[Editor’s note: John Horgan directs the Center for Science Writings at the Stevens Institute of Technology.]
Homosexuality has been treated with lobotomies, chemical castration, electrical shocks and nausea-inducing drugs as well as psychotherapy. I then tell my students about a bizarre gay-conversion experiment carried out from the 1950s to 1970 by a leading brain-implant researcher, Dr. Robert G. Heath of Tulane University in New Orleans.
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Heath implanted electrodes in patients, most of whom “came out of the dimly lit back wards of the state mental hospitals. With dental burrs, Heath and his co-workers drilled through the patients’ skulls, guided the electrodes into specific sites, and then left them there, at first for a few days, later for years at a time.”
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Heath was particularly interested in the septal region, which had been linked to pleasure. Heath claimed stimulation of the septal region “could make homicidal mania, suicide attempts, depressions or delusions go away—sometime for a long time.”
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Heath contended that [a patient receiving this treatment] B-19 remained heterosexual after the experiment and had a 10-month affair with a married woman. But a recent review of his work casts doubt on that claim.
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As The Guardian reported last year, groups around the world still practice gay-conversion therapies, including ones involving electric shocks.
The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: Bizarre Brain-Implant Experiment Sought to “Cure” Homosexuality
