History Main / Deprogram

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One especially horrifying bit of NightmareFuel happens when a character is {{Brainwashed}}, hypnotized, or thoroughly messed up psychologically the good old fashioned way. While everyone imagines they'll be [[HeroicWillpower able to resist]] or be [[CoolDownHug snapped out of it]] by a friend in an IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight, this isn't always the case. A villain who does their laundry with care and thoroughly [[LaserGuidedAmnesia bleaches]], [[MindRape softens]], [[MoreThanMindControl rinses]] and [[BrainwashedAndCrazy dry-cleans]] the brains they wash will give their victim's brains incredible resistance against [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill free will spills]], [[ThePowerOfLove love stains]], and [[ThePowerOfFriendship friendship fudge]]. Meaning that rescued and restrained brainwashees will still pose a serious danger to the heroes. The solution is Deprogramming.

* Played subtly through illustrated metaphors in the second half of ''Manga/ACruelGodReigns''. Ian tries (often in vain) to help Jeremy to recover from the trauma of sexual abuse received from their father/step-father. Using group counseling, several vacations, housing and schooling changes, LoveRedeems, IntimatePsychotherapy, and showing Jeremy those {{Embarrassing Old Photo}}s, Ian attempts to guide Jeremy out of the metaphorical "forest" that separates him from "gardens" life has to offer and to help him feel emotions as he did before the abuse. In one poignant scene, [[spoiler:Ian catches the "pieces" of Jeremy as the latter is recounting all of the incidents he was raped, and reassembles them, realizing that Jeremy is still missing the center "heart" piece that he needs to be whole. The scene comes back to reality with Ian placing the final piece into Jeremy's chest (against the latter's wishes) and Jeremy sobbing into Ian's shoulder as he acknowledges that choosing to feel is painful.]]

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: The poor women Paula von Gunther brainwashed into her enslaved operatives were taken to Reformation Island in order for Mala to oversee trying to make them functional on their own again, and capable of making their own choices and such. Her efforts are shown to be partially successful.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''ComicStrip/BloomCounty'', when the protagonists rescue Bill the Cat from a cult and have to "reprogram" him to be normal. The last panel shows him tied to a post, forced to watch a show which is clearly parodying ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver''.

* ''Film/TicketToHeaven'' shows the entire arc of cult membership, from a young man first falling under their influence despite his skepticism to his deprogramming by a necessarily GoodIsNotNice expert.

** In the first [[TheStinger stinger]] of ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', Bucky Barbes/the Winter Soldier goes into hiding in Wakanda to remove Hydra's brainwashing. TheStinger in ''Film/{{Black Panther|2018}}'' and a scene of ''Series/TheFalconAndTheWinterSoldier'' show that he was successfully deprogrammed.
* ''[[https://youtu.be/94rbiQyjYCU Can Ellen Be Saved]]'' from 1974 has John Saxon as a heroic deprogrammer hired by Creator/LeslieNielsen and Louise Fletcher to kidnap their teenage daughter (Katherine Cannon) from the Children of Jesus and its seductive leader, played by Michael Parks.
* Ondi Timoner's award-winning documentary ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqPjsAzLTBQ Join Us]]'' follows several families who were entrapped by [[http://religiouscultsinfo.com/2011/05/update-raimund-melz-mountain-rock-church-pictures/ Mountain Rock Church]] in Anderson, SC. ("I thought I was joining a ''church!''") Now trying to break away, they take workshops at the [[http://www.wellspringretreat.org Wellspring Retreat]]. This is modern deprogramming, with the choice made by disillusioned or questioning members.

* ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' portrays a long, unpleasant treatment for a long, unpleasant torture. [[spoiler:Peeta was repeatedly tortured with a substance that draws out the victim's worst fears, and the torture was shaped in such a way as to make him project those fears onto the main character, whom he was formerly in love with. Attempts to cure him begin with having him converse with a friend whom he wasn't programmed against, but eventually move into chemical treatments that leave him "confused" -- considered to be a step up from "terrified". Even when he's released, violence triggers a flashback that gets a minor character killed.]]
** Ultimately, [[spoiler:he ends up ''mostly'' deprogrammed. He falls back in love with Katniss, and they eventually start a family together. However, it's never mentioned exactly ''how'' he gets deprogrammed and at least for a while, he still has moments when he needs to hold on to the back of a chair to fight off his flashbacks. The epilogue, set twenty years in the future, makes no mention of whether or not he's fully deprogrammed by then or if he'll never fully heal]].
* ''Good Behavior'', part of the Donald Westlake ''Literature/{{Dortmunder}}'' series, involves the group of criminals having to rescue a young nun from the deprogramming efforts of her corporation-owning father.
* ''Let Our Children Go'' by Ted Patrick is about the author's practice of old-fashioned deprogramming of young cult members, including kidnapping, imprisonment, and violence. Website/{{Wikipedia}} describes him as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Patrick "considered to be the 'father of deprogramming.'"]] He was given the moniker "Black Lightning".
* ''Literature/TheManWithTheGoldenGun'': A formerly-brainwashed Literature/JamesBond marvels that the electroshock therapy he receives as his part of ''his'' deprogramming [[TechnologyMarchesOn now]] affords him the mercy of sodium pentothal, which renders him unconscious for the process.
* In one ''Franchise/StarCraft'' novel, a powerful Protoss female deprograms a human marine. Considering that most marines at that point are former convicts, this doesn't end well (the convict disables the ship's life support in order to take everyone down with him). However, it does allow the protagonists to escape, and the convict even helps them flee as thanks for freeing his mind.

* ''Literature/{{Prolecto}}'' has a device which functions like this. When used on an Azazel infectee, they are instantly returned to normal. Unfortunately, it can only be used by fitting a gas mask to the subject, so it's rather hard to use in battle.

* One especially heartbreaking episode of ''Series/TheOuterLimits1995'', "[[Recap/TheOuterLimits1995S2E16TheDeprogrammers The Deprogrammers]]", has a scientist and his assistant deprogram the personal servant of an alien from a race that has conquered the Earth in order to assassinate him. It ends with [[spoiler:the CruelTwistEnding that the assassination was orchestrated by a rival of the alien's same species, and that both the servant and his wife will now be ''re''programmed]].
* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' and ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' both have episodes dealing with deprogramming Borg, which surprisingly (considering their {{Cyborg}} nature) does not lead to a ''literal'' deprogramming.
** The ''TNG'' TieInNovel ''Vendetta'' by Creator/PeterDavid has a much darker take on Geordi's attempts to deprogram a Borg Drone.
** At the end of "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS4E24TheMindsEye The Mind's Eye]]", a ''TNG'' episode in which Geordi is turned into a ManchurianAgent, we get a brief look at Troi starting the deprogramming.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'':
** An early episode has Teal'c's son brainwashed by Apophis. Here, the deprogramming techniques are a bit of shouting and shock therapy administrated with a rather [[HandWave hand-wavey]] phaser blast. Possibly {{justified|Trope}} in-universe by the fact that Apophis used advanced alien technology to brainwash each of them in a matter of hours in the first place; regular therapy and counseling may well have proven useless.
** One episode involves deprogramming Teal'c after he'd been brainwashed by Apophis in the previous episode. Let's just say that the deprogramming methods are nearly as traumatizing as the programming methods...
** In another episode, the team infiltrate a cult on Earth run by Set, who has brainwashed his followers by infecting them with a microbe that is very vulnerable to electrical shocks -- thus, all they have to do to deprogram the cultists is to shock them. It's implied to have been what Apophis used on Teal'c's son.

* In ''Series/{{Monk}}'', this is done to Adrian after he gets sucked into a cult.
* This happens to a classmate of Veronica's in ''Series/VeronicaMars''. [[spoiler:Veronica finds no evidence that the cult is harmful, and the kid actually became a nice person after joining it. Unfortunately, his deprogramming undoes his character development.]]
* {{Parodied|Trope}} in an episode of ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' in which Roseanne deprograms David after he goes to work for a cult-like amusement park.
* ''Series/LouGrant'': In one episode, after editor Charlie Hume's son joins the Hare Krishnas, Charlie hires some deprogrammers to kidnap the son and deprogram him. In the end, after witnessing how harsh their techniques are, Charlie decides that his son is better off with the Krishnas.

* ''Series/ThePath'' is a 2017 show that has a good old fashioned kidnapping off a public road, right out of the 1970s.[[note]]Somewhat appropriate, in that many aspects of Meyerism haven't changed since the '70s.[[/note]] Sean, a relatively new Meyerist, is tricked into his parents' car with a counselor in the back seat, saying that they're going to help him and his pregnant wife "get out" of the community.

* ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' actually provides ''two'' game systems for deprogramming victims of the the Dominate power "Conditioning" and the VII faction of Sleepers who create vampire blood based brainwashing. Some of the brainwashing powers even provide their own cure; one of the side effects of The Forgetful Mind (which covers up another person's memories) is that it allows you to uncover a person's buried memories, even if you weren't the one who buried them in the first place.
** In the book ''Antagonists'', White Wolf's writers note that deprogramming as generally thought of is really brainwashing back to social norms. It even uses the same system as brainwashing, just with different modifiers.

* ''VisualNovel/Danganronpa2GoodbyeDespair'': [[spoiler:This is essentially the goal of the Neo World Program. Makoto Naegi and his friends capture the Remnants of Despair (the main characters of the game), [[LaserGuidedAmnesia erase their memories]], and place them into a virtual world where they'll form new bonds in an extremely relaxing and non-hostile environment. This is all done with the goal of freeing them from Junko's brainwashing and turning them back into normal people so that the Future Foundation won't have to execute them.]]

* This happens in practically every episode of ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies''. Almost never will any of the girls actually being strong-willed enough to be able to snap out of whatever brainwashing has been done to them without outside assistance. WOOHP really needs to step up their mental training exercises.
* Aang and the gang try this with [[spoiler:Jet]] from ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''. Results are mixed.

** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E18BurnsHeir Burns' Heir]]", Bart goes to live with Mr. Burns, so Homer and Marge hire a man to abduct Bart and deprogram him. Then it turns out that he grabbed [[TheChewToy Hans Moleman]] instead, who now believes himself to be Bart. Homer wants to keep him (partly because kissing him is like kissing a peanut), but Marge ends the episode with "Homer, I want that ''thing'' out of my house."
* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' episode "[[Recap/GargoylesS2Sentinel Sentinel]]", a well-intentioned alien ''thought'' he was doing this to Eliza when he erased her memories of the gargoyles, believing that they were agents of the other side of an interstellar war. Fortunately, his methods only permanently remove FakeMemories, so Eliza gets her own back. When Eliza's returning memories prompt her to defend Goliath from the alien, he is convinced that the gargoyles aren't his enemies.
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Sixteen}}'', Caitlin has to do this to snap Nikki back to her [[DeadpanSnarker snarky, lovable self]].
* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', an EvilDiva ghost named Ember is brainwashing teens [[MindControlMusic using her music]]. Sam and Danny are unaffected, but Tucker is. They deprogram him by restraining him and forcing him to study for a test for several hours, which has the added bonus of making him the only student to ace the test later. They actually use the term "deprogram" to describe this. When Ember casts a spell on Danny that causes him to fall in love with Sam, making him too distracted to fight, they don't have time to do to the same to Danny because Ember is about to complete her plan, so they have to break his heart to make him snap out of it. They then free everyone else from Ember's mind control using Tucker's bad singing.

One especially horrifying bit of NightmareFuel happens when a character is {{Brainwashed}}, hypnotized, or thoroughly messed up psychologically the good old fashioned way. While everyone imagines they'll be [[HeroicWillpower able to resist]] or be [[CoolDownHug snapped out of it]] by a friend crying out "I know you're in there somewhere! Fight!", this isn't always the case. A villain who does their laundry with care and thoroughly [[LaserGuidedAmnesia bleaches]], [[MindRape softens]], [[MoreThanMindControl rinses]] and [[BrainwashedAndCrazy dry-cleans]] the brains they wash will give their victim's brains incredible resistance against [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill free will spills]], [[ThePowerOfLove love stains]], and [[ThePowerOfFriendship friendship fudge]]. Meaning that rescued and restrained brainwashees will still pose a serious danger to the heroes. The solution is Deprogramming.

** In the first [[TheStinger stinger]] of ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', [[spoiler:Bucky goes into hiding in Wakanda to remove Hydra's brainwashing]]. TheStinger in ''Film/BlackPanther2018'' shows that [[spoiler:he was successfully deprogrammed]].

* This is supposed to help victims of StockholmSyndrome and indoctrination (such as with ChildSoldiers or members of {{Cult}}s) become free from the psychological grip of their tormentors. Originally, deprogrammings tended to involve kidnapping and confinement, as well as violence and other types of psychological abuses (including in the worst cases, rape), which is why many detractors of the technique would say that it is really just ''[[HeWhoFightsMonsters reverse]]'' brainwashing. However, after the public got wind of those practices through various court cases (one of which involved the attempted deprogramming of a Catholic nun), and got upset, those types of deprogrammings have become less common (although still done in some countries).

* In ''Film/HolySmoke'', the family of young seeker Ruth believes she's been brainwashed by a cult and bring in ace deprogrammer PJ Travers to get her out of it. Things get complicated quickly, largely because PJ is a man and Ruth is played by Creator/KateWinslet in the most nudity-dense stage of her career.

* ''Let Our Children Go'' by Ted Patrick is about the author's practice of old-fashioned deprogramming of young cult members, including kidnapping, imprisonment, and violence. Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} describes him as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Patrick "considered to be the 'father of deprogramming.'"]] He was given the moniker "Black Lightning".