The book received wide attention in part because it dealt with totalitarian applications of brainwashing techniques during the Korean War. Rape of the Mind explains how scientific brainwashing is done and argues that "hardly anyone can resist such." "Fear, and continual pressure are known to create a menticidal hypnosis. The conscious part of the personality no longer takes part in the automatic confessions. The brainwashee lives in a trance, repeating the record grooved into him by somebody else."

In Delusion and Mass Delusion, Meerloo attempts to explain the mechanisms within the mind that allow for such manipulation. He attempts an explanation of the several mechanisms undergirding thought, many of which are not obviously available to individuals. An interesting early study on brainwashing by an early student of the practice.