5 Most Disturbing & Unethical Human Experiments

Summary

This script delves into five of the most unethical psychological experiments in history, revealing the dark side of human research. From Dr. Ewen Cameron's brainwashing attempts to cure schizophrenia, to aversion therapy's damaging effects on homosexuals, the 'Monster Study' inducing stuttering in children, the tragic gender reassignment of David Reimer, and the CIA's mind-control program MKULTRA, the narrative uncovers the disastrous impacts of these experiments on individuals and society, raising questions about the limits of scientific inquiry.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and its functions, with experiments playing a crucial role in understanding how the mind works.
• 🚫 Dr. Ewen Cameron conducted unethical experiments in the 1950s and 60s, attempting to 'reprogram' the brain through brainwashing techniques, including 'psychic driving'.
• 🎧 Cameron's most infamous experiment involved strapping patients to beds and playing audio messages for up to 86 days straight, aiming to wipe and replace memories.
• 💸 The CIA took interest in Cameron's work for their mind-altering Project MKULTRA, but eventually deemed his techniques ineffective and cut funding.
• 🏳️‍🌈 Before 1973, homosexuality was categorized as a mental illness, and 'aversion therapy' was used in an attempt to 'cure' it, causing severe psychological damage to many patients.
• 🔋 Aversion therapy involved associating pain and discomfort with homosexuality through electric shocks and drugs, with one patient even dying from the treatment.
• 🤯 The 'Monster Study' by Dr. Wendell Johnson used orphaned children to test the theory that labeling could induce or worsen stuttering, causing lifelong speech problems.
• 👦🏻👧🏻 David Reimer's case showed the disastrous effects of attempting to change a child's gender from male to female after a botched circumcision, leading to identity struggles and tragic outcomes.
• 💊 Project MKULTRA was an illegal CIA mind-control program that experimented with various techniques, including the use of LSD, often without medical supervision, resulting in deaths and madness.
• 🕊️ Theodore Kaczynski, who later became the Unabomber, was a subject of an MKULTRA sub-project involving stress and humiliation, raising questions about the impact of the experiments on his later life.
• 📚 The script highlights the importance of ethical considerations in psychological research and the devastating consequences of ignoring them.

Q & A

What is the main focus of psychology as described in the script?

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and its functions, with a significant emphasis on learning how the mind functions through experiments on test subjects and recording the outcomes.

What was Dr. Ewen Cameron's approach to treating schizophrenia?

Dr. Ewen Cameron believed that the brain could be reprogrammed by imposing new thought patterns, and he attempted to cure schizophrenia using brainwashing techniques, including 'psychic driving' where patients were made to listen to audio tapes with repetitive messages.

What was the CIA's interest in Dr. Cameron's work, and what was the outcome?

The CIA was interested in Dr. Cameron's work for their mind-control program, Project MKULTRA. They provided funding but eventually concluded that Cameron's technique was a failure and cut his funding.

What was the purpose of homosexual aversion therapy, and how was it conducted?

Homosexual aversion therapy aimed to alter the state of mind of individuals identified as homosexual by associating bad sensations with their sexual orientation. It involved shock therapy and the use of drugs to induce nausea and vomiting while showing homosexual imagery.

What was the 'Monster Study' and what were its findings?

The 'Monster Study' was an experiment conducted by Dr. Wendell Johnson to test his theory that labeling children as stutterers could cause or worsen stuttering. The experiment involved labeling some children as stutterers and subjecting them to negative reinforcement, which led to increased speech problems.

What was the outcome of the 'Raised as a Girl' experiment involving David Reimer?

The experiment, where David Reimer was raised as a girl named Brenda after a botched circumcision, ultimately failed as Brenda showed strong masculine behaviors and later transitioned back to living as a male named David. The experiment demonstrated the limitations of the 'nurture over nature' theory.

What were the goals of the CIA's Project MKULTRA?

Project MKULTRA aimed to identify and develop drugs and procedures for use in interrogations and tortures to weaken subjects and elicit false confessions through mind control.

What role did LSD play in the MKULTRA experiments?

LSD was used in MKULTRA experiments to manipulate the mind state of subjects, often without proper medical supervision, leading to at least two deaths attributed to the experiments.

What was the aftermath of the unethical psychological experiments mentioned in the script?

The aftermath included psychological damage to the subjects, legal actions such as lawsuits against the CIA, and a deeper understanding of the ethical boundaries in psychological research.

What are some of the ethical considerations that should be taken into account when conducting psychological experiments?

Ethical considerations include obtaining informed consent, ensuring the safety and well-being of subjects, avoiding harm, and maintaining confidentiality. The experiments should also be designed to minimize distress and have a clear scientific purpose.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Dr. Ewen Cameron's Brainwashing Experiments

Dr. Ewen Cameron's unethical experiments aimed to 'cure' schizophrenia through brainwashing techniques. In the 1950s and 60s, he conducted 'psychic driving' at the Allen Memorial Institute in Montreal, where patients were subjected to continuous audio messages for up to 86 days, often while in a drug-induced coma, to erase and reprogram their memories. The CIA took interest in his methods for Project MKULTRA but later deemed them a failure. Cameron's patients received a settlement for the severe and lasting effects of his experiments, which were both inhumane and ineffective.

05:00

🏥 Homosexual Aversion Therapy and its Aftermath

Before 1973, homosexuality was considered a mental illness, and aversion therapy was used in an attempt to 'cure' it. This involved associating pain or discomfort with homosexual stimuli, such as through electric shocks and nausea-inducing drugs, as conducted by Dr. Robert Card. The therapy was not only ineffective but also caused severe psychological damage, with some patients committing suicide. The practice continued until the late 1900s, leaving a legacy of mental health issues and suicides among its victims.

10:02

👶 The 'Monster Study' and its Lasting Impact

In the 1930s, Dr. Wendell Johnson's 'Monster Study' used orphaned children to test his theory that stuttering could be induced by labeling. The experiment, which divided children into 'normal speakers' and 'stutterers', led to long-term psychological and speech issues for those mislabeled. The experiment's harmful effects were only revealed 60 years later, and the subjects were awarded compensation for the lifelong scars they endured.

🚼 The Tragic Case of David Reimer and Gender Reassignment

David Reimer's case highlights the disastrous consequences of a botched circumcision and subsequent gender reassignment at the hands of Dr. John Money. Money's theory of 'nuture over nature' led to David being raised as a girl, despite his biological sex. This decision caused significant psychological distress, leading David to revert to his biological gender in his teens. The experiment not only failed but also contributed to a series of personal tragedies, including David's eventual suicide.

💊 CIA's MKULTRA: The Dark Side of Mind Control

Project MKULTRA was a CIA mind-control program that sought to develop interrogation and torture techniques through drugs and psychological manipulation. The program involved a range of unethical practices, including the use of LSD on unwitting subjects, which led to deaths and long-term psychological harm. Notorious cases, such as that of the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski, who was a subject of a related experiment, raise questions about the program's impact on individuals' lives and the ethical boundaries of research.

Keywords

💡Psychology

Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, which is central to understanding behavior and mental processes. In the video, it sets the stage for discussing unethical experiments conducted under its guise, emphasizing the dark side of advancing psychological knowledge.

💡Experiments

Experiments are systematic procedures undertaken to make discoveries, test hypotheses, or demonstrate known facts. The video script describes various experiments, highlighting the unethical nature of those that caused harm to the subjects involved, such as Dr. Ewen Cameron's brainwashing techniques.

💡Ethics

Ethics refers to moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior. The video emphasizes the unethical nature of certain psychological experiments, where the well-being and consent of the subjects were disregarded, leading to disastrous effects.

💡Brainwashing

Brainwashing is a concept where an individual's thoughts are systematically altered or overwritten with new ideas, often against their will. Dr. Ewen Cameron's experiments, aiming to 'cure' schizophrenia, involved brainwashing through 'psychic driving,' which is a key example of unethical psychological manipulation in the video.

💡Aversion Therapy

Aversion therapy is a psychological treatment that attempts to condition an individual to avoid a particular behavior by associating it with unpleasant consequences. The video discusses its use in trying to 'cure' homosexuality, which was considered a mental illness in the past, illustrating the harmful and unethical application of psychological techniques.

💡Homosexuality

Homosexuality refers to sexual attraction to individuals of the same sex. The video script recounts the dark history of classifying homosexuality as a mental illness and the unethical aversion therapy used to 'treat' it, reflecting the intersection of societal prejudice and psychological practices.

💡MKULTRA

MKULTRA was a CIA program aimed at developing methods of mind control and chemical interrogation resistant to truth serum. The video highlights the unethical and illegal nature of this program, which involved drug experimentation on unwitting subjects, including the use of LSD.

💡Stuttering

Stuttering is a speech disorder characterized by disruptions in the flow of speech. The 'Monster Study' mentioned in the video is an infamous example of psychological experimentation on stuttering, where children were falsely labeled as stutterers to study the effects of such labeling, causing lifelong harm.

💡Nurture vs. Nature

The nature versus nurture debate is a key concept in psychology, discussing the extent to which human behavior is determined by genetics (nature) versus personal experiences (nurture). The video references the case of David Reimer, where the nurture theory was tested by raising him as a girl after a botched circumcision, ultimately proving to be a disastrous and misguided experiment.

💡Gender Identity

Gender identity refers to a person's internal sense of being male, female, or something else. The video discusses the case of David Reimer, who was raised as a girl against his biological sex, illustrating the complex interplay between gender identity and societal expectations.

💡Unethical

Unethical behavior goes against moral principles and professional standards. The video repeatedly emphasizes the unethical nature of the psychological experiments discussed, which involved a lack of informed consent, deception, and severe harm to the subjects.

Highlights

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and its functions, with experiments playing a crucial role in understanding mental processes.

Dr. Ewen Cameron's unethical experiments aimed to 'reprogram' the brain through brainwashing techniques to cure schizophrenia.

Cameron's 'psychic driving' involved forcing patients to listen to audio tapes for extended periods, inducing a coma-like state with drugs.

The CIA showed interest in Cameron's work for their mind-altering Project MKULTRA and provided funding before deeming it a failure.

Former patients of Cameron's experiments received a settlement for the severe and lasting effects on their mental health.

Homosexuality was once considered a mental illness, leading to involuntary commitment and aversion therapy for 'treatment'.

Aversion therapy used electric shocks and drugs to associate pain with homosexuality, causing severe psychological damage.

Dr. Wendell Johnson's 'Monster Study' tested the impact of labeling on speech impediments, using orphaned children as subjects.

The 'Monster Study' led to long-term psychological and speech issues for the children falsely labeled as stutterers.

David Reimer's case involved a botched circumcision leading to a sex change experiment based on the nurture over nature theory.

Dr. John Money's experiment with David Reimer resulted in a tragic life story, ultimately reinforcing the importance of biological factors in gender identity.

MKULTRA was a CIA mind-control program involving illegal activities and unethical experiments on both willing and unwilling subjects.

The MKULTRA program used drugs like LSD in an attempt to manipulate and control individuals' minds for interrogation purposes.

Theodore Kaczynski, the Unabomber, was a subject of MKULTRA experiments, raising questions about the impact of these tests on his later criminal activities.

MKULTRA records were destroyed in 1973, leaving a legacy of unethical practices and unknown consequences.

These psychological experiments highlight the importance of ethical considerations in scientific research and the potential for lasting harm.

Transcripts

psychology is the scientific study of

the mind and its functions and a very

important part of learning how exactly

the mind functions is to perform

experiments on test subjects and then

record the outcomes many experiments go

to plan and allow humans to further our

knowledge of the mind but then there are

those that do not go to plan and are

often kept from the public here we have

five cases that were not only incredibly

unethical but also had disastrous

effects on those involved this first

start with dr. Ewen Cameron's belief

that the brain could be reprogrammed by

imposing new thought patterns into the

mind

dr. Cameron was certain he could cure

schizophrenia by using brainwashing

techniques and in the 1950s and 60s

hundreds of people some of which didn't

even have schizophrenia became his

unwitting test subjects Cameron's

experiments varied but his most famous

is what is called psychic driving in

which many patients who checked into the

Allen Memorial Institute in Montreal

would be made to listen to audio tapes

that would recite words said to help

cure them of their illnesses it's

believed they would be strapped into

beds and then these messages would be

played through headphones for up to 86

days straight and to top things off most

of the patients were given drugs to

induce a coma like state Cameron believe

that psychic driving would wipe clean

the unsuspected patient's memories and

implant other memories on a clean slate

the only report of this actually working

was one time that Cameron made patients

listen to the message when you see a

piece of paper you want to pick it up he

then drove them to a local gymnasium

where there would be a piece of paper

lying in the middle of the floor Cameron

reported that many of them spontaneously

walked over to pick the piece of paper

up when news of what Cameron was doing

reached the CIA they became interested

as they too were looking into ways of

altering one's mindset for their

famously known project MKULTRA

apparently the CIA started channeling

Cameron money but eventually concluded

that that Cameron's technique was a

failure and cut his funding shortly

after this Cameron admitted that his

experiment had been a tenured trip down

the wrong road and in the late 1970s a

group of Cameron's former patients filed

a lawsuit against the CIA for his

support in Cameron's work they were

awarded seven hundred and fifty thousand

dollars in an out-of-court settlement in

1988 we will never know the full

extent of what went on during these

tests because many documents relating to

the case simply no longer exist or are

classified for many years to come and

since the documents that no longer exist

have suspiciously been misplaced people

believe that Cameron's experiments were

much more worse than we think

homosexual aversion therapy before 1973

homosexuality was frequently categorized

as a mental illness those thought to be

gay were involuntary committed to

psychiatric facilities by their families

where they would undergo experiments in

hope that it would prevent or eliminate

their homosexual behavior

now several different psychological

experiments were done on homosexuals

over the years and all would be

considered awful but aversion therapy is

considered the most unethical and most

documented of testing aversion therapy

is simple you're basically attempting to

alter one state of mind by associating a

bad sensation with whatever is trying to

be cured it's used as an attempt to cure

homosexuality dates back to 1935 but it

became most popular in the 1950s and 60s

where hundreds of homosexuals almost all

men in Britain the US and many other

countries were subjected to aversion

therapy dr. Robert Card of Brigham Young

University conducted shock aversion

therapy by attaching electrodes to gay

patients genitals

they were then shown gay pornography and

as this was being played the patients

were injected with drugs and zapped by

electric shocks the shocks and drugs

would then stop and the homosexual

imagery would be replaced by

heterosexual porn during which time the

patient would not be abused the worst

part is that the drugs that were given

would cause nausea and induce vomiting

this and the electric shocks was

believed to make the patient's mind

associate pain and discomfort with

homosexuality but rather than so-called

curing them it called psychological

damage to many of the patients with at

least one man dying from the treatment

he received after falling into a coma

another brutal study took place in 1963

a doctor reported a successful adoption

from gay to bisexual by forcing a

patient to stand in a nine foot square

room that had an electrical grid on the

floor when the gay patient was shown

slides of naked men a current of

electricity would pass through his bare

feet now whether or not this

successfully turned him from gay to

bisexual is highly debated aversion

therapy took place

of research universities right up to the

late 1900s and mental illness and

suicide have all been attributed to

those unfortunate victims of such an

experiment

the monster study in the 1930s it was

believed that human stuttering was

caused by genetics but dr. Wendell

Johnson a speech pathologist from the

University of Iowa disagreed he thought

that the labeling of children as

stutterers could actually make them

worse and in some cases cause normal

children to start stuttering to try and

prove this he conducted an experiment

that was led by one of his graduate

students Mary Tudor it was named the

monster study by some of dr. Johnson's

peers as they were mortified he would

use innocent orphaned children as test

subjects for his theory 22 young orphans

were recruited to participate in the

sixth month long experiment they were

divided into two groups the first were

labeled normal speakers and the second

were labeled stutterers crucially only

half of the group labeled stutterers did

actually show signs of stuttering during

the experiment the normal speakers were

given positive encouragement for their

speech but the other group labeled

stutterers were made more self-conscious

about their speech even the six in the

group that did not stutter were still

mocked and told to take extra care not

to repeat words of those six normal

children in the stuttering group five

began developing speech problems of the

five children who had stuttered before

therapy three became progressively worse

in comparison only one of the children

in the group labeled normal had greater

speech after the study realizing the

psychological effect of their experiment

the researchers tried to undo the damage

they had done but to no success those

orphans labeled stutterers had to cope

with the psychological and speech

problems the test seemed to give them

for the rest of their lives and as crazy

as it sounds those involved were not

even told about the test until it was

revealed sixty years later in a

newspaper in august 2007 six of the test

subjects were awarded $925,000 by the

state of iowa for their lifelong

psychological and emotional scars caused

by the experiment raised a girl born a

boy this experiment was truly horrendous

and his outcome was disastrous it's the

case of David rhymer born as a non

identical twin boy in 1965 david rhymer

and his twin brother brian were both

healthy babies

the age of eight months though both of

them each had a minor medical problem

involving their penises a doctor decided

to treat the problem with circumcision

but unfortunately the doctor botched the

circumcision on David by using an

inappropriate method and accidentally

burn off virtually all of David's penis

when David's parents saw psychologist

and sexologist John money on television

they decided to visit him to explore

what options there were for poor David

John saw David as a perfect candidate

for his nurture and not nature study and

suggested that David should have a sex

change dr. money believed that there was

a window of opportunity for surgery a

gender gate he called it which lasted up

to the age of two during that period he

said that if the parent chose the sex of

the child and brought it up accordingly

this would determine the child's gender

his parents first disagreed but were

later convinced and surely after David

had a rudimentary vagina constructed was

given hormonal supplements and was to be

raised as a girl from now on his new

name was Brenda dr. money published

Brenda's case when she was five I assume

became a sensation

it seemed that his nurture and not

nature theory was correct but whilst

money was boasting of his supposedly

incredible experiment back in Canada

where the rhymers were living things

were proving that his theory was far

from correct Brenda was showing strong

masculine behaviors she enjoyed running

fighting climbing and did not enjoy

playing with dolls she struggled to

connect with friends and became

incredibly lonely a young age she also

hated going to visit dr. money and you

can see why during the visits to him

money would try everything in his power

to convince Brenda that he was a girl he

desperately tried to persuade her to

have a vagina constructed even showing

her graphic photos of a woman giving

birth when Brenda was seven years old he

did this in an attempt to get her to

agree to having what he called a baby

hole made even though he knew full well

Brenda would never be able to give birth

he also strongly suggested that she take

more hormone tablets in order to make

her grow breasts when she was 12

although some scientists have said that

dr. money did these things in the best

interest for Brenda he and Brenda's

family could see that she was severely

affected and at the age of 13 Brenda's

family decided to tell him the truth

almost immediately Brenda turned herself

back into a boy and was now David again

he had a new penis reconstructed and

made a lady in it

twenties who he later married but sadly

the story doesn't end there

David's brother Brian was mentally

disturbed by what took place and later

developed schizophrenia

he died possibly of a drug overdose

which is believed to have been a suicide

attempt and David's life was not good

after selling the movie rights to his

story he lost all of the money when a

businessman abscond with his fortune his

marriage also started to fall apart and

when his wife asked him for a short

break David took this badly he returned

to his parents house for a few days

before driving to a supermarket car park

on the 4th of May 2004 where he shot

himself in the head at age 38

David rymus story is incredibly sad and

proves that dr. Moniz experiment was

nothing more than his misguided theory

that nurture could change nature MKULTRA

I mentioned project MKULTRA in the first

case and no psychological experiment

video would be complete without it

MKULTRA was the codename given to an

illegal mind-control program conducted

by the CIA it was believed to have

started in 1953 by the then CIA director

Allen dolls the project was intended to

identify and develop drugs and

procedures that could be used in

interrogations and tortures hopefully

this would help in weakened and false

confessions through mind-control this

was done using a variety of different

techniques that were practiced on

willing and unwilling American citizens

and soldiers one of the experiments was

hypnosis but attempted to plant

subconscious commands in order to force

a subject to do something against their

will there was also the Navy back to

sub-project 54 which involved an attempt

to use mechanical sound waves to erase a

subject brain in order to prepare them

for programming this was considered a

perfect concussion by the CIA the most

famous of MKULTRA experiments was the

use of drugs mainly Alice D that was

used in an attempt to manipulate one's

mind state whilst they were being dosed

with the drug when the drugs were first

used on patients there were no medical

personnel on hand to administer the drug

or observe its effects and at least two

deaths has been attributed to these

experiments

despite this the CIA continued their

experimentations and soon the use of LSD

spiraled out of control not only was CIA

workers holding private Alice tea

parties but they were also dosing each

other with drugs in the office Frank

Olson a United States Army biochemist

and biological weapons researcher fell

to his death from a 13th floor hotel

window after receiving a dose of LSD

without his knowledge or consent many

well-known individuals took part in the

MKULTRA testing but the most bizarre

story is that of one participant

Theodore Kaczynski who was 16 when he

signed up to be a subject of a research

program involving academic criticism as

well as receiving criticism Theodore was

also subjected to several weeks of

interrogation for many hours a day the

goal of the experiment was to test the

subjects tolerance to the stress of

humiliation by people who are

intellectually superior Theodore

Kaczynski grew up to become the

Unabomber a nickname he was given after

engaging in a nationwide bombing

campaign against people involved with

modern technology he planted and mailed

numerous homemade bombs ultimately

killing a total of three people and

injuring 23 others Theodore went on to

list his awards in life as eight life

sentences for the lives he took and he's

currently held in a supermax prison in

Colorado whether or not his experience

as a test subject for MKULTRA caused his

murderous future will forever remain a

mystery the codename MKULTRA soon turned

into MK search but surely after all

official accounts were supposedly ended

in 1972 and not surprisingly most of the

records of all these activities were

destroyed in 1973 with the deaths the

torment and the sheer madness of project

MKULTRA it was not only incredibly

unethical but the thing that the CIA

were doing such a thing is truly

terrifying so thus five of the most

unethical psychological studies ever

performed I hope you've enjoyed a next

week's video is going to be a part two

of my five extremely creepy mysteries

thanks again and see you next week

[Music]

you