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The Stasi used Zersetzung essentially as a means of psychological oppression and persecution.[23] Findings of operational psychology[24] were formulated into method at the Stasi's College of Law (Juristische Hochschule der Staatssicherheit, or JHS), and applied to political opponents in an effort to undermine their self-confidence and self-esteem. Operations were designed to intimidate and destabilise them by subjecting them to repeated disappointment, and to socially alienate them by interfering with and disrupting their relationships with others as in social undermining. The aim was to induce personal crises in victims, leaving them too unnerved and psychologically distressed to have the time and energy for anti-government activism.[25] The Stasi intentionally concealed their role as mastermind of the operations.[26][27] Author Jürgen Fuchs was a victim of Zersetzung and wrote about his experience, describing the Stasi's actions as "psychosocial crime", and "an assault on the human soul".[25]

Although its techniques had been established effectively by the late 1950s, Zersetzung was not rigorously defined until the mid-1970s, and only then began to be carried out in a systematic manner in the 1970s and 1980s.[28] It is difficult to determine how many people were targeted, since the sources have been deliberately and considerably redacted; it is known, however, that tactics varied in scope, and that a number of different departments implemented them. Overall there was a ratio of four or five authorised Zersetzung operators for each targeted group, and three for each individual.[29] Some sources indicate that around 5,000 people were "persistently victimised" by Zersetzung.[11] At the College of Legal Studies, the number of dissertations submitted on the subject of Zersetzung was in double figures.[30] It also had a comprehensive 50-page Zersetzung teaching manual, which included numerous examples of its practice