Not all science is good science (in either sense of the word). Some experiments are simply useless. Some are profoundly unethical.
In 1972, Robert G. Heath published the results of a bizarre study involving a gay man and stimulation of a pleasure system in the brain. Building on studies in rats that showed that stimulating the septal area of the brain produces pleasurable effects—rats allowed to self-administrate would push a level thousands of times an hour, getting a hit every time, to the detriment of everything else—the purpose was, in Heath’s words, “to explore the possibility of using it to bring about heterosexual behavior in a fixed, overt homosexual male.”
The procedure was kind of like a real-life, inverted Ludovico technique: the subject, known as B-19, had electrodes implanted into various regions of his brain. After establishing that septal stimuli had the same effect on him as on the rats, he watched a porn film of a heterosexual couple, in conjunction with septal stimulation. Apparently, stimulating this part of the brain in the given way gives you a pleasurable feeling, while also making you incredibly horny. The subject, who was gay, had only had gay sexual encounters, and appeared to be disgusted with the idea of hetero sex, grew incredibly aroused when watching the film while the electrode flooded his brain with pleasure signals.
The researchers then took the additional step of procuring a female prostitute for him, then had them have sex in the lab—all while hooked up to an EEG machine to record his brain activity during the act.
Did I mention that B-19 was a drug addict, depressed, came from an abusive home, and showed symptoms consistent with epilepsy?
If you can get over the “is this shit real?” reaction, the next question that arises seems to be: well, did it work? Did this stuff really change the man’s sexual orientation? Well, the experiment wasn’t very rigorous, obviously. But for what it’s worth, after ten months, with no further follow-up, B-19 had had a sexual affair with a married woman, reported he intended to continue with straight sex—but he’d also sold sex to other men.
All this as part of B-19’s “treatment”:
This was but one phase of the therapeutic program undertaken to deal with the complex symptomatology of this individual who had consistently failed to respond to other treatmentapproaches and was a most serious suicidal risk.
Scientists took a depressed, vulnerable man and tried to “cure” him of homosexuality. Bradley Voytek summarizes: “This is the most boggling, unethical, and offensive piece of ‘research’ I’ve ever come across. I can’t imagine what the rest of the papers by this guy are like.” (link via)
dailymeh posted this on August 9, 2011
