San Francisco Chronicle
November 20, 1992Brainwashing
Compensation
By CanadaReuters Ottawa
The Canadian government announced compensation yesterday for victims of brainwashing experiments conducted in the 1950s with CIA funds.
The "depatterning" experiments were carried out on about 80 people who were drugged and subjected to electrical shocks and other experiments.
The experiments conducted at Montreal's Allan Memorial Institute by psychiatrist Ewen Cameron between 1950 and 1965 were jointly financed by the Canadian government and the CIA.
The settlement arose out of a lawsuit filed by a woman sent to the institute suffering from depression in 1963. Linda Macdonald, 55, said she was drugged, kept asleep for 86 days and given more than 100 electroshocks and subjected to "psychic driving" to wipe her brain clear.
Released after five months, she did not remember her husband, children or the first 26 years of her life. She could no longer read or write, cook a meal or make a bed.
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