In Huxley’s Brave New World, the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Center, or C.L.H.C.C., misused psychological conditioning. The misuse of psychological conditioning controlled the citizens and kept the world in order, but gave them little freedom. This misuse can be seem through three different ways. One way is the conditioning of young babies. Another is through the use of sleep teaching. And the last is can be seen in the solitary service days. In all, the use of psychological conditioning was not used appropriately.
In this “Brave new world,” young infants of lower castes are psychologically conditioned to not like books and nature. When the infants would play with the books, loud sirens would sound. When they played with the flowers, they would be electrocuted and explosions would occur. Not only is this inhumane, it gives the C.L.H.C.C. power. The D.H.C. (Director of Hatcheries and Conditioning) says, “‘They’ll grow up with what the psychologists used to call an ‘instinctive’ hatred of books and flowers. Reflexes unalterably conditioned. They’ll be safe from books and botany all their lives'” (21). This method is definitely misuse.
Sleep teaching was a way for the C.L.H.C.C. to make kids learn different phrases. The phrase would be played continuously while asleep so that when you awaken, they would know that phrase. Some of these phrases helped the economy flow like, “Ending is better than mending” (50). Another like this one is, “The more stitches, the less riches” (51). Basically these are conditioning them to get rid of broken things and buy new ones. The kids are also taught to like caste they belong to. In the book Lenina, one of the main characters, says “‘What a hideous color khaki is'” (62). Khaki is the color of a lower caste’s dress. Sleep teaching could have been beneficial if they would have taught things that would help the people rather than things like the economy.
The last way psychological conditioning is misused is in their “Solitary Service Days”. You could say the citizens some what worshiped this “greater being”, Ford. To the drum beat they would sing, “Come, Greater Being, Social Friend, Annihilating Twelve-in-One! We long to die, for when we end, Our larger life has but begun” (81). They would also sing hymns that showed they wanted to be a part of the social river like, “Ford, we are Twelve;oh, make us one, Like drops within the Social River; Oh, make us now together run as swiftly as thy shining Flivver” (81). On Soma, a drug, they would then have orgies. This brainwashing like technique conditioned them to basically just follow the crowd. These days were too a misuse of psychological conditioning because it gave the world social stability, but again lacked freedom.
We can see that psychological conditioning is misused greatly throughout Huxley’s Brave New World. From shocking infants to sleep teaching, the C.L.H.C.C. misused these techniques to create a sociably stable world based on a system of castes, that failed to give people “real” happiness and freedom. It is clear that psychological conditioning was misused.
