Journal Article Proves Cameron's Stupidity

History of Psychiatry recently published an interesting article on Ewen Cameron, a quack who was president of the American Psychiatric Association and inaugural president of the World Psychiatric Association.  He liked to torture vulnerable people in experiments that obviously had no scientific or medical value. Of course, the CIA was interested so they funded his medical torture for years. Even though the article is actually as sympathetic as possible, he still comes off as a horrible asshole.

"Despite the claims that Cameron’s experiments were a legitimate medical treatment, these experiments had devastating impacts on patients and their families.... [Charles] Tanny was given over 50 days of insulin-induced ‘sleep therapy’, in which he was given multiple drugs: barbiturates (Seconal, Nembutal, Veronal, Amobarbital), antipsychotics (Sparine, Reserpine, Chlorpromazine) and glutethimide, a hypnotic sedative. He was also given frequent ECT treatments, many of which were Page-Russell, an intensive form of ECT where shocks continued during convulsions. After his treatments, Tanny experienced near total memory loss and disorientation, as well as incontinence, symptoms which never completely disappeared. Returning home from the hospital, Tanny had changed from being a loving and engaged father to emotionally distant and volatile, even physically abusive towards Julie Tanny, a young child at the time. This class action lawsuit entitled all of Cameron’s former patients to compensation for their injuries, and all family members and dependents to compensation for loss of support and emotional trauma as a result of their relationship with the patients.

Cameron’s experiments had devastating consequences for patients and their families. What began as hopeful treatment for severe mental illness strayed from legitimate medical treatment and became a form of medical torture likened to the Nuremberg Trials.... We must be aware that we are all capable of such atrocities if we allow our desire for answers to come before our first duty: to do no harm."