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2 case study
The Aversion Project
Aversion therapy is a treatment which has sometimes
been used to stop people smoking or engaging in
other unwanted behaviours. The patient is exposed to
the stimulus (the source of unwanted behaviour, e.g.
smoking cigarettes) and at the same time subjected
to something unpleasant (e.g. electric shock, physical
pain or a nausea-inducing drug). This process is
repeated until the patient begins to associate the
stimulus (cigarette) with the unpleasant consequence.
This method was used in the South African armed
forces to ‘cure’ homosexuality.
From 1971 to 1989 South Africa’s apartheid army
wanted to eliminate homosexuality in their army.
White lesbian and gay soldiers were forced to undergo
‘sex-change’ operations and many were subjected to
Questions
Complete the following with reference to this research.
1 What was the aim of the Aversion Project?
2 Write a hypothesis on which such a project is based.
3 Explain what aversion therapy involves.
4 What methods were used on soldiers to change their sexual preference?
5 What ethical principles were breached in this experiment? Identify as many as you can and
explain them in terms of the experiment (refer to Chapter 1).
6 Could this experiment be replicated/repeated today? Explain your answer.
7 MKULTRA was the code name for a covert CIA research program run by the Office of
Scientific Intelligence on mind-control and chemical interrogation. Using the Internet
to research, write approximately 250 words outlining the aim of the project and what it
involved. What ethical principles were breached in this experiment? Outline as many as you
can and explain each one in relation to this program.
chemical castration, electric shock, and other invasive
medical procedures. According to former apartheid
army surgeons, approximately 900 people were forced
to have ‘sexual reassignment’ operations at military
hospitals as part of a top-secret program to get rid of
homosexuality from the armed forces.
Army psychiatrists and chaplains were instructed
to expose suspected homosexuals in the armed
forces and send them to military psychiatric units
for ‘treatment’. Those who could not be ‘cured’ with
drugs, aversion shock therapy, hormone treatment and
other ‘radical’ psychiatric methods, were chemically
castrated or given sex-change operations. Most of the
victims were white males aged 16 to 24 years who were
drafted (forced) into the apartheid army.
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