"I don't know where my boy is!" : abduction and brainwashing in Stranger Things

Abstract

In "Chapter Six: The Monster" of Netflix's Stranger Things, there's the big reveal: Eleven, the daughter of Terry, a former subject in the Central Intelligence Agency's Project MK-Ultra, was stolen -- abducted—by "he big bad Man" to be used as a psychic weapon against the Soviet Union. Everything's there: child abduction, brainwashing, the Man, an irrational fear of communism. In other words, it has all the makings of the perfect conspiracy theory, one that brims not only with government distrust but also other fears and anxieties -- of childhood innocence, individualism, and social influence.