brainwashing

(Newser) - Singer R. Kelly is no stranger to controversy, and a lengthy new report at BuzzFeed has just served up a huge new portion. The bombshell allegation: Parents say the 50-year-old singer is keeping young women in an abusive "cult" at his various properties and controlling their every move. The...

(Newser) - It might have been a more convincing story 43 years ago, but Sirhan Sirhan now says he was brainwashed into assassinating Robert F. Kennedy, has no memory of the 1968 shooting, and did not act alone. "There is no question he was hypno-programmed," Sirhan lawyer William F. Pepper...

(Newser) - The Taliban is buying children as young as 7 and turning them into suicide bombers, the Washington Times reports. The going rate is $7,000 to $14,000, a huge amount in Pakistan, where where the average income is $2,600. Pakistani and US officials lay blame for the practice...

(Newser) - Even for those women who escape the forced marriages and controlling patriarchy of polygamous sects like the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, life isn’t easy. Many turn to drugs and alcohol to escape the mental burden, CNN reports. And some never leave because they’re programmed to think...