Social Control

Abstract: Historical justifications for the institution of slavery. Program focuses on the surgical and psychotropic research being proposed (and in some cases, implemented) to curb violent tendencies via the testing of prison inmates. Host Topper Carew speaks with inmates of the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Norfolk and two groups of professionals in two separate interviews: the first with Rev. Edward Rodman (of the Episcopal Diocese of Boston) and Professor Stephan L. Chorover (of the MIT Psychology Department) to discuss 'psychosurgery'; the second with Arnold Coles (Chairman of the National Prisoners Reform Association) and Richard Clapp (formerly with the Prison Health Project) to discuss drug experimentation. Discussion topics included reactions to the theory of dysfunction in the brain as a source of violent behavior, whether surgery is necessary to remedy behavior, what the political implications of surgery are, what diseases 'pyschosurgery' is justified for, what the ethics of 'psychosurgery' are, and how drug companies end up doing much of their experimentation in prisons. Produced by Topper Carew. Directed by Conrad White.

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