Mint. Mrs. Singer received a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Denver.

Her fascination with mind-control techniques began in 1952 when she took a post at the Walter Reed Institute of Research in Washington, D.C. There, she interviewed U.S. soldiers who had been forced to make treasonous statements while they were prisoners during the Korean War.

Mrs. Singer's interest in cults grew when she arrived in Berkeley in 1957. It was an ideal location to study the blossoming New Age cult scene of the 1960s and 1970s where Hare Krishnas and the Unification Church were actively soliciting members around the campus.
 
In a 2001 Mercury News interview about her groundbreaking research on cult leadership and indoctrinating tactics, Mrs. Singer said, "People are basically lonely. They want to join something. The more mysterious it is, the more inviting and intriguing. " She noted cults often recruit members by using flattery, offering friendship, respect, and pretending to trade secrets.
 
More recently, Mrs. Singer co-wrote " Cults in Our Midst," a 1995 study on cults that she revised earlier this year with analysis of the connection between cults and terrorism. She won the Hofheimer Prize and the Dean Award from the American College of Psychiatrists.
 
David Clark, an American Family Foundation associate who has worked with cult-affected families, said that despite her fame, Mrs. Singer would routinely console families whose children had been in cults over the years.
 
"She understood their plight and realized what a lonely place these families are in because they went through conventional avenues of lawyers and clergy and didn't get more support, " Clark said.

Brenda Daeges, who lives in Bellevue, Neb., was one of those frequent callers. "I was a mess when I met Margaret, " said Daeges, a former member of the Apostles of Infinite Love cult who met Mrs. Singer at a conference. " I tried to get her to help my family. She would let me call her collect. I don't know how many times she saved me. "
 
 Her son, Sam Singer, president of Singer and Associates, a San Francisco consulting firm, said his mother was never deterred by those who sought to stop her. There were numerous break-in attempts at her rambling Berkeley home. Singer said his mother would deter prowlers by threatening to shoot trespassers with a 12-gauge shotgun -- even though she didn't own one.
 
"She was always extremely cautious because there's a lot of people who tried to hurt her, " Singer said. " She always stood up for what she believed in." 

 

                    
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