Donald Ewen Cameron

Donald Ewen Cameron ((1901-12-24)24 December 1901 – (1967-09-08)8 September 1967) was a Scottish-born psychiatrist. He is largely known today for his central role in unethical medical experiments, and development of psychological and medical torture techniques for the Central Intelligence Agency. He served as president of the American Psychiatric Association (1952–1953), Canadian Psychiatric Association (1958–1959), American Psychopathological Association (1963), Society of Biological Psychiatry (1965) and the World Psychiatric Association (1961–1966).

In spite of his high professional reputation, he has been criticized for, among other things, his experimentation on adults and children, administering electroconvulsive therapy and experimental drugs, including poisons such as curare and hallucinogens such as lysergic acid diethylamide, to patients and prisoners without their knowledge or informed consent. Some of this work took place in the context of the Project MKUltra program for the developing of mind control and torture techniques, psychoactive poisons, and behavior modification systems. Decades after his own death, the psychic driving technique he developed continued to see extensive use in the torture of prisoners around the world.