Alone Again: John Zubek and the Troubled History of Sensory Deprivation Research

Raz, Mical

doi:10.1002/jhbs.21631

Cited by 11 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…21 A further source of controversy for the floatation industry is its association with interrogation and brainwashing. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, various publications sought to expose the relationship between academic sensory deprivation research and military funding, leading in part to a decline of sensory deprivation research in North America (Raz, 2013; Suedfeld, 1980). As this paper has demonstrated, Lilly played a role in shaping both of these more sensational images of sensory deprivation as a technology that could be used to control minds, but also as one that could be used to make the mind robust and resistant to external control.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On ‘modified human agents’: John Lilly and the paranoid style in American neuroscience

Williams

2019

History of the Human Sciences

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The personal papers of the neurophysiologist John C. Lilly at Stanford University hold a classified paper he wrote in the late 1950s on the behavioural modification and control of ‘human agents’. The paper provides an unnerving prognosis of the future application of Lilly’s research, then being carried out at the National Institute of Mental Health. Lilly claimed that the use of sensory isolation, electrostimulation of the brain, and the recording and mapping of brain activity could be used to gain ‘push-button’ control over motivation and behaviour. This research, wrote Lilly, could eventually lead to ‘master-slave controls directly of one brain over another’. The paper is an explicit example of Lilly’s preparedness to align his research towards Cold War military aims. It is not, however, the research for which Lilly is best known. During the 1960s and 1970s, Lilly developed cult status as a far-out guru of consciousness exploration, promoting the use of psychedelics and sensory isolation tanks. Lilly argued that, rather than being used as tools of brainwashing, these techniques could be employed by the individual to regain control of their own mind and retain a sense of agency over their thoughts and actions. This article examines the scientific, intellectual, and cultural relationship between the sciences of brainwashing and psychedelic mind alteration. Through an analysis of Lilly’s autobiographical writings, I also show how paranoid ideas about brainwashing and mind control provide an important lens for understanding the trajectory of Lilly’s research.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On ‘modified human agents’: John Lilly and the paranoid style in American neuroscience

Williams

2019

History of the Human Sciences

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“…Sensory deprivation too slowly declined, as the impetus it had received from Cold War threats of brainwashing and false confessions was superseded by the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Scientists turned to new fields of study, as sensory deprivation was no longer seen as cutting-edge (Raz, 2013b). Understandings of autism similarly shifted.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As sensory deprivation research increased in its popularity, it led psychologists to revisit their conceptions of maternal deprivation. Perhaps, many speculated, the primary deficit in maternal deprivation was not the lack of maternal love and care, but a lack of sensory stimulation (Raz, 2013b). Psychologists set out to examine this hypothesis, as they devised interventions providing infants with extra sensory stimulation, without extra emotional care (Casler, 1965).…”

Section: New Forms Of Deprivationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deprived of touch

Raz

2013

History of the Human Sciences

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In 1943, a distinguished child psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University, Leo Kanner, published what would become a landmark article: a description of 11 children who suffered from a distinct disorder he called ‘infantile autism’. While initially quite obscure, in the early 1950s Kanner’s report garnered much attention, as clinicians and researchers interpreted these case studies as exemplifying the ill-effects of maternal deprivation, a new theory that rapidly gained currency in the United States. Sensory deprivation experiments, performed in the mid-1950s, further complicated the picture, as experts debated whether maternal deprivation was unique or simply a form of environmental stimulation. As experts strove to make sense of this new disorder, they relied on concepts of maternal and sensory deprivation, both to promote their own theories and to critique or refute those of their colleagues. This interplay between the two theories also informed new forms of intervention, including ‘rage reduction therapy’, which served as a precursor for controversial forms of therapy today termed as the ‘attachment therapies’. This article sheds light on a little-known aspect of the history of autism, and examines the far-reaching effect popular etiological theories have in shaping debates over emerging medical concerns.

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“…Things improved markedly in 1949 with a vaccination programme for distemper. 59 Because of the costs involved, nutrition was always a salient issue. Initially the cats were maintained on a diet of horsemeat, but in 1952 Aronson turned to artificial feed, beginning in collaboration with Notre Dame nutritionist Thomas Luckey to test the effectiveness of his CatSNAC product.…”

Section: The Great Cat Mutilationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The great cat mutilation: sex, social movements and the utilitarian calculus in 1970s New York City

Pettit

2017

BJHS Themes

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Abstract. In 1976, the animal liberation movement made experiments conducted on cats at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) one of its earliest successful targets. Although the scientific consensus was that Aronson was not particularly cruel or abusive, the AMNH was selected due to the visibility of the institution, the pet-like status of the animals, and the seeming perversity of studying non-human sexuality. I contextualize the controversy in terms of the changing meaning of utilitarian ethics in justifying animal experimentation. The redefinition of 'surgeries' as 'mutilations' reflected an encounter between the behavioural sciences and social movements. One of the aims of the late 1960s civil rights movements was to heighten Americans' sensitivity to differing experiences of suffering. The AMNH protesters drew inspiration from a revived utilitarian ethics of universal organismic pain across the lines of species. This episode was also emblematic of the emergence of an anti-statist, neo-liberal ethos in science. Invoking the rhetoric of the 1970s tax revolt, animal liberationists attacked Aronson's ability to conduct basic research with no immediate biomedical application. Without denying the violence involved, an exclusive focus on reading the experiments through the lens of utilitarianism obscures what ethics animated Aronson's research.

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Alone Again: John Zubek and the Troubled History of Sensory Deprivation Research

Cited by 11 publications

References 31 publications

On ‘modified human agents’: John Lilly and the paranoid style in American neuroscience

On ‘modified human agents’: John Lilly and the paranoid style in American neuroscience

Deprived of touch

The great cat mutilation: sex, social movements and the utilitarian calculus in 1970s New York City

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