Ewen Cameron was fulfilling one of the items on his life bucket list: to climb Street Mountain. And it's still hugely controversial: In 2019, The New York Times published drawings done by prisoners who had been subjected to these torture methods at Guantanamo Bay, and it's not for the faint of heart. For Cameron, the traits were contagions and anyone affected by the societal, cultural or personality forms would themselves be infected. Ben: As for the CIAs MK-ULTRA program itself, it never had an official end date. Like Freud, Cameron maintained that the family was the nucleus of social behavior and anxieties later in life were spawned during childhood. But none of us trained in psychiatry. Amory: Ben and I are in an apartment in Washington D.C. thats bursting with morning light and books, and were flipping through some of our hosts old family photos. Today, we're talking to one of the only people who will stand up for Dr. Cameron. He began his career as resident surgeon at Glasgow Infirmary, but in 1929 moved to Canada to work in the Brandon Mental Hospital. In 2020, director Stephen Bennett released "Eminent Monsters," a film that examined the link between Cameron's work and the torture techniques used by organizations around the world, including the CIA. If you want that too, we would deeply appreciate your contribution to our work in any amount. Alison said that when her mother returned, it was no longer her mother. There is no incontinence, there is no mutism, and we are continuing this intense treatment of her until we get complete depatterning.". Its not a very popular mountain to climb, its steep. Rauh: So any documents that would show the treatment of the plaintiffs in this case were destroyed? Ben: But there is reason to believe that these documents arent just missing. After one test he noted: "Although the patient was prepared by both prolonged sensory isolation (35 days) and by repeated depatterning, and although she received 101 days of positive driving, no favourable results were obtained." According to The Guardian, it started with playing tapes designed to tap into the reason the patient sought help in the first place. All Germans on trial would be assessed according to the likeliness for committing the crime. 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. 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. Esther Schrier who was a nurse at Montreal's Jewish General Hospital tragically lost her first child at just three weeks of age. So I think in a certain way they believed that what fiction writers could come up with, somebody could actually make real. Jean spent three months under Cameron's care, and spent two periods in a drug-induced coma. Thus, this group would have to be studied and controlled as a contagious social disease. [citation needed] Characteristics were thus diagnosed as syndromes emerging from the brain. So we don't have. memorial page for Donald Ewen Cameron (1852-5 Feb 1892), Find a Grave Memorial ID 170055188, citing Cameron Cemetery, Indian River . And Camerons part of that. Although society had established sanctions against the spread of infectious diseases, Cameron wanted to extend the concept of contagion to chronic anxiety. [31][2] In her book, In the Sleep Room: The Story of the CIA Brainwashing Experiments in Canada,[32] author Anne Collins explored the history of Cameron and Montreal's Allan Memorial Institute. Amory: He remembers his dad working a lot during this time, which, definitely tracks. Cameron's work was funded under MKUltra's subproject 68. John Marks: There must have been clinical documents. 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. He promoted a philosophy where chaos could be prevented by removing the weak from society. His brutal techniques involved a three-stage method for brainwashing in order to eliminate the will and establish control: first, mental depatterning achieved through drug-induced coma; massive neuroleptic drug cocktails induced extended sleep lasting up to eighty-six days. His list of credentials was so long it's impossible to list them all, but for starters, his resume included the University of Glasgow and Johns Hopkins, and in the 1930s, he was lauded for setting up a series of psychiatric clinics. Our username is. When asked about the decision to involve Cameron in MK-ULTRA, John Gittinger, the CIA officer in charge of monitoring his work said, quote, Now that was a foolish mistake. Maybe the people responsible are waiting for all of us to forget. He furthered his diagnostic definitions of clinical states such as anxiety, depression and schizophrenia. North America. [26] His "psychic driving" experiments consisted of putting a subject into a drug-induced coma for weeks at a time (up to three months in one case) while playing tape loops of noise or simple statements. Cameron wanted to build an inventive psychiatric institution to determine rapid ways for societal control while demanding a psychological economy that did not center itself around guilt and guilt complexes. They fear the stranger, they fear the new idea; they are afraid to live, and scared to die." Her family sued, first based on the treatment alone, then again, after discovering she was a part of the MKUltra program. There are movies like Gaslight and Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. They were destroyed. He published a book called Remembering[18] and extended psychiatric links to human biology. He had a Mercedes. . He was always attracted to these subjects for which there was no easy answer. She said: "She wasn't able to talk to me about life and regular stuff. These did nothing to calm the feud which continued through succeeding reigns to when Donald's grandson Ewen, the 13th chief, fought at the battle of Flodden where James IV was killed. Ben: Over and over, weve heard from victims of Dr. Ewen Camerons brutal experiments at the Allan Memorial Institute. 3.99 If we can succeed in inventing means of changing their attitudes and beliefs, we shall find ourselves in possession of measures which, if wisely used, may be employed in freeing ourselves from their attitudes and beliefs in other fields which have greatly contributed to the instability of our period by their propensity for holding up progress, In Cameron's book Life is For Living, published in 1948, he expressed a concern for the German race in general. Very different. Amory: Jim Turner was one of two prosecutors on the case. Donald Hebb the psychiatrist who started the whole mess with his sensory deprivation experiments had even less kind things to say: "Cameron was irresponsible criminally stupid. And I feel for them for that. Ewen Donald Cameron. Amory: He said he did not destroy documents, that he didn't know about that. 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? 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. Ben: Robert Cleghorn, a former member of Camerons staff, took over after Cameron stepped down. We shouldn't have done it, I'm sorry we did it.. Ben: But Duncan is still, in some ways, trying to defend his dads honor. And here I am looking much younger than I am now. Her life was sad. He reported that "the subject's very identity had begun to disintegrate," and that's when someone should, ya know, stop. She never did get her children back. Or answer questions about his motivations, whether or not he knew he was part of the CIAs mind control efforts. You know, all of us not only respected him, but loved him, and not just myself, but my brothers. Psychiatric experimentation: the lessons or history, The Journal of the California Alliance for the Mentally Ill, 1994, Vol. We put this to Harvey Weinstein, the psychiatrist we heard from earlier, whose father was a patient at the Allan. Ben: But, as human experiments at the Allan Memorial Institute, and MK-ULTRAs mind control efforts, fade into history, reduced to references in tv shows and video game plot points, there are troubling examples of these techniques still in use today. People Projects Discussions Surnames . 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. There's my father and my mother. Ben: After Marians mom left the Allan, she struggled for the rest of her life to regain her sense of self and mental clarity. [10] There he met A. T. Mathers, Manitoba's principal psychiatrist, who convinced Cameron in 1929 to move to Brandon, the second largest city of Manitoba, Canada. He warned that government institutions should take measures against such potential liabilities. Donald Hebb and Ewen Cameron were competitors; they did not collaborate, though Cameron incorporated Hebbs sensory isolation techniques into his own diabolical arsenal of psychiatrys instruments of torture. When it came time to evaluate Nazi leaders ahead of the Nuremberg Trials, he was one of a group of internationally renowned mental health professionals who were sent to decide just what was going on in the heads of some of the worst war criminals the world had ever seen. Morrow's family got involved, and it was only at their insistence that she was transferred to another hospital. Duncan Cameron: This is a picture of the whole family. 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. "[36], Cameron is the subject of Stephen Bennett's film Eminent Monsters (2020), which was funded by BBC Scotland and Creative Scotland. Cleghorn immediately went and took a long, hard look at what Cameron had actually been doing in his little corner of the university, and he was pretty shocked. During those years, Cameron began to expand on his thoughts about the interrelationships of mind and body, developing a reputation as a psychiatrist who could bridge the gap between the organic, structural neurologists, and the psychiatrists whose knowledge of anatomy was limited to maps of the mind as opposed to maps of the brain. He saw no reason why psychiatry should be any different. Duncan: I think the furthest I got was to his office. I mean, he was that much of a scientist. Everyone who makes a monthly donation will get access to upcoming bonus content from the making of our series. After he left, his position as chair of the department of psychiatry was handed to Robert Cleghorn. The paper stated that German culture and its people would have offspring bound to become a threat to world peace in 30 years. Jim: But again, you know, the deposition transcript, you're going to have to rely on that, like we did. Amory: Duncan knows how to be very careful about what he says. In 1938 he moved to Albany, New York, where he received his diplomate in psychiatry and thus was certified in psychiatry. Ben: Her dad couldnt afford childcare, so soon after Marians mother went into the Allan, social services took Marian and her two younger brothers away because there was no parent to take care of them. They had 11 children: Allan Francis Cameron, John Donald Cameron and 9 other children. And they haven't been super successful. A possessive type, filled with jealousy and demanding utmost loyalty. He clearly had his mind set on doing unorthodox research long before the Agency front started to fund him. Charles Tanny was a former patient of Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron at the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal in 1957. Her niece later said, "She had electric shock equipment put on her head so many times that it [remained] in her subconscious." Duncan: I mean, it's very different than the caricature that you sometimes read in the press. 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. Amory: In spite of Camerons ambition and prestige, he never helped find a cure for mental illness, he never won a Nobel Prize for psychiatry. Amory: Duncan struggles dealing with his dads legacy because he cant speak to why his dad did what he did. Marian believes all of this was a result of her mother going into the Allan. Dr. Morrow, says The Washington Post, had applied for a fellowship in psychiatry with Cameron. In 1938 he received his diploma in psychiatry and became professor of neurology, psychiatry at University at . In 1936, he moved to Massachusetts to become director of the research division at Worcester State Hospital only 1 year later. Cregg: What do you know about mind-control experiments? "Now, that was a foolish mistake. The last generation of Holocaust survivors and their children express their concerns about current events A Five-Part, FDA Advisory Panel & CDC Director are Complicit in Sacrificing Childrens Lives to Protect Pfizer from Liability, Copyright 2023 Alliance for Human Research Protection, 1950s1960s: Dr. Ewen Cameron Destroyed Minds at Allan Memorial Hospital in Montreal, Law and Mind Control Mind Control Through Five Cases, Vera Sharavs documentary Never Again is Now Global now available. "A number of experiments at McGill University.". He graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1924. Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel, 17t. Because it would seem to me, or I was concerned as a lawyer, that it might be a breach of the patient-doctor privilege. He never got one. Duncan: It's really a very moving editorial. She went from apartment to apartment, mental hospital to mental hospital. Which suggests it was for purposes of, not closure, but of not wanting information to come to light that was in the papers. Because his dad isnt around to do it himself. Although Cameron rejected the Freudian notion of the unconscious, he shared the Freudian idea that personal psychology is linked to the nervous nature. Police, hospitals, government, and schools would need to use the correct psychiatric authority to stop mental contagions from spreading. AIan Cameron followed in the footsteps of his father and became a director at Panmure Gordon in 1957. When then-CIA director Stansfield Turner testified about the program in 1977, he said (via the Smithsonian) that the bottom line was to develop "the use of biological and chemical materials in altering human behavior." In 1926, he served as assistant medical officer there[9] and was introduced to psychiatrist Sir David Henderson, a student of Swiss-born US psychiatrist Adolf Meyer. Cleghorn immediately ended Camerons program. She was a former captain of the Scottish field hockey team, a competitive tennis player,[11] and lecturer in mathematics at the University of Glasgow. There must have been names of patients. She had no idea how to boil water, much less care for a child. 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. [23][24] He is unrelated to another CIA psychiatrist, Alan S. Cameron, who helped pioneer psychological profiling of world leaders during the 1970s and was not associated with the behavioral modification research program. Cameron's concerns extended to his policies determining who should have children and advance to positions of authority. 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. He was always interested in the future. Ironically, his lasting impact would be on how to destroy the human mind, not how to repair it. Skip Ancestry . We encourage you to research and examine these records to . Those who are privileged to know him, even briefly, will not soon forget the warmth and kindliness of this understanding man.. Despite the horrific abuse, the American and Canadian psychiatric establishment closed ranks. Lloyd has continued to fight for recognition, recompense, and an apology. You have been subscribed to WBUR Today. On the weekends, you'd think he would go out and mow the lawn or bask in the sun or go play golf or tennis, but none of it. The second part of the technique was inspired by something called the Cerebrophone, which was essentially a "learn-while-you-sleep" recording device. These negative statements were sometimes taken from the therapy sessions Cameron conducted when patients first arrived, says Rebecca Lemov, author of "Brainwashing's Avatar: The Curious Career of Dr. Ewen Cameron." They had four children; a daughter and three sons. We love making Endless Thread, and we want to be able to keep making it far into the future. Ben: Camerons research could never happen today at least not lawfully. Region. Ben: Sure, but I mean, in terms of trying to help cure people of mental illness or anything like that, not necessarily his process, but his end goal. Cameron also wanted to revolutionize the way psychology and psychiatry looked at mental illness. Under that program, more than 80,000 suspected North Vietnamese sympathizers were interrogated by US forces and their allies. Traces of some survived, including documentation on Sub-project 42 also known as Operation Midnight Climax and sub-project 68. And we would take off. Cameron began to develop broader theories of society, new concepts of human relations to replace concepts he deemed dangerous and outdated. Heres journalist John Marks. The idea was turning the mind into a fresh slate for the next part of the process, called "psychic driving.". The guilt of her baby's deadly staph infection stayed with her, and when she became pregnant with her second, and the CBC says she went into Cameron's care in February of 1960. in psychological medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1924, a D.P.M. Tell us about your reaction to this episode or send us a story idea. Amory: Duncan, one of the two lawyer sons, admits hes familiar with those 12 boxes of papers, and then explains what happened to them. Their diagnosis was amnesia and hysteria, per a short commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association. At the heart of MKUltra, says The Guardian, was the broadcasting of videos of American POWs from the Korean War condemning their own country and lauding the benefits of Communism. Marian Cameron. Other similar psychiatric diagnoses of Germany were published during this time. (Beyond Nuremburg, ABA Journal March 1997; News accounts of five legal cases at: The Law and Mind Control Mind Control Through Five Cases). Cameron reported to John Gittinger, an agent in charge of overseeing parts of MKUltra. It is a rare thing that a psychiatrist of his worldwide reputation and capacity should be a resource available to a small mountain community. Or do you remember any of --. Shes also signed on to the class-action lawsuit against McGill University, the Canadian government, and the CIA. And he was always very fascinated by what the future held for us all. [28] His work was inspired and paralleled by the psychiatrist William Sargant, who was also involved with the intelligence services and experimented extensively on his patients without their consent, causing similar long-term damage. It affected a lot of people. He has an open, amused look on his face. And in that he took some risks, obviously. [7], Donald Ewen Cameron was born in Bridge of Allan, Scotland, the oldest son of a Presbyterian minister. That would have been the cultural environment in which people like Sidney Gottlieb grew up. Fellowship in psychiatry and became professor of neurology, psychiatry at University at the human,... Than 80,000 suspected North Vietnamese sympathizers were interrogated by us forces and their allies,! 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