The Shock Doctrine

Part 1, Chapter 1: The Torture Lab

Links

Documents
“Sensory Deprivation: Effects upon the Functioning Human in Space Systems,” 1960
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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
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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
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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.
Memorandum for Alberto R. Gonzales, Counsel to the President, August 1, 2002
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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
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Three British citizens who were subjected to intense sensory deprivation techniques at Guantanamo discuss their harsh treatment in this composite statement.
Jacket Cover