Applied Behaviourist Science, or How to Break Your Will.
This blog is inspired by The Mail on Sunday’s Comment, 20 Dec: “How many more times must we suffer this dimming of the light with Covid-19 restrictions?”
“And for the first time since the 17th Century, a London Government is actually telling us how we may (or may not) celebrate the unique, treasured feast of Christmas. This time it is supposed to be to deal with a new fast-spreading variant of the virus, even though experts admit that its effects are no more serious than the existing one.” (Mail on Sunday Comment, Mr Richard Littlejohn, source)
What the Mail on Sunday describes is known as the concept of “Douche écossaise” or literally “Scottish Shower” technique (see end of article for details. It is one of several coercive methods used to bend or break the will and resistance of a targeted individual or group.
In this context, the carrot is the promise that things will improve if we comply with what we are told.
Examples of such manipulation include:
- Promising something, then cancelling it at the last minute
- Alternating between periods of hope and frustration
- Making those periods irregular in duration, and their emotional intensity unpredictable
- Sending mixed messages
- Making you do something, then completely reversing it
- Declaring something wrong today but acceptable tomorrow
- Injecting irrational logic into your surroundings, making it hard to know where you stand
- Inducing fear and stress to disconnect rational thinking and push people into instinctive, survival-mode behaviours—ultimately making them more malleable
These are just a few hallmarks of techniques designed to weaken judgment and autonomy.
Careful observation of the behavioural patterns and policy signals since March supports the hypothesis that there is no intention for improvement, regardless of compliance—because clearly, that is not the objective.
The actual aim appears to be to condition the population to respond reflexively to fear-driven triggers. In this agenda, science becomes the enemy, along with your own judgment.
What is unfolding is unmistakably a case of Applied Behaviourist Science.
Definition and Origin: “Douche écossaise”
- Literal meaning: Scottish shower (French)
- Description: A treatment involving sudden alternation between hot and cold water jets, used historically in hydrotherapy and certain psychological treatments.
- Symbolic use: The term is also used metaphorically in French and some European discourse to describe emotional manipulation through alternating comfort and discomfort, or shifts between reward and punishment to destabilise and control.
In behavioural or political commentary, “douche écossaise” evokes:
- Unpredictability
- Psychological destabilisation
- Loss of control or agency
- A sense of being caught in a cycle of conflicting signals, which weakens resistance and fosters compliance
More insights soon to come in our forthcoming article “From Freedom to Freedoom”.
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