Winston and the Milgram Experiment

 Many of you may be unfamiliar with the Milgram experiment, so I'll summarize. In the early 70s, professor Stanley Milgram at Yale conducted a series of psychological experiments measuring the complicity of participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to do actions that were against the participant's conscience. While I can't explain the entire experiment, the majority of participants fully obeyed instructions despite the pain and suffering they caused. 

I'm confident that the ministry used this susceptibility of the human psyche to carry out their agenda. Even though we have been following Winston for the entire book, I can't help but be disturbed by O'brien's manipulation of Winston throughout his torture. With the Milgram experiment in mind, the thing that disturbs me more is that anyone could be in O'brien's position conducting torture and bending others to their will.

Comments

  1. Charlotte EbelMarch 1, 2021 at 7:58 AM

    I am familiar with the Milgram experiment, which was super disturbing and problematic in a number of ways. This is an interesting comparison, but I think that O'Brien is more than just a pawn in the system. The soldiers would be a more apt comparison, physically abusing the prisoners at the command of O'Brien. I think this makes O'Brien's manipulation even worse, because he is doing it of his own will, not under the command of someone else.

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  2. Grace JuhnMarch 1, 2021 at 8:00 AM

    As soon as I read about Winston's torture, I thought about the Milgram experiment too. I agree how scary it is to think about how this was modelled in our real life. I mean although there are a lot of restrictions now in psychology, it still creeps me out how this kind of torture had been used many times before.

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  3. L. MoffittMarch 1, 2021 at 8:12 AM

    That said, the Milgram experiment at least has a glimmer of hope -- the prisoners did try to rebel at one point and they did at least band together. But that's not much of a glimmer.

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