Doublethink is the ability to hold two contradictory ideas as true at the same time. It is one of the central concepts of 1984, George Orwell's novel published in 1949, and perhaps the most disturbing of all the author's legacy.
The mechanism, not just the lie
Doublethink is not an ordinary lie. Lying is saying something that you know is false, knowing that it is false. Doublethink is more radical: it is accepting as true what one knows, at another level of consciousness, to be false, without this generating internal conflict. It is necessary for citizens to accept the party's contradictions without their mental structure splitting in half.
Orwell illustrates the concept with the party's three mottos in 1984:
War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.
Each motto directly states the opposite of what the words appear to mean. It's not irony, it's doctrine: the citizen needs to accept both halves of the sentence as true at the same time, without resolving the contradiction. The thought police monitor and punish any ideological deviation, showing how a state can control not only people's actions, but also their emotions and beliefs.
Doublethink already lives on the farm
Although the term was formally coined in 1984, the mechanism already appears fully formed in Animal Farm. Napoleon becomes an absolute dictator, democratic meetings are abolished, history is rewritten and the memory of Snowball's deeds is completely erased. This directly resembles the concept of doublethink and historical erasure from 1984, where the past is constantly rewritten by the party.
When Squealer convinces the animals that their memories of the original commandments are wrong, he's not just lying: he's training the entire farm to accept as present truth something that contradicts what they themselves have experienced and remember. It's doublethink in its raw form, before it even gains a name.
Whoever controls the past, controls the future
In 1984, Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth rewriting historical documents so that the past is always aligned with the official version of the present. It is one of the most cited moments in the book:
Whoever controls the past controls the future. Whoever controls the present controls the past.
Doublethink is the piece that closes this system: it is not enough to rewrite the documents, it is necessary for the citizen's own mind to accept the new version as if it had always been true. It is this same principle that sustains newspeak, the reduced language of the party that Orwell describes as a complementary tool of control, a topic covered in detail in what is newspeak.
Why the concept remains useful
Doublethink does not require a Ministry of Truth to exist. He names any situation in which someone accepts, at the same time, two incompatible versions of reality because one of them is convenient or socially required. Orwell wasn't just criticizing Stalinism: he was warning about the dangers of absolute state control over the mind, a warning that Animal Farm had already dramatized, on a smaller scale, before 1984 was even written. It is worth revisiting the phrase that sums up this betrayal on the farm to see doublethink in its most concentrated form.
Readings from Nous
Read the classics in depth
Our list of more than 130 recommended books, commented and organized by theme, so you don't read in the dark.
See recommended readingsFrequently asked questions
What is doublethink?
It is the concept created by George Orwell in 1984 to describe the ability to simultaneously believe in contradictory ideas, accepting them as true at the same time. It is the psychological mechanism that allows citizens of a totalitarian regime to accept the party's official contradictions without entering into internal conflict.
What are the party slogans in 1984 that illustrate doublethink?
"War is peace", "freedom is slavery" and "ignorance is strength". The three mottos state directly the opposite of what they seem to mean, and require the citizen to simultaneously accept the two contradictory ideas, without one canceling out the other.
Does Animal Farm already anticipate doublethink?
Yes. When Squealer convinces the animals that their memories of the original commandments are wrong, he trains them to accept as true what they know, or knew, to be false, the same mechanism Orwell would later accurately name as doublethink.
Go deeper: What is Newspeak? · "Some are more equal than others": the meaning · What is the truth? · Why is Macbeth "the Scottish play"?
Source lesson (YouTube): A Revolução dos Bichos, de George Orwell (NousCast)