The Captive Mind
First US edition
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| Author | Czesław Miłosz |
|---|---|
| Original title | Zniewolony umysł |
| Translator | Jane Zielonko |
| Country | France |
| Language | Polish |
| Publisher | Instytut Literacki |
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Publication date
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1953 |
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Published in English
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1953 Knopf (US) Secker & Warburg (UK) |
| Followed by | Zdobycie władzy |
The Captive Mind (Polish: Zniewolony umysł) is a 1953 work of nonfiction by Polish writer, academic and Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz, published in the English translation originally by Secker and Warburg. The work was written in Polish soon after the author received political asylum in Paris following his break with Poland's Communist government. It draws upon his experiences as an underground writer during World War II, and his position within the political and cultural elite of Poland in the immediate post-war years. The book attempts to explain both the intellectual allure of Stalinism and the temptation of collaboration with the Stalinist regime among intellectuals in post-war Central and Eastern Europe. Miłosz describes the book as having been written "under great inner conflict".
The Captive Mind begins with a discussion of the novel Insatiability by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz and its plot device of Murti-Bing pills, which are used as a metaphor for dialectical materialism, but also for the deadening of the intellect caused by consumerism in Western society. The second chapter considers the way in which the West was seen at the time by residents of Central and Eastern Europe, while the third outlines the practice of Ketman, the act of paying lip service to authority while concealing personal opposition, describing seven forms applied in the people's democracies of mid-20th century Europe.
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Wikipedia