KUBARK Manual
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Finally, in 1963, the CIA synthesized this decade of mind- control research
in its “KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation” manual, which
emphasized the implications of Hebb’s work for eff ective interrogation. Citing
“experiments conducted at McGill University,” this report explained that
sensory deprivation was eff ective because “the calculated provision of stimuli
during interrogation tends to make the regressed subject view the interrogator
as a father- fi gure . . . strengthening . . . the subject’s tendencies toward
compliance.”
The compilation of this report, combined with the CIA inspector general’s
discovery of legal problems in the mind- control research, produced a
radical reduction in funding from the agency and other national security
sources, creating a crisis in the ranks of Canadian psychology. “Departments
of psychology in Canadian universities are now about to starve to death for
lack of research support,” reported Dr. C. R. Myers, of the country’s Defense
Research Board, in 1964. Noting the critical role of U.S. defense funds in
sustaining this fi eld, Dr. Myers concluded: “There appears to be no other scientifi
c discipline in Canada that is so dependent for research support on U.S.
sources.”</p>