Human Conditioning in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

Abstract

A new behavior is learnt by a living thing through the process of association which forms the base of Classical conditioning theory. The theory involves in provoking a new learned response in a person or animal by interlinking the two stimuli together. Eventually the response becomes an unconditional psychological response due to repetition. Correspondingly, conditioning a human mind affects the nature of man. Aldous Huxley employs psychological conditioning in Brave new world to produce a conditioned society with proper order and harmony. Human conditioning is an attempt to alter the human nature by using science and technology in order to suit the society as a whole. The creation of such a utopian society tends to believe that man's nature is a fiction which can be shaped and conditioned to fit happily in a utopian society. The psychological conditioning of human beings in Brave New World reveal how people compete with the facets of survival instincts after being conditioned into a sect of society. The paper serves as an eye opener for the society to know about the psychological adverse effects of Human Conditioning by analysing its elements in Huxley's Brave New World.