Aston Hall Psychiatric Hospital became very famous after several complaints were made public from several people who were hospitalized there. This happened in 1993; at the time of hospitalization, those affected were still children and adolescents, soon after it was demolished and a residential complex was built instead.
We may never know what really happened at Aston Hall Psychiatric Hospital, after all, we only have the confusing testimonies of those who were treated there when Kenneth Milner was superintendent of the hospital, apparently the patients were arbitrarily drugged and this altered their memories. Today, Milner is dead and, with his death, the opportunity to hear his story has also been buried.
- We can hear about Aston Hall Psychiatric Hospital as a place where some experiments have been conducted with the human mind.
- It’s unclear whether this is true or not.
- What is known is that patients were treated with the so-called “truth serum”.
- “apparently not to participate in the research.
- But because it was thought to be a valid form of treatment.
“When a person is under his influence, he is in a highly suggestive state. Is there a high risk that the person will say what the interrogator wants instead of telling the truth?
Aston Hall Psychiatric Hospital was built in 1930 in Derbyshire, England, its goal was to treat children and young people classified as “special”, i. e. minors with behavioral problems, was an intermediate choice between a prison and a health institution Apparently, its functioning respected the parameters for which it had been designed.
The case is that in 1993 a group of researchers published on the Internet a series of photographs of Aston Hall Psychiatric Hospital, soon after comments began to emerge from people who had been hospitalized there as teenagers, the messages reported a series of abuses that included allegations of violations and methods of inhumane treatment.
The hospital was closed and the building demolished, there was never an explanation for this demolition decision, what remained was just an echo of the allegations that had been made in the empty space, some journalists went on the task of investigating what had happened, and so some of the details of what had happened in that dark hospital emerged.
During World War II the use of a drug called “truth serum” was initiated, ametal sodium, a very potent chemical compound that has a disinhibitive effect, that is, when someone consumes this chemical loses control of repression mechanisms. self-control. In other words, you lose the power to choose. This method has been called narcoanalysis.
During the war, this drug was used as an emergency treatment for soldiers in shock, this happened when they had very traumatic experiences, have they often been repressed?Forgotten. However, such experiences returned in the form of paralysis, states of partial or total or profound discouragement that prevented the person from functioning normally.
When this happened, the military psychiatrists used the “truth serum”, in administering it they managed to overcome the repression of the soldiers, remembered the traumatic experiences and thus a kind of catharsis occurred, which then led to a state of balance. at least partial. It was like opening an infected wound to clean it up and let it heal.
The serum of truth not only breaks the retaining wall of the mind, but also causes the loss of free will. A person under your influence is very influential.
According to subject matter experts, just as the substance highlights certain memories, it is also possible to build false memories. People under the influence of ametal sodium were very suggestive.
At Aston Hall Psychiatric Hospital, this medicine was used consistently. There are even reports of possible sexual abuse. There are reports that some patients were forced to be naked and then received the drug to confuse them. Experts say that memories that arise under the influence of this substance can be induced or altered.
One of The Aston Hall’s patients discovered in the treatment that her father had sexually assaulted her, so she denounced him and really believed in it, however, for the rest of the family, this was totally unlikely. The victim began to doubt his own memories, today he thinks that perhaps that memory has been implanted in his mind in one way or another.
Other patients at Aston Hall Psychiatric Hospital believe serum therapy has been helpful to them. In fact, we’ll never know if that was really the case. After all, we’re talking about people with memory problems. What we know at the moment is that narcoanalysis is too risky to be considered a valid form of therapy.