Psychological Operations

Psychological Operations or PSYOP are planned operations to convey selected
information and indicators to audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of organizations, groups, and
individuals. Used in all aspects of war, it is a weapon whose effectiveness is
limited only by the ingenuity of the commander using it.
A proven winner in combat and peacetime, PSYOP is one of the oldest weapons in the arsenal of man. It is an important force protector/combat multiplier and a non-lethal weapons system.
Psychological Operations (PSYOP) or Psychological Warfare (PSYWAR) is simply
learning everything about your target enemy, their beliefs, likes, dislikes,
strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities. Once you know what motivates your
target, you are ready to begin psychological operations.
Psychological operations may be defined broadly as the planned use of
communications to influence human attitudes and behavior ... to create in target
groups behavior, emotions, and attitudes that support the attainment of national
objectives. The form of communication can be as simple as spreading information
covertly by word of mouth or through any means of multimedia.
A psychological warfare campaign is a war of the mind. Your primary weapons are sight and sound. PSYOP can be disseminated by face-to-face communication, audio
visual means (television), audio media (radio or loudspeaker), visual media
(leaflets, newspapers, books, magazines and/or posters), subliminally (high
frequency repetitive audio messages and micro-second flashes of images e.g. on
TV. or some websites). The weapon is not how its sent, but the message it
carries and how that message affects the recipient.
For instance, your country’s’ flag, when it flies in a sporting event or in a parade or when you hear our national anthem played do you feel a sense of pride?
.also when certain newspaper headlines accompanied by certain images affects the
entire mood at your workplace and its all the topic that day be it good or sad.
How does a woman’s wail in the night bring out all the neighbor’s ready to
respond to whatever the crisis the person may be going through…there is a
psychological link hardwired in the subconscious…..notice how politicians are
able to rally national support by picking on a neighboring country….
Some good uses of psychological messaging can be found hidden in nursery and early school rhymes,fables and stories which are loaded important life lessons and observations that most of us carry throughout life albeit absentmindedly.......