|
The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate"
(W.W. Norton and Company: New York), describes Orne as receiving funding for
his MKULTRA experiments through the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology,
a known CIA front organization:
The Society demanded "no stupid progress reports,"
recalls psychologist and psychiatrist Martin Orne, who received a grant to support
his Harvard research on hypnotism . As a further sign of generosity and trust,
the Society gave Orne a follow-on $30,000 grant with no specified purpose. A
1962 report of Orne's laboratory, the Institute for Experimental Psychiatry,
showed that it received two sizable grants before the end of that year: $30,000
from Human Ecology and $30,000 from Scientific Engineering Institute, another
CIA front organization. Orne says he was not aware of the latter group's Agency
connection at the time, but learned of it later. He used its grant to study
new ways of using the polygraph. The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate",
John Marks, W. W. Norton & Company 1991, p.172-173.
From the above quote it is reasonable to assume that not only
did Orne not keep "progess reports", but he probably did not videotape
the hypnosis as is common with a forensic interview. Orne was the director of
studies on hypnosis from 1960-1964 at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center
in Boston and also the Executive Director of the Institute for Experimental
Psychiatry, both of which participated in the experiments. The court record
in the United States Supreme Court case of Central Intelligence Agency vs John
Cary Sims and Sidney M. Wolfe, 471 U.S. 159, 85 L.Ed. 2d, 105 S.Ct. 1881 (1985)
includes a partially redacted undated CIA memorandum entitled "Memorandum
for: Deputy Director for Support; Subject: Institute for Experimental Psychiatry".
This CIA memorandum on Orne's Institute for Experimental Psychiatry discussed
the flow of grant funds through an intermediary, Human Ecology, to the "Institute"
(Addendum D).
According to John Mark's: "Martin Orne's work for the Agency
was described in Subproject 84. He contributed a chapter to the Society-funded
book, The Manipulation of Human Behavior, edited by Albert Biderman and Herbert
Zimmer (New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1961), pp. 169-215. Financial data
on Orne's Institute for Experimental Psychiatry came from a filing with the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Attachment to Form 1023".
Described as a "Teaching Fellow, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard University
Medical School", Orne's chapter in The Manipulation of Human Behavior,
is entitled "The potential uses of hypnosis in interrogation" and
indicates "this paper is based in part upon work under a grant from the
Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, Inc.", p. 169.
Orne knew of CIA involvement. The Joint Appendix in CIA vs Sims,
471 U.S. 159, 85 L.Ed. 2d, 105 S.Ct. 1881 (1985), also contains the following
memorandum on Orne's subproject 84 funded by the CIA:
DRAFT [Deleted]
17 August 1960
MEMORANDUM FOR; THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Continuation of MKULTRA, Subproject 84
***
6. This project has been handled to date in a Government Sterile fashion and
none of the personnel at [Deleted] have been witting of true sponsorship. It
is contemplated that Dr. [Deleted] will be made witting of the sponsorship and
purpose on or about 1 September 1960 in order to guide his project along lines
that will further Agency operational needs.
/s/
[Deleted]
Chief
TSD/Research Branch
APPROVED FOR OBLIGATION
OF FUNDS:
Research Director
Date: 8-19-60
Attached:
Statement of Progress
Distribution:
Original only
How mind wrecking were the MKULTRA experiments? In one of the
more publicized subprojects, Dr. D. Ewen Cameron, who like Orne received funding
through the Society for the Investigation of Human Ecology, subjected his unwitting
patients to megadoses of LSD, drug-induced sleep states of up to 65 days, and
electroshock therapy at 75 times the usual intensity. Congressional Record -
Senate, 99th Cong. 1st Session, Volume 131 No. 106, Part 2, 131 Cong.
Rec. S. 11008 quoting The Experiments of Dr. D. Ewen Cameron, Washington Post
July 28, 1985. In one case, Cameron gave a patient as many as 109 electroshock
treatments, well above the guidelines of between 4 and 8 treatments. Like Orne,
Cameron had been well credentialed. Cameron was one of the most prominent psychiatrists
in North America and past president of both the American Psychiatric Association
and Canadian Psychiatric Association, yet he grossly abused his position of
influence and power. Cameron's antics were the subject of the suit in Orlikow,
et al vs U.S., 682 F. Supp. 77 (DC 1988) which ultimately settled for $750,000.00.
Due to the CIA's illegal record destruction, less is known about
the specifics of Orne's mind control experiments under MKULTRA. As a purported
legal expert on hypnosis, brainwashing and interrogation however, one questions
whether Martin Orne could truly render an unbiased opinion given his dubious
past connection with MKULTRA. It is unfortunate that Orne was permitted to influence
an uninformed judiciary resulting in the forfeiture of the right to testify
for previously hypnotized crime victims and witnesses. This effort to suppress
critical testimony was carried forward into the 1990s as a scientific advisory
board member of the Philadelphia based False Memory Syndrome Foundation (FMSF).
The FMSF advocates the interests of those accused of child sexual abuse and
has sought to bar repressed memory testimony from the courtroom. Despite the
rhetoric of Orne and the FMSF debunking repression, the phenomenon of repression
following trauma (e.g., dissociative amnesia) is scientifically established
in hundreds of peer reviewed studies involving all types of trauma (e.g., child
sexual abuse, war trauma, torture, robbery, motor vehicle accidents, etc.) and
recognized by the American Psychiatric Association. Over 68 peer reviewed studies
demonstrate the existence of full or partial dissociative following child sexual
abuse. In 30 of the studies the average base rate was 29.6 % experiencing full
or partial dissociative amnesia.
During much of his career, Orne advocated the "safeguard"
test for the admissibility of post hypnotic testimony. Significantly, and for
no supportable scientific reason, Orne altered his position later in his career
and began advocating for the adoption of the per se rule of inadmissibility
for post hypnotic testimony. This occurred in a debate published on the Borawick
case in the Cultic Studies Journal. One questions why Orne was so motivated
to bar posthypnotic and repressed memory testimony from the courtroom? Perhaps
he was growing concerned that his own past involvement in MKULTRA would be exposed,
subjecting him to possible criminal and civil liability as in the Orlikow case.
The irony is that Orne, a PhD and MD no less, misused hypnosis
on unwitting human subjects without their informed consent and without adhering
to forensic guidelines. He then went on to advocate restrictive legal rulings
without scientific support to shield himself and his disciples from legal liability.
Both the current state of the science on memory, suggestibility and hypnosis,
coupled with the background set forth above, more than justifies a revision
of our thinking on post-hypnotic testimony and warrants adoption of the more
liberal per se admissibility rule. Most certainly, when post-hypnotic testimony
following a properly conducted forensic interview is no less reliable than nonhypnotic
memory there is absolutely no reason to abandon the use of forensic hypnosis
in criminal investigations.
I hope this information is of use to you in your continued pursuit
of forensic hypnosis in criminal investigations. If there is any other information
I can provide, please feel free to contact me.
Very truly yours,
_______________________
Helen L. McGonigle
HLM:lom
Enclosure
cc:
ADDENDA
A - Court Adopts Problematic Legal Test for Therapeutic Hypnosis, Sexual Assault
Report, March/April 1998.
B - Overview of the four tests for the admissibility of post-hypnotic testimony
C - Book Review by Helen L. McGonigle, Memory, Trauma Treatment and the Law,
CTLA Forum, Vol. 17, No. 2 (March/April 1999) with excerpts from MTTL.
D - Declassified CIA memos from the Joint Appendix in CIA vs Sims. The U.S.
Supreme Court's legal opinion can be found at http://www.findlaw.com/casecode/supreme.html
by typing " 471 U.S. 159". A summary of 5 legal cases dealing with
this subject matter is at http://members.aol.com/smartnews/fivecases.htm. The
1977 Kennedy Committee hearings from 1977 are available at any good legal library
having the Congressional Record. See, Project MKULTRA, The CIA's Program of
Research in Behavorial Modification; Joint Hearing Before the Select Committee
on Intelligence and the Subcommittee on Health and Scientific Research of the
Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate, 95th Congress, 1st Session
August 3, 1977. It was through the questioning of Senator Richard S. Schweiker
of Pennsylvania that the CIA, through the Office of Naval Research, was involved
as early as 1955 in the creation of a amnesia inducing device which could cause
brain concussions through sound waves without warning and without leaving physical
marks.
|
