MKUltra on Kids: The Forgotten Story of Electroshock, LSD, and Government-Backed Abuse
DISCLOSURES
In the mid 20th century, Bellevue Hospital in New York City became a center for controversial psychiatric research on children. Dr. Lauretta Bender, a leading child neuropsychiatrist, directed the children’s inpatient service there from the 1930s until 1956. Her experiments involved administering electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and later LSD to children diagnosed with childhood schizophrenia and autism. These studies ran from the 1940s into the 1960s and overlapped with CIA mind-control programs.
Bender began using ECT on children as young as three years old in the early 1940s. In a 1947 report she documented treating 98 children under age 12. Between 1942 and 1956, more than 500 children at Bellevue received ECT, often daily for about 20 days. She reported short-term reductions in anxiety, withdrawal, and disturbed behavior, documented through children’s self-drawings. Some cases showed worsened aggression or catatonia.
In the mid-1950s Bender began LSD trials. After moving in 1956 to Creedmoor State Hospital as Director of Research in the children’s unit, she continued this work. Between 1960 and 1961, Bender and Dr. G. Faretra administered daily doses of LSD and UML 491 (methysergide/Sansert) to nearly 100 hospitalized children. The LSD was supplied by Dr. Rudolph P. Bircher of Sandoz Pharmaceutical Company. A 1963 report presented to the American Psychiatric Association claimed behavioral improvements without the severe reactions seen in adults.
Connections to CIA Mind-Control Programs
Bender’s research occurred during Project Bluebird (1950), Project Artichoke (1951), and MKUltra (1953-1973). MKUltra included 149 subprojects across more than 80 institutions: 44 colleges and universities, 15 research foundations or pharmaceutical companies, 12 hospitals or clinics, and 3 penal institutions. It involved 185 non-government researchers. The programs tested LSD, other drugs, hypnosis, sensory deprivation, and electroshock, frequently without informed consent.
Bender attended conferences sponsored by the Josiah Macy Foundation, a known CIA front organization. In 1961 a CIA Technical Services Division memo referenced her LSD work on children and asked for updates on possible “operational benefits.” The memo was addressed to a TSD official named Monroe. Dr. Max Fink, who collaborated with Bender on ECT research, served as a cleared consultant to Project Artichoke. Sidney Gottlieb, head of the CIA’s Technical Services Division, oversaw MKUltra drug programs.
Other Institutional Settings
MKUltra-linked activities extended to other facilities housing vulnerable children. At Creedmoor State Hospital, Bender continued ECT and LSD research into the 1960s. Dr. Carl Pfeiffer conducted LSD and drug tests on juveniles at a detention center in Bordentown, New Jersey. Experiments also occurred in other juvenile detention centers, orphanages, and state hospitals.
The 1977 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (Church Committee) report, based on about 20,000 surviving MKUltra documents, confirmed testing on institutionalized populations who could not easily refuse. Most records were destroyed in 1973 on orders of CIA Director Richard Helms.
Legacy and Ethical Concerns
Dr. Lauretta Bender developed the widely used Bender-Gestalt Test for visual-motor skills and contributed to art therapy. However, her experiments on very young children, many of whom were wards of the state, raise serious ethical questions regarding consent and potential harm. These cases highlight a period when national security interests sometimes overrode medical ethics. Modern regulations such as the Common Rule now provide strict protections for child research subjects.
References
Wikipedia: Lauretta Bender
Autism History Project, University of Oregon: Lauretta Bender, 1897-1987
Truthout: The Hidden Tragedy of the CIA’s Experiments on Children (August 11, 2010)
New York Times: LSD Drug Found to Aid Children (November 10, 1963)
United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: Project MKULTRA, The CIA’s Program of Research into Behavioral Modification (1977 Church Committee report)
Bender, L., Faretra, G., and Cobrinik, L.: LSD and UML Treatment of Hospitalized Disturbed Children (Recent Advances in Biological Psychiatry, 1963)
CIA FOIA Reading Room: MKUltra and Artichoke documents
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