Stephen Bennett: If I put one of you, either Ben or Amory, into prison for two, three years, you should be okay because you can have time and space. It's not clear how many patients Dr. Ewen Cameron's treatments destroyed, but some families have come forward with stories of what was done to their loved ones. "[35] She then cites Alfred W. McCoy: "Stripped of its bizarre excesses, Cameron's experiments, building upon Donald O. Hebb's earlier breakthrough, laid the scientific foundation for the CIA's two-stage psychological torture method. It was the start of a series of experiments backed by the British, the Americans, and the Canadians, and they wanted to know what prolonged sensory deprivation actually did to a person. Donald Hebb and Ewen Cameron were competitors; they did not collaborate, though Cameron incorporated Hebb's sensory isolation techniques into his own diabolical arsenal of psychiatry's instruments of torture. From 1939 to 1943 he was professor of neurology and psychiatry at Albany Medical College, and at the Russell Sage School of Nursing, also in the Albany area. She was left with permanent impairments: She was unable to recognize faces, had impaired spatial recognition, and lost a good portion of her memory. Abruptly and unexpectedly, Dr. Cameron suffered a life-ending heart attack while mountain climbing in 1967. [29], Sid Taylor stated that Cameron used curare to immobilise his patients during his research. Ben: Camerons research could never happen today at least not lawfully. Cameron also wanted to revolutionize the way psychology and psychiatry looked at mental illness. The described types were the enemies of society and life. Just as Sigrid Schultz stated in Germany will try it again, Cameron fostered a fear for Germans and their genetic determination. Cameron used his ideas to implement policies on who should govern and parent in society. About 55 families of victims who underwent medical experimentation in the 1950s and 1960s are suing for millions of dollars. A notoriously tough climb, he did it with his son James, and when he got to the top, he had a heart attack and died almost instantly. The lawsuits were dismissed, even though it was later shown there were a higher-than-usual number of people diagnosed with schizophrenia, presumably to increase Cameron's subject pool. Ewen Cameron experimented on people right up until he left the Allan in 1964. In compliance with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requirements, some of these records are no longer in the physical possession of the FBI, eliminating the FBI's capability to re-review and/or re-process this material. In 1936, he moved to Massachusetts to become director of the research division at Worcester State Hospital only 1 year later. There must have been records of experiments. The Canadian government also funded the project. Cameron titled this procedure "intrapsychic" (a term derived from the psycho-somatic relationship of hospital patients). Some would bang their heads against the walls relentlessly, trying to get the helmets off and that's when he realized he could just put them back into a medically-induced coma and play the tapes for as long as he wanted. Genealogy profile for Major Donald of 4th Chief Clunes "Old '45" Cameron Major Cameron . [1] In papers published during this time he linked RNA to memory. Ben: Robert Cleghorn, a former member of Camerons staff, took over after Cameron stepped down. She was gonna go out there and do something. [27] Such consequences included incontinence, amnesia, forgetting how to talk, forgetting their parents, and thinking their interrogators were their parents. And I think my father would have too. He never got one. She wasn't able to joke and laugh She would blurt out something like: 'We must do the right thing!'" Duncan: Yes. His death occurred while climbing a mountain. He never got one. Canada. The mentally ill were thus labelled as not only sick, but also weak. Ben: Over and over, weve heard from victims of Dr. Ewen Camerons brutal experiments at the Allan Memorial Institute. He promoted a philosophy where chaos could be prevented by removing the weak from society. Ben: But some key documentation of Camerons time at the Allan is straight up missing. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. His successor at Allan, Robert Cleghorn, would later write (via "Brainwashing's Avatar: The Curious Career of Dr. Ewen Cameron,""Cameron's controversial practices [are] now thoroughly discredited." Amory: He said he did not destroy documents, that he didn't know about that. Then we brought them down I think it was probably during one of my infrequent jaunts up there I brought them down in my car, and I then took them over and deposited them at the American Psychiatric Association. She said that at the time, Cameron was something of a celebrity. And people talk about the transmission of trauma through generations. Operating under the umbrella of MKUltra were as many as 162 sub-projects, with as many as 80 different organizations involved in research. Alison Steel says her mother was never the same after undergoing. Ben: So its fitting that, today, most of what people hear about the CIAs search for mind control also seems to come from fantasy and popular fiction. There's my father and my mother. One of the weirdest chapters in U.S. history was approved on April 13, 1953, and any time anyone says anything about "the good ol' days," when things were just better, simpler, and kinder, well, point to MKUltra and say, "Check out this madness!" The transcript has been edited from our original script for clarity. Alison believes those random phrases her mother would sometimes say were from the recordings that she'd been forced to listen to for hours. Dr. Ewen Cameron wanted to win a Nobel Prize for his work in psychiatry. He was a person who was always looking for a way of advancing the field. Amory: Sarah Anne Johnson, whose grandmother Val Orlikow was a patient of Ewen Camerons, has a response to Duncan that, considering what her family has been through as a result of his fathers experimentation, is surprising. The idea was to first "depattern" the person in question. Ben: Did you ever get a sense of at least some of the things that he was trying to accomplish while he was at the Allan? [37], Whether or not Cameron was aware that funding for his experiments was coming from the CIA is unclear; it has been argued that he would have carried out the exact same experiments if funding had come from a source without ulterior motives. Ben: OK. Fair. Marian believes all of this was a result of her mother going into the Allan. The program is widely believed to have been partly funded by the United States Central Intelligence Agency as part of their top-secret MKULTRA program. He came up with the idea that if he presented the world and confronted the Germans with the atrocities committed during the war, the world and the Germans would refrain from repeated acts of extreme aggression. So I think the complaints of the doctors and nurses had reached their ears. In 1984, New Scientist reported on a lawsuit filed on behalf of some of the people who ended up a part of MKUltra's Sub-project 68. A series of other research scandals in the 1960s resulted in stricter regulation of research practices and a more stringent code of ethics. Duncan: I'm Duncan Cameron. Ewen passed away on month day 1915, at age 84 at death place. [citation needed]. He warned that government institutions should take measures against such potential liabilities. Pregnant with son Lloyd, Esther was kept in a drug-induced coma in the sleep room for a month, where she lost 13 pounds. Many spent this period of time in what he called the "sleep room," where they were drugged into a medically-induced coma that they were brought out of only to be given three meals a day and the occasional trip to the bathroom. Or answer questions about his motivations, whether or not he knew he was part of the CIAs mind control efforts. Harvey: It is frustrating, and if you talk about a story with no end, I think the important thing to remember is that it isn't just the patients who went through this, it was their families. Rauh: A question that Mr. Turner wanted me to ask was what happened to the papers identifying the patients? And it was a great shock to everybody because he was 65 and in many ways, you know, going full throttle and at the top of his career. By that time, information on Cameron's sleep room projects was coming out, and there were all kinds of people who were very quick to distance themselves from it. Heres journalist John Marks. For years, the patients of Dr. Ewen Cameron or, more accurately, the families of those patients have been trying to get compensation for the unthinkable experiments their loved ones were subjected to. It's safe to say that the exact opposite happened. [25], Cameron had been hoping to correct schizophrenia by "erasing" existing memories and "reprogramming" the psyche. So I think in a certain way they believed that what fiction writers could come up with, somebody could actually make real. Ben: Duncan says his father was so busy that he didnt see much of him during their time in Montreal. Duncan Cameron: No. His support of Charles Edward Stuart was instrumental in the Jacobite Rising of 1745 Lochiel and the Jacobite cause [34], Naomi Klein states in her book The Shock Doctrine that Cameron's research and his contribution to MKUltra were not about mind control and brainwashing, but "to design a scientifically based system for extracting information from 'resistant sources.' Advancing Voluntary, Informed Consent to Medical Intervention, Cameron was an internationally prominent psychiatrist who developed torture techniques on his involuntary hospitalized patients mostly women. In 1933, he married Jean C. Rankine, whom he had met while they were students at the University of Glasgow. Dr. Ewen Cameron was an undeniably fascinating figure, and as horrible as his experiments were, the way people continued to talk about him was even more telling. Take a guess. He had a Mercedes. Although society had established sanctions against the spread of infectious diseases, Cameron wanted to extend the concept of contagion to chronic anxiety. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. Memories are not the most reliable form of evidence. The paper stated that German culture and its people would have offspring bound to become a threat to world peace in 30 years. On March 10, Cameron's notes read: "She is disoriented as to time only and is probably in her second stage of depatterning. Duncan: Thats my recollection, that any documents that related to patients were destroyed. With the results of the Manhattan project, Cameron feared that without proper re-organization of society, atomic weapons could fall into the hands of new, fearsome aggressors. To see some of the things that have happened are very upsetting. Ben: He looks like hes having a good time. Her family sued, first based on the treatment alone, then again, after discovering she was a part of the MKUltra program. On March 12, her records show she was considered "depatterned": She could no longer stand, speak, could barely swallow, was incontinent, and required treatment by an obstetrician for severe bleeding. In 1943, Cameron was invited to McGill University in Montreal by neurosurgeon Dr Wilder Penfield. Amory: Were bringing you the last installment of our special series: Madness The secret mission for mind control and the people who paid the price. His response? As the CBC notes, it's sourced pretty heavily from Cameron's work, and talks about things like "deprivation of sensory stimuli, threats and fear, pain, hypnosis and narcosis," and the source of their research? You know, all of us not only respected him, but loved him, and not just myself, but my brothers. Duncan: Well, I think he was always fascinated in the future. He had patients. And in a sense, that's what he wanted to do professionally. He saw no reason why psychiatry should be any different. Amory: The answer might be in the idea of brainwashing itself. ", Why MKUltra's Top Brainwashing Scientist Was A Real-Life Nightmare, "Brainwashing's Avatar: The Curious Career of Dr. Ewen Cameron. Duncan Cameron: This is a picture of the whole family. Ewen Donald Cameron. Unfortunately, a lot of what went on within them has been lost: In 1973, the majority of the documents associated with MKUltra were destroyed in a massive (and not-at-all-suspicious) purge. He received an M.B., Ch.B. In 1951 a few years before the U.S. government and the CIA approved MKUltra there was a top secret meeting held at Montreal's Ritz-Carlton. And Mary Morrow? Stephen Kinzer: In the end, Gottlieb was forced to conclude that there's no such thing as mind control and that everything he had done had been for naught. And I recall going through them and *taking out* several papers that appeared to me to be identified or could be identified as dealing with a particular patient. Amory: The study, which was published a few months before Cameron died, found that Camerons methods exposed his patients to unnecessary risk, and that there was no clinical proof his methods were any more effective than standard forms of treatment. Everyone who makes a monthly donation will get access to upcoming bonus content from the making of our series. In his analysis, culture and society played a crucial role in the ability for one to function according to the demands necessary for human survival. Morrow's family got involved, and it was only at their insistence that she was transferred to another hospital. Jim: But again, you know, the deposition transcript, you're going to have to rely on that, like we did. Patients were tested in the Radio Telemetry Laboratory, which was built under Cameron's direction. Hebb submitted his findings to the CIA, and it ended up being just the beginning. Its not a very popular mountain to climb, its steep. These experiments were typically carried out on patients who had entered the Institute for minor problems such as anxiety disorders and postnatal depression; many were permanently debilitated after these treatments. Case of Gail Kastner: The shock treatment turned the then 19 year old honours student into a woman who sucked her thumb, talked like a baby, demanded to be fed from a bottle and urinated on the floor. At that point her affluent family abandoned her and she lived in poverty. . Because his dad isnt around to do it himself. Kinzer: Later on, it became the basis for manuals that the CIA provided in the 1980s to police forces in Latin America that were known to practice torture. For example, something like rock music could be created by mentally ill people and would produce mentally ill people through infection, which in turn would be transmitted to the genes. And I think you have, as much as love that you had for him you also had respect for him. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. Ex-husband of Enid Agnes Maud Watson. And you can see this manual that's been found all around the world, from hellholes to modern democracies. We love making Endless Thread, and we want to be able to keep making it far into the future. Though he did visit the Allan Memorial on occasion. And we would take off. He demanded that political systems be watched, and that German people needed to be monitored due to their "personality type", which he claimed results in the conditions that give rise to the dictatorial power of an authoritarian overlord. A Canadian government dismissed the CIAs role as a side issue or red herring; Ottawas Justice Department denied legal responsibility, offering each victim a nugatory $20,000 nuisance payment. The CBC says the CIA recruited Dr. Ewen Cameron a few years into MKUltra, using the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology to approach Cameron and tell him that he really, really needed to apply for one of their grants. You can see other fellow humans. Cameron quickly found patients didn't want to listen to the messages. Cameron further argued that "the weak" must not influence children. We encourage you to research and examine these records to . She said she received 12 boxes of her husbands papers after he died, but that, quote, If I had these papers, I wouldnt necessarily let you see them. Duncan: I started work at the State Department just a day or so before Kennedy was assassinated. According to "Brainwashing's Avatar: The Curious Career of Dr. Ewen Cameron,"there was more to his work at the Allan Memorial Institute than just exploring the CIA's questions about brainwashing. Donald Ewen Cameron 24 December 1901 - 8 September 1967)[1] was a Scottish-born psychiatrist. Duncan: You see, he doesn't have a scowl. . Amory: Immortal Technique is rapping about it: Ben: But for those who have had to deal with the fallout of MK-ULTRA on a personal level, the fact that the program rarely gets discussed outside the realm of pop culture can feel discouraging. Dr. Ewen Cameron wanted to win a Nobel Prize for his work in psychiatry. Cameron decided that Germans would be most likely to commit atrocities due to their historical, biological, racial and cultural past and their particular psychological nature. He died three years later. Rauh: So any documents that would show the treatment of the plaintiffs in this case were destroyed? Ben: Perhapsthis is Dr. Cameron's most enduring legacy. Sounds questionable? Amory: But Cameron was publishing articles and giving speeches about his work throughout his life. Old '45" Cameron Major Cameron (1663 - 1718) family tree on Geni, with over 230 million profiles of ancestors and living relatives. Being compared to the Nazi's most notorious doctor probably isn't the life goal of most medical professionals, so let's look at what he did to deserve this dubious title. And he was searching for ways of doing something about them. Heads up that some elements (i.e. ", And what about the CIA, who had approved and funded the research in the first place? He wanted to cure schizophrenia, and win a Nobel Prize for it. And in a lot of ways, modern psychiatry has completely left behind the man who once dominated its ranks. And when you get up to the top, its completely wooded, so theres no panoramic view after all the hard climbing. Two of my sons are lawyers and they say it isnt a good idea.. Cameron believed that mental illness was literally contagious that if one came into contact with someone with mental illness, one would begin to produce the symptoms of a mental disease. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. Toby Ziegler:In the '50s, it was the CIA mind control research program begun in response to the Chinese attempt on U.S. prisoners. In 1936, he also published his first book, Objective and Experimental Psychiatry which introduced his belief that psychiatry should approach the study of human behavior in a rigorous, scientific fashion rooted in biology. Thank you! At least, until after Cameron left the Allan. Cameron followed these schools in demanding that mental disturbances are diseases and somatic in nature; all psychological illness would therefore be hardwired, a product of the body and the direct result of a patient's biological structure rather than caused by social environments. 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