CLOSE ENCOUNTERS MAKE BAD THERAPY
Do you have to be mad to treat a psychopath?
NO ROUND TRIP
In 1968 Elliott Barker, a psychiatrist at the Oak Ridge Hospital for the criminally insane in Penetanguishene, Ontario, thought that he could cure psychopaths. His solution: nude psychotherapy sessions, fueled with LSD, treatments lasting for 11-day stretches. The patients, all male, volunteered to be placed in a window-less, 2.4-by three-meter room called the Total Encounter Capsule. The soundproof room had a sink and toilet and a one-way mirror in the ceiling. The patients were fed through straws in the door. There were no beds—patients had to sleep on a small rug over a foam mat. There was no privacy of any kind. Through being nude, the patients were supposed to be more inclined to reveal their inner selves—the LSD was supposed to ease their communication.
THERAPY CAN BE VERY REVEALING
Dr. Barker procured batches of LSD, as well as the full approval of the Canadian government. With rooms lit 24 hours a day and no clocks or calendars, patients were unable to tell day from night. Confusion, disorientation, and serious confrontations between the men ensued. The psychopaths were encouraged to go to their rawest emotional places by screaming and clawing at the walls and confessing fantasies of forbidden sexual longings. Barker thought these patients were burying their insanity deep beneath a facade of normality. He thought his technique would somehow summon the madness so patients could be “born again” as empathetic human beings.
At first, the results seemed promising. The tough, young prisoners were slowly transforming and seeming to care for each other. Psychopathic murderers were now gentle. Many were declared cured and freed. On average, 60 percent of criminal psychopaths released into the outside world will become repeat offenders. With the patients under Dr. Barker’s care, that rate hit 80 percent. The capsule treatment made patients worse.
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