20 May 2018 .
By the time Phyllis Goldberg died in 2011, she spent the last 20 years of her life institutionalised complete vegetable, her niece recounts an infant .
In the cracked sepia photograph Marlene Levenson holds, her aunt is a young, optimistic woman only 19 years old, pursuing a career as a nurse.
But after an admission to the Allan Memorial Institute in 1945 to treat a bout of mild depression, Levenson says that something in her aunt snapped .
When she would be with us, on weekends and so on, she didn't communicate. She laughed for no reason. Her gait was very different, Levenson explained. She couldn't dress herself she couldn't do anything for herself .
Small moments of affection a pat on the head between aunt and niece, for example elicited painful reactions from Goldberg .
When you went to pat her, just as a gesture, she would cringe, Levenson said. That bewildered me not realising, or understanding, she had electric shock equipment put on her head so many times that it [remained] in her subconscious .
The extent of Goldberg treatment or mistreatment while in the care of Dr. Donald Ewen Cameron at the Allan Memorial Institute, would remain an encumbering family secret for years .
There was a question mark all these years, but my parents didn't want to talk about it Levenson said. Quite frankly, I don't think they knew the extent of what was done to her .
Dr. Cameron the first chairman of the World Psychiatric Association, and president of both American and Canadian psychiatric associations was recruited by the CIA in the 1940 after they caught wind of his psychic driving concept .
He had been hoping to correct schizophrenia by erasing existing memories and reprogramming the psyche. The CIA, however, sanctioned Cameron research in hopes it would one day be used to crack spies .
He was reportedly paid $69,000 between 1957 and 1964 to conduct experiments for MK Ultra a mostly illegal venture that combined the use of paralytic drugs, shock therapy, LSD, medically-induced comas, and alleged sexual abuse. Some patients were exposed to repetitive messages for days .
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/mobile/their-lives-were-ruined-families-of-mk-ultra-survivors-planning-class-action-suit-1.3938447 .
