The Shock Doctrine
Part 1, Chapter 1: The Torture Lab
Links
Central Intelligence Agency, Kubark Counterintelligence Interrogation, July 1963
Link
This declassified CIA interrogation manual was used throughout Latin America in the 1960s and was heavily influenced by Donald Hebb and Ewen Cameron’s mind control experiments at McGill University. Many of the sensory deprivation techniques described in the manual later resurfaced at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
Link
This declassified CIA interrogation manual was used throughout Latin America in the 1960s and was heavily influenced by Donald Hebb and Ewen Cameron’s mind control experiments at McGill University. Many of the sensory deprivation techniques described in the manual later resurfaced at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.
Central Intelligence Agency, Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual–1983
Link
An update to the 1963 Kubark manual, this 1983 declassified CIA interrogation manual also exhibits the influence of Donald Hebb and Ewen Cameron’s experiments.
Link
An update to the 1963 Kubark manual, this 1983 declassified CIA interrogation manual also exhibits the influence of Donald Hebb and Ewen Cameron’s experiments.
The Abu Ghraib Files
Link
Salon presents 279 photos and 19 videos of torture that occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in the fall of 2003. This site also offers reports and resources related to torture in Iraq.
Link
Salon presents 279 photos and 19 videos of torture that occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in the fall of 2003. This site also offers reports and resources related to torture in Iraq.
Stephen Soldz, "In Protest of APA Torture Stance, Author Returns Award," August 26, 2007
Link
In August 2007, the American Psychological Association voted against a resolution that would have barred psychologists from participating in interrogations. Author Mary Pipher returned her Presidential Citation award from the APA in protest. This article discusses the APA resolution and contains Pipher’s full letter.
Link
In August 2007, the American Psychological Association voted against a resolution that would have barred psychologists from participating in interrogations. Author Mary Pipher returned her Presidential Citation award from the APA in protest. This article discusses the APA resolution and contains Pipher’s full letter.
Documents
“Sensory Deprivation: Effects upon the Functioning Human in Space Systems,” 1960
PDF Link
Ewen Cameron delivered this speech at the Brooks Air Force base in 1960 and discusses how sensory deprivation “produces the primary symptoms of schizophrenia.”
PDF Link
Ewen Cameron delivered this speech at the Brooks Air Force base in 1960 and discusses how sensory deprivation “produces the primary symptoms of schizophrenia.”
“The Depatterning Treatment of Schizophrenia,” 1962
PDF Link
In this paper, Ewen Cameron advocates using a combination of electroshock, barbiturates and sensory deprivation to disrupt patients’ sense of time and space.
PDF Link
In this paper, Ewen Cameron advocates using a combination of electroshock, barbiturates and sensory deprivation to disrupt patients’ sense of time and space.
Letters Between Donald Hebb and the Canadian Defence Research Board, 1952-1953
PDF Link
A series of letters from 1952-1953 in which McGill University psychologist Donald Hebb beseeches the Canadian Defence Research Board to declassify his research on isolation and sensory deprivation. Don't miss the self-protrait of Hebb begging to have his studies released to the public.
PDF Link
A series of letters from 1952-1953 in which McGill University psychologist Donald Hebb beseeches the Canadian Defence Research Board to declassify his research on isolation and sensory deprivation. Don't miss the self-protrait of Hebb begging to have his studies released to the public.
CIA Memo on Project Artichoke, January 31, 1975
PDF Link
A summary of CIA research into “special interrogation techniques,” including experiments with LSD, hypnosis and sensory deprivation.
PDF Link
A summary of CIA research into “special interrogation techniques,” including experiments with LSD, hypnosis and sensory deprivation.
Memorandum for Alberto R. Gonzales, Counsel to the President, August 1, 2002
PDF Link
This memo from the Department of Justice to Alberto Gonzales explains that in order for painful interrogation methods to qualify as torture, they must "be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure."
PDF Link
This memo from the Department of Justice to Alberto Gonzales explains that in order for painful interrogation methods to qualify as torture, they must "be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure."
Shafiq Rasul, Asif Iqbal and Rhuhel Ahmed, Composite Statement: Detention in Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, July 2004
PDF Link
Three British citizens who were subjected to intense sensory deprivation techniques at Guantanamo discuss their harsh treatment in this composite statement.
PDF Link
Three British citizens who were subjected to intense sensory deprivation techniques at Guantanamo discuss their harsh treatment in this composite statement.
Groups
Films
Books
A Question of Torture
By Alfred W. McCoy
By Alfred W. McCoy
The Search for the Manchurian Candidate
By John Marks
By John Marks
Journey into Madness
By Gordon Thomas
By Gordon Thomas
Psychiatry and the CIA
By Harvey M. Weinstein
By Harvey M. Weinstein
