With a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, money from John Wilson McConnell of the Montreal Star, and a gift of Sir Hugh Allan's mansion on Mount Royal, the Allan Memorial Institute for psychiatry was founded. It is a rare thing that a psychiatrist of his worldwide reputation and capacity should be a resource available to a small mountain community. Amory: This is information that may have proven invaluable in holding Cameron, as well as McGill, the CIA, and the Canadian Government accountable for what happened at the Allan. His response? As time has worn on, its become the families of those victims who shoulder the burden. Amory: Jim Turner was one of two prosecutors on the case. She went from apartment to apartment, mental hospital to mental hospital. 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. After his mother confirmed that yes, there were 12 boxes of papers that her sons both lawyers said she probably shouldn't share, Duncan revealed that he had gone through and taken out "several papers" that identified "a particular patient." [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.' She very slowly recovered mostly and died in 2017. For instance, he was careful to say he didnt know anything about his dads treatment regimen at the Allan, which may very well be true. Cameron began to develop broader theories of society, new concepts of human relations to replace concepts he deemed dangerous and outdated. You can see other fellow humans. Allan Cameron. Sarah Anne Johnson: I imagine this is very difficult for his family. Duncan: I think the furthest I got was to his office. To see some of the things that have happened are very upsetting. And in that sense, I think his ambition overrode his skills and his ability to do the research. The insecure man "They are the driven crowds that makes the army of the authoritarian overlord; they are the stuffing of conservatism mediocrity is their god. 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. If you want that too, we would deeply appreciate your contribution to our work in any amount. 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. Her family sued, first based on the treatment alone, then again, after discovering she was a part of the MKUltra program. That, says McGill University, was the work of Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron, a psychiatrist who performed experiments so horrifying he's been called "Scotland's Mengele." To prevent this, the West would have to take measures to reorganize German society. He clearly had his mind set on doing unorthodox research long before the Agency front started to fund him. I think he wanted to be famous. Toby Ziegler:In the '50s, it was the CIA mind control research program begun in response to the Chinese attempt on U.S. prisoners. She wasn't able to joke and laugh She would blurt out something like: 'We must do the right thing!'" Theres no clear approach to the summit only overgrown pathways. Ben: Over and over, weve heard from victims of Dr. Ewen Camerons brutal experiments at the Allan Memorial Institute. . Cameron began to explore how industrial conditions could satisfy the population through work and what kind of person or worker is best suited to industrial conditions. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. That was in December of 1959, and according to the lawsuit (via the Consumer Law Group), Cameron diagnosed Morrow as having "nervousness and tension." [citation needed]. Ben: But Duncan is still, in some ways, trying to defend his dads honor. [citation needed]. I'm the oldest son of Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron and Jean Cameron. Duncan: Well, I think that I would feel sad about that. in psychological medicine from the University of Glasgow in 1924, a D.P.M. McGill's then-director of psychology, Dr. Donald Hebb, took the money and set up experiments using his ready-and-waiting pool of test subjects: students. Duncan: I have no recollection whether there were any papers relating to any of the--. He promoted a philosophy where chaos could be prevented by removing the weak from society. This must be very difficult, very complicated for them. You can try, The 1963 "Kubark Counterintelligence Interrogation" manual, "CIA's Secret Brainwashing Experiment" (1984), "Brainwashed: The Secret CIA Experiments in Canada" (2017), Jim Turner and Joseph Rauh's lawsuit debrief: "Anatomy Of A Public Interest Case Against The CIA,", Send us a direct message on Reddit. In 1933, he married Jean C. Rankine, whom he had met while they were students at the University of Glasgow. [14] Hess later confessed that he had faked the amnesia. Heres journalist John Marks. Ben Brock Johnson: So what do you have in front of you here? Amory: Nearly everyone who experienced Camerons treatments first-hand has since died. 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. The idea was turning the mind into a fresh slate for the next part of the process, called "psychic driving.". ", "Brainwashing's Avatar: The Curious Career of Dr. Ewen Cameron,". Maybe the people responsible are waiting for all of us to forget. [8] We encourage you to research and examine these records . father. Cameron's work was funded under MKUltra's subproject 68. In 1963, the CIA published the Kubark Counterintelligence Interrogation manual, and that's exactly what it sounds like guidelines on how to get people to talk. [citation needed]. . Photo by Courtesy of Julie Tanny For the first four years of Julie Tanny's. Peterborough County. Duncan: You see, he doesn't have a scowl. Hes in his mid-80s now. 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. 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. The title is The Understanding Man. Lake Placid in particular, and the northern Adirondacks in general, have lost suddenly, tragically, but in a sense, beautifully, probably their most distinguished citizen. Anyone with any appreciation of the complexity of the human mind would not expect that you could erase an adult mind and then add things back with this stupid psychic driving. Amory: And, they delivered, with a full transcript of Duncans deposition from November, 1983. It was a heart attack and was very sudden. Cleghorn immediately ended Camerons program. He had patients. Ben: About halfway through, Prosecutor Joseph Rauh starts quoting statements that Camerons wife Duncans mom made on the record. 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. He also organized the structure of mental health services in the western half of the province, establishing 10 functioning clinics; this model was used as the blueprint for similar efforts in Montreal and a forerunner of 1960s community health models. 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. Its in the Netflix show, Stranger Things: Amory: Or the hit video game Call of Duty: Ben: They're talking about it on The West Wing:C.J. He received an M.B., Ch.B. He reported that "the subject's very identity had begun to disintegrate," and that's when someone should, ya know, stop. Duncan: No, he had some peculiar hobb-- he loved science fiction. Amory: What we know of Camerons work comes from family accounts like Marian's, a few hard-won medical documents, and detailed descriptions of his techniques from his own journal articles and speeches. I mean his father was a very prominent psychiatrist, so destroying rather than preserving personal papers of someone of that prominence is a very unusual thing, especially for a family member to have done. Ironically, his lasting impact would be on how to destroy the human mind, not how to repair it. That could be heightened with various drugs, eventually was replaced by positive messages, and the so-called "psychic driving" would continue. Donald Cameron of Lochiel (c.1700 - October 1748), was an influential Highland Clan Chief known for his magnanimous and gallant nature. Marian Cameron. The extent of Goldberg's treatment - or mistreatment - while in the care of Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron at the Allan Memorial Institute, would remain an encumbering family secret for years. Donald Ewen Cameron 24 December 1901 - 8 September 1967)[1] was a Scottish-born psychiatrist. 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. Cameron also hoped to generate families capable of using authority and techniques to take measures against mental illness, which would later be apparent in Cameron's MKULTRA and MKDELTA experiments. music, sound effects, tone) are harder to translate to text. Ben: Today we grapple with Dr. Ewen Camerons legacy. I'm sure that they loved him very much and knew him in a very different way. He argued that people with mental illnesses could spread and transmit their diseases. Marian Read: So for me, the importance of all of this is to get it out of the shadows of pulp fiction, you know Amory: This is Marian Read. Cameron's work stopped when she gave birth, and Lloyd remembered a broken mother. Care of his patients went to his assistants, and here's where things get even weirder. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. Region. 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. The behaviour of a mental patient could resemble the behaviour of a patient with, for example, syphilis, and then a somatic cause could be deduced for a psychological illness. There are a few ways to reach us: This content was originally created for audio. Ben: But some key documentation of Camerons time at the Allan is straight up missing. Did it work? In other words, torture. Amory: Duncan also has an easy, quiet smile. Instead of being considered for the fellowship, the neurologist was admitted to his Allan Memorial Institute, diagnosed with schizophrenia, and given such a heavy dose of barbiturates that it triggered an allergic reaction and she suffered from a prolonged loss of oxygen to the brain. Morrow's family got involved, and it was only at their insistence that she was transferred to another hospital. Ben: He looks like hes having a good time. 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. In 1946, Cameron introduced the practice of the day hospital, the first of its kind in North America, permitting patients to remain at home while receiving treatment at the institute during the day, thus avoiding unnecessary hospitalization and allowing the patients to maintain ties with their community and family. 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. As for the ongoing lawsuits, some of the plaintiffs have actually contacted Duncan wondering if hed be willing to support their efforts. But he has fond childhood memories of summers spent in New Yorks Adirondack Mountains, where his dads competitive nature led him again and again to the line of the horizon. 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. Like in Nicaragua, where he was The New York Times Bureau Chief. Duncan: He loved hiking. 5, p. 2227) As a result of the lawsuit, the CIA agreed to pay $750,000, the maximum allowed under U.S. law, to settle a case without conceding liability. Marian: It's become so embedded in our narrative, in our pop culture, without people really understanding that it happened It was real. She was gonna go out there and do something. I wasnt destroying documents. Abruptly and unexpectedly, Dr. Cameron suffered a life-ending heart attack while mountain climbing in 1967. Camerons techniques have no therapeutic validity whatsoever; they were comparable to Nazi medical atrocities. In 1928, Cameron left Baltimore for the Burghlzli, the psychiatric hospital of the University of Zurich, in Switzerland, where he studied under Hans W. Maier, the successor of Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler, who had significantly influenced psychiatric thinking. Duncan: I'm Duncan Cameron. He wanted to cure schizophrenia, and win a Nobel Prize for it. Shes also signed on to the class-action lawsuit against McGill University, the Canadian government, and the CIA. He began his career as resident surgeon at Glasgow Infirmary, but in 1929 moved . Montreal's CTV says that by the time she died in 2011, she had spent the last 20 years of her life as an "infant," unable to allow anyone near her head without a terrible reaction. While he didn't name names or give specifics, he did say that papers "related to patients were destroyed.". (Rubenstein LS. Ewen Donald Cameron. A stronger personality would be able to maintain itself in heavy industrial situations, he theorised, while the weaker would not be able to cope with industrial conditions. We were unable to subscribe you to WBUR Today. [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. sister. In the late 1940s, Cameron presented his ideas in a lecture entitled Dangerous Men and Women. 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. There's Edgar Allan Poe stories and Sherlock Holmes stories. His work had led him to the belief that mental illness could be "cured" like, say, a broken hip might be rehabilitated. He recruited psychoanalysts, social psychiatrists and biologists globally to develop the psychiatry program at McGill[12] From its beginning in 1943, the Allan Memorial Institute was run on an "open door" basis, allowing patients to leave if they wished, as opposed to the "closed door" policy of other hospitals in Canada in the early 1940s. Ben: Which brings us back to a question that no one can answer why did Dr. Cameron do what he did? 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. He served as president of the American Psychiatric Association (19521953), Canadian Psychiatric Association (19581959),[2] American Psychopathological Association (1963),[3] Society of Biological Psychiatry (1965)[4] and the World Psychiatric Association (19611966). 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