Shocking American Export

photo credit- J.Star

Why is it that it seems that only the worst of American culture is exported from its shores? It's no wonder to me that America and Americans are villified around the world, when it seems the best we can export are the likes of Britney Spears and Michael Jackson.

But it seems that we have sunken to a new low. I've touched before on the abominable treatment that goes on at the Judge Rotenberg center (JRC)in Massachusetts, where electric shocks and other tortures are used on autistics in order to "train" them not to misbehave.

Now it seems that it's not enough to have this shameful treatment here in the states. We have to try to drag the rest of the world down with us. An article that appeared this week on NineMSN out of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia looks at the electric shock treatment that's used at the Judge Rotenberg Center, and asks parents of Australian autistics if they think it's a viable treatment option.

For those unfamiliar with the electric shock treatments used at the JRC, for "clients" that are sent there by their parents, after a period of time where positive incentives fail to decrease undesired behaviors, electrodes are placed on the students (after obtaining parental and court approval) and the students are shocked whenever "bad" behavior is exhibited.

Dr. Matthew Israel, the instigator and chief proponent of the use of "negative aversives" at the JRC was interviewed for the Australian article.

"The real torture is what these children are subjected to if they don't have this program," said Dr Israel.

Autistic children in the program do not suffer any long-term side effects, according to Dr Israel.

"…it has absolutely no side effects and is extremely effective as a corrective procedure to encourage children not to show violent behaviour," he said.

"If it didn't hurt it wouldn't be effective. It has to hurt enough so that the student wants to avoid showing that behaviour again."

As one can plainly see, he is a very sensitive and sensible individual. I wonder how he would like to be hooked up to the device he routinely uses on children, and give them the control over whether to shock him or not. I'm sure he wouldn't suffer any side effects. People all over the world would consider this torture if prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were subjected to this. Why is it considered "treatment" when used on the developmentally disabled?

Fortunately the majority of Aussies interviewed for the article seem to be a sensible lot, and agree that such "treatment" is totally unsuitable and unjustified:

Queensland mum, Joy, who struggles to cope with her autistic son Jayden, thought she would try the new device for herself.

"Before trying this I was sitting on the fence and I wasn't sure if I was for or against it."

"After feeling the intensity of this, I'm totally opposed to the whole thing," she said.

Even in cases where there has been a history of repeated violent behavior, an Aussie dad could see that torture was not the answer:

Sydney dad, Jim, has had his teeth broken three times by daughter Molly and he was also willing to try this new technique.

His six-year-old daughter has a history of being violent and he was prepared to be open minded bout this treatment.

"It might seem cruel (the eclectic shock) but in the times where she's smashing her head against the concrete or doing physical harm, that's got to outweigh ( the pain) side of it," he said.

"Ow that hurt…it’s painful, very painful," said Jim, after we've given him a shock using Dr Israel's system.

Jim thinks the therapy would just torture Molly who would be in tears after being subjected to the controversial shock treatment.

The article concludes by interviewing an Australian autism expert, Dr. Jackie Roberts, who felt the shock treatments would only make things worse:

"Children with autism in particular have a very high level of fear and anxiety, and punishing them actually increases that fear," said Dr Roberts.

"…it's likely to make the behaviours worse," she said. "We do know that punishment has a short-term effect."

It would be a very sad world where no one recognized this "treatment" for the torture it is. I'm heartened to hear the voices of reason by our friends down under, and I can only hope that they don't think that all of us up here are as nuts as Dr. Israel.

The evil within

Like many, I have been saddened and sickened to read of case after case of abuse of disabled individuals. Most recently, Kristina Chew wrote once again about the aversive "therapy" used at the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) in Massachusetts.

I linked from that site and also read what Kevin Leitch wrote on his site here.

Dr. Israel, who heads the JRC, studied at Boston's Harvard University around 1960, with B.F. Skinner, the behavioral psychologist. His "treatments" at the JRC are loosely based on Skinner's operant conditioning theories. The list of aversives used at the JRC include such things as electric shock therapy, hitting, pinching, and withdrawal of food privileges).

I wrote recently about how eugenics has been with us since the 19th century. One would think that after WWII the world, at least all those that considered themselves "civilized" would refrain from torturing other human beings. Besides the Nazi medical experiments there were also Japanese experiments that did not receive as much press. When I was growing up I was taught that what happened in Nazi Germany was an aberration, and could never happen in the modern world.

Well, it wasn't long after WWII that a few psychologists proved that theory wrong.

Stanley Milgram, a Yale University psychologist, conducted a now famous experiment in 1961 where he got ordinary people to administer electric shock "punishments" as part of an experiment on "punishment and learning" (no shocks were actually administered, but the participants did not know this). Fully 65% of the participants continued increasing the level of shock to a level they were led to believe might kill the subject, just because they were told to.

In 1971, Stanford University psychology professor Philip Zimbardo conducted another famous experiment, the Stanford University Prison Experiment, where he got ordinary college students to psychologically and physically torture and intimidate fellow students while they were in "guard" and "prisoner" roles, respectively. The experiment had to be cancelled early (after 6 days rather than lasting the planned 14 days) because the participants were increasingly spinning out of control.

Some common themes emerge when we read about these experiments. One is that the "subjects" or "inmates" are routinely depersonalized in some manner. This appears to be essential in order to make the actions acceptable. Another is that many people will just "do as they're told", even if it's something that they normally wouldn't do on their own. Still a third factor is that many people will just "go along with the group" and not rock the boat. So if everyone else is participating in torture, well, we will too.

So it's not too surprising when Amanda Baggs wrote about what she had witnessed (or had done to her) in various institutions.

Nothing that bad has happened to Buddy Boy (yet). But a year and a half ago (when he was still 5) the school he was in "helped" him when he was not compliant by building a little jail cell out of heavy wooden chairs in a separate room, placing him in the middle, and ignoring him until he would do what they wanted. We withdrew him out of that school, and upon reentering school this year he was placed in a class for emotionally disturbed kids (most of them older than him). The standard treatment at this school (which we refused in writing to let them do to him) for non-compliance was to put the kids in either a padded room or a wooden box until they "settled down".

We're out of that place, too, and thus far things have been better over the last two months. But I can easily see that many, many people are thrown into situations that are much worse than what Buddy Boy had. And that bullying, tormenting, and torture are not just accepted, but encouraged in many schools and institutions, because people are told that it will "help" the poor, non-compliant, weird individuals who are worse than animals.

Human beings are capable of unspeakable things. And each of us must remain vigilant to those acts and attitudes that allow these things to continue.

Joe is 208 :(