From the late 1950s to the early 1960s, Dr. Ewen Cameron, a psychiatrist based at the Allan Memorial Institute in Montreal, carried out experiments to better understand mental illness and how it could be corrected. The experiments were a part of the MK-Ultra subproject 68; one of the subprojects of the CIA funded mind control program known as MK-Ultra. The MK-Ultra project was started by the CIA at the beginning of the 1950s to develop mind control techniques to use during the interrogation of Soviet spies during the Cold War; a period where the fear of the spread of communism ran rampant. The MK-Ultra project had 144 subprojects, including that of Dr. Ewen Cameron’s. Despite his successful reputation in his profession at the time, the experiments he carried out on his patients changed the course of their lives forever.
One of his patients was Townshipper Alison Steel’s mother Jean.
Dr. Ewen Cameron worked at the Allan Memorial Institute at McGill and was a highly respected doctor. He carried out his experiments on mental illness from 1957 to 1964. His research focused on the root cause of mental illness and finding ways to cure them. He strongly believed that mental illness was the result of a poor upbringing and a consequence for those who learned “incorrect” behaviors; those behaviors, according to Ewan, then created brainwaves that lead to a repetition of abnormal behavior. See full story in the Wednesday, Nov. 6 edition of The Record.
MK-Ultra affects generations of victims
By Taylor McClure, Special to The Record
