Dictionary

menticide en · NOUN

Etymology

From Latin mēns (“mind”) or mentālis (“mental”) + -cide (“killing”), from Latin -cīdium, by analogy to homicide, genocide, etc. Coined during the 1950s.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) Brain-washing, conditioning people to abandon their beliefs.
   • In the last phases of brainwashing and menticide, the self-humiliating submission of the victims serves as an inner defensive device annihilating the prosecuting inquisitor in a magic way. 1957, Joost Abraham Maurits Meerloo, Mental Seduction and Menticide: The Psychology of Thought Control and Brainwashing, London: Jonathan Cape, →OCLC, page 87:
2. (countable, uncountable) Efforts to destroy the mind or the will of an individual or group of people.
   • I wanted then — and I want today — no laws against "mental kidnapping" or "mentacide" or any other socially unacceptable state of mind. 1989, Fielding McGehee, Rebecca Moore, The Need for a Second Look at Jonestown: Remembering its People, Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen Press, →ISBN, page 151:
   • In response, black groups accuse school personnel of practicing genocide and "menticide" (miseducation) for allowing black children to get away with conduct they would not condone in white children. 1974, Herbert Foster, Ribbin', Jivin', and Playin' the Dozens: The Unrecognized Dilemma of Inner-city Schools, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ballinger, →ISBN, page 6:

Forms

Deriveds

menticidal · menticidally

Translations (2)

nl menticide (brain-washing) · de Mentizid (brain-washing)