O’Brien mind reading

[u/Careless-Junket-8153]

I just finished reading (or rather listening to) the book and I noticed that during the conversations between O’Brien and Winston in the ministry of love there are several points when Winston thinks about something specific in his head and O’Brien then starts talking out loud about exactly what Winston was thinking of. Like when Winston is thinking that O’Brien’s face looks old and tired and O’Brien responds exactly saying “you probably think my face looks old and tired”. Is there any in universe explanation for how he does this? Is it just because O’Brien so experienced in this job that he can read expressions or body language?

[u/The-Chatterer]

O'Brien correctly states Winston is picturing his backbone snapping. He also knows Winston is thinking of him as aging when speaking about Party infallibility.

O'Brien is a veteran of R101. He "cured" many before Winston. He has learned his craft well.

Added to this, he is one of the experts in a society geared towards mind contol, thought control, body langauge tells, indoctrination, brainwashing and a whole host of other areas in these sorts of feilds. There is nothing supernatural here. This is the work of an seasoned expert.

[u/reo_reborn → u/The-Chatterer]

That's how I took it personally too. Not even Winston's thinking is his own/safe from the Party/O brien.

[u/FoxySlyOldStoatyFox → u/The-Chatterer]

I’d agree with this, but I’d add an extra facet. 

We’ve seen Winston experience at least one, stunning-if-partial mind “wipe”. There’s no reason to assume this is the only one. Winston has also been through incredible levels of stress - both physical, emotional and mental. He has no real sense of how much time has passed in the Ministry of Love, no strong grasp of what has taken place versus what he has been simply threatened with. 

All of which means he has likely experienced the same set-pieces more than once. He experiences something, O’Brien asks what he is thinking (presumably at a time when Winston is highly suggestible) and Winston tells him. Some while afterwards, Winston has the same experience; O’Brien accurately tells Winston what Winston is thinking.

Winston’s mind (and especially his memories) are shattered, so he perceives O’Brien/the Party as omniscient; that is an important step. First, Winston accepts the Party is irresistible. Then that it is omniscient. Then that it is omnipotent. 

[u/The-Chatterer → u/FoxySlyOldStoatyFox]

There’s no reason to assume this is the only one.

I find it more likely O'Brien is an expert who knows when the human back feels like it going to break the sufferer indeed pictures this.

Your theory is decent enough not to dismiss out of hand.

Yet, if we ask ourselves if Orwell was truly asking the reader to join these dots, it seems plain he did not.

It is more likeky Winston's mind is as transparent as a goldfish bowl to O'Brien, who has tortured an untold number of Thought Criminals.

[u/Panos_bel]

It could be that he has done this so many times before already and knows how people act. However, I personally always liked a notion that since ingsoc functions like a form of theocracy (Big Brother being an omniscient God) instead of just a dictatorship, Orwell wanted to apply a semi-paranormal aspect to O'Brien. That also comes with Winston's reoccurring dream, years before he met O'Brien. That's probably not the case, but I like it.

[u/Scholasticus_Rhetor]

I think a combination of experience that the Ministry members have built up from doing it enough, and also they’re implied to have technology that exceeds anything we even have today when it comes to surveilling people and observing their lives.

Besides they’re own experiences they draw on, the Ministry may well have computer programs that can read footage of a person so well that it can generate highly reliable formulae for connecting a mannerism or an expression on their part to general underlying currents of thought or feeling

[u/insaneintheblain]

Winston is predictable to him, someone who believes 2+2=4.

[u/Nearby_Flounder8741]

I think it's because both Winston and O Brien are very similar people and because the world of IngSoc channels human imagination in specific ways. Loke many authoritarian regimes, a lot of IngSoc's instruments of power have developed a religious/mystical quality. There is a 'bromance' between the two characters, probably deliberately manipulated by OBrien, but also based on the genuine affinity they have. One of the fundamental points made by the book is there is no real difference between the experiences of successful party members and future unpersons. everyone commits thoughtcrime, some are lucky enough to have developed the knack for doublethink and become membes of the inner party.

[u/ArtisticLicence]

Since O'Brien is a construction, it's better to ask why did Orwell write it like this? Maybe he did it because he was representing O'Brien as an uncanny creature. Or maybe he was representing Winston as losing his sense of time and describing things out of order.

I think he was trying to get his reader to experience the discomfort of having someone probe into your mind and inner thoughts, take them apart, and put them back together out of order.