them. Robert Colvile reports on one … Harry Bailey, an Australian doctor who briefly worked with Heath on his electrode studies, accused him of picking out African-Americans for his experiments because, as he put it, they were “everywhere and cheap experimental animals”. For all the volume and variety of his work, Heath’s contemporary reputation rested on one particular discovery – again the product of his work on the septal region. Great choice of pen name by the way! I doubt you knew that because, based on the recent worldbuilding you’ve done on Pottermore, you are completely incapable of doing any research beyond … He used electrical stimulation in an attempt to cure patients with schizophrenia and as a method of conversion therapy in a homosexual man. But it did not change things in Louisiana: Heath continued to be given awards and positions, to be respected and venerated. I've just found out that her writing pseudonym, Robert Galbraith, is the same name as the creator of gay conversion therapy, Robert Galbraith Heath. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. But some of the things he did couldn’t conceivably have been done for the benefit of the patient.”, He may not have been a god, but Heath was clearly a man of extraordinary gifts and extraordinary charisma – yet one whose self-belief blinded him to the flaws in his theories and his methods. While Heath’s electrodes may have stirred up arousal temporarily, they didn’t actually change the patient’s basic nature. He was not a villainous outlier, cackling to himself in a basement, but the respected head of a major university department, someone who was not only in the academic mainstream but had defined, at least for Tulane, what that mainstream was. In 1963, a different group of scientists at Tulane started transplanting chimpanzee kidneys into humans. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. Much of his life was devoted to exploring his theory that he could cure schizophrenia and other mental illnesses by delivering targeted electric pulses to the “septal” region of the brain’s subcortex, by means of electrodes through the skull. The basic idea that it was a psychiatrist’s duty to “cure” gay people went unquestioned. He has been accused of mind control, of barbarity, of “Nazi science”, of using prisoners in Charity, Jackson and elsewhere as his playthings. “I don’t know why,” Rowling wrote in a statement posted on the fictional Robert Galbraith’s website at the time. The connection picked up steam on Tuesday shortly after Daniel Radcliffe, who plays the title character in the film series based on Rowling’s books, condemned her anti-trans comments in a statement for The Trevor Project. At around that time, he began testing the effects of marijuana on monkeys by blowing smoke into their cages: the equivalent of 250 joints a day. Heath attracted further negative publicity in Alan Scheflin and Edward Opton’s 1978 book The Mind Manipulators. Published in 1974, it not only told the story of patient B-19 but also claimed that nurses at Charity would hide their patients from Heath’s lackeys when they came sniffing round for subjects. Yet his former colleagues almost uniformly tell a very different story. You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment. By the time he retired – and, in truth, long before – it was clear that much of his work had been rendered moot by advances in antipsychotic medication; the idea of there being one single, fixable cause for schizophrenia also ended up being simplistic and overly optimistic. Ad Choices, J.K. Rowling Denies Pen Name Is Inspired by Anti-LGBTQ+ Conversion Therapist, “Any assertion that there is a connection is unfounded and untrue,” a spokesperson told, Harry Potter Saved My Life. Maybe read @dervlamctiernan and @taramossauthor instead?. Robert Colvile concludes his report, Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. A woman called Claudia Mullen even testified before Congress in 1995 that Heath had, when she came to him as a child patient, engaged in all kinds of unethical practices before handing her over to the custody of the CIA, where she was used as a sex slave. One man, referred to solely as “B-19” in writings, reportedly “would hit the button up to 1,500 times over a three-hour session” and “protested each time the unit was taken from him, pleading to self-stimulate just a few more times.”. But a recent profile of one of the leaders in the field, Emad Eskandar, claimed the practice had only begun in 1987. It just floored them.”. Galbraith Heath was a mid-20th century psychiatrist who pioneered a range of unethical practices that would later become known as conversion therapy. And I’m not kidding you, she was a dream after that. But perhaps coincidentally, Robert Galbraith Heath is also the name of a mid-20th century psychiatrist who pioneered a range of practices that would later be known as conversion therapy. As for Claudia Mullen, her social worker and champion, Valerie Wolf, had her licence revoked over claims that she had exploited her clients and encouraged them to believe recovered memories that turned out to be false. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. After demanding Pippa’s ID, her trans status is revealed and her visible Adam’s apple is noted, while it's noted that her hands were jammed in her pockets,” she wrote at the time. The resulting piece, “The mysterious experiments of Dr Heath: in which we wonder who is crazy and who is sane”, was a broadside against Heath’s work. Lobotomies, deep sleep therapy, “insulin shock” – Heath’s electrodes were, in comparison, a relatively delicate intervention. Yet in terms of his ambitions, and his convictions about the brain, nothing of substance changed. She's a smart lady, I think Robert Galbraith is very subtle. In an obituary, fellow Tulane neurologist Leon Weisberg called him “a true visionary ... an extraordinary clinician, teacher, administrator, scientist and friend”. *Just a note about this pseudonym - Robert Galbraith Heath was a psychologist who helped develop conversion therapy. What I’d love to hear is your suggested alternatives - what are some queer and trans positive fantasy books for young people and crime books for adults? “Other than my parents,” says James Eaton, “he was the most formidable mentor and leader and ideal that I had.” For John Goethe, another who worked with him at Tulane, “Nobody was more devoted to trying to find a cure for the people he felt medicine had neglected. “I don’t even know how I knew that the surname existed, because I can’t remember ever meeting anyone with it. Heath added that “such acting out was not intended to be a replacement for sex with females, which he indicates he is definitely motivated to continue”. “Any assertion that there is a connection is unfounded and untrue,” the unnamed spokesperson added in a statement to Newsweek. He gave a talk to the army on electrical stimulation of the brain, after which his department was contracted to test psychoactive drugs on prisoners: the resulting paper, from 1957, is as macabre and gripping as the studies involving B-19, complete with detailed descriptions of the patients’ behaviour and hallucinations. He was a firm believer that organic defects were the result of mental illness. one tweeted and another wrote, "#JKRowling writes a new book where a man dresses up as a woman to kill people. Dr. Robert Galbraith Heath implanted electrodes into many parts of patient B-19's brain to stimulate him during the experiment. Heath then screened heterosexual pornography to rewire the subject’s brain to associate opposite-sex pleasure with arousal. He just wasn’t that interested,” says John Goethe. I myself am gay. “If you go for that door one more time I’m calling the police and I’ll testify and be glad to watch you go down for attempted murder. Ms … Some people Valenstein talked to told him that even Heath’s vaunted pleasure centre wasn’t all it was cracked up to be: “[They] said that many of these patients were just stimulating their own brains because they thought that’s what he wanted them to do – it wasn’t really a pleasurable experience for them.” Heath admitted in print that septal stimulation had different effects on different people – generally serving to amplify rather than create emotions, especially in the case of arousal, and having much less effect on those who were already feeling happy and contented. He thought he was helping gay men, he thought he was helping schizophrenics, and that his research was going to be transformative.”. I will admit I had to google this, but I wouldn't be surprised if a fair number of other people had to look it up as well. “Memo to the parents of New Orleans,” ran the resulting report in the Times-Picayune in 1974. The particular choice in pseudonym, however, aroused suspicions earlier this year after Rowling penned a series of transphobic tweets, which were later followed by a 3,000-word op-ed attacking the trans rights movement. It’s a charming anecdote—but unfortunately, Rowling shares her pseudonym with real-life psychiatrist Robert Galbraith Heath, who in the 20th century pioneered what we now call conversion therapy using techniques including electroshock and “brainwashing” drugs. Pour one out for J.K. Rowling’s publicist, who is having one hell of a week. All rights reserved. has previously noted that the connection between her pseudonym and an infamous conversion therapist is likely an unfortunate coincidence, it’s somehow less alarming than her actual statements related to the subject. After the Harry Potter author was met with near-universal condemnation for a series of transphobic tweets, some ingenious Twitter sleuths revealed that Rowling’s pen name, “Robert Galbraith,” also happens to be the name of an infamous conversion therapist. This was, he dramatically announced in 1956, not a by-product of schizophrenia: rather, it seemed to be its cause. A spokesperson for J.K. Rowling has denied speculation that the embattled author’s male pseudonym, Robert Galbraith, was inspired by a famous conversion therapist. Heath, a mid-20th century psychiatrist, pioneered a range of practices that would later become known as conversion therapy, controversially used … He was in psychiatry and neurology rather than cardiology and dermatology because he felt ‘We’re not paying enough attention to these folks.’”. Even in old age, he was coming up with new ideas, arguing that transplanting septal tissue from one person to another could enhance brain function and ward off the effects of ageing and Alzheimer’s: he’d already done it in rats, he told a Tulane colleague in an interview in 1986, and they’d tried it out on squirrel monkeys just the day before. “In the scene, a trans woman, Pippa, follows and tries to stab the protagonist, Cormoran Strike, before getting trapped in Strike’s office. Heath may have gone to extremes, but he had many companions in excess. He is known for his gay conversion therapy experiments where he attempted to change a person’s sexual orientation. . Ananas Ananas ATRL Member; 841 posts; … Others were given electric … You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. “When I was a kid I really wanted to be called Ella Galbraith, I don’t know why.It’s a lovely anecdote – but unfortunately Rowling shares her pseudonym with real psychiatrist Robert Galbraith Heath, who in the 20th century pioneered what we now call conversion therapy using techniques such as electroshock and “brainwashing” drugs. While I spoke to several of Heath’s former colleagues, those still working at Tulane itself refused to comment. With the device in place, patients were able to send a “one-second jolt to the brain area” of their choosing. How sober queer spaces are giving LGBTQ+ people a place to just be, Here's what people get wrong about they/them pronouns, Everything you've wanted to know about bottoming but were too afraid to ask, Lizzo interviews Janelle Monáe about coming out and living her truth, The gay community's obsession with status and looks comes with huge mental health costs, We asked Black queer icons to share their dreams for the future, Trans women talk having sex for the first time after transitioning, Experts share tips to get started on OnlyFans, At a transgender singing conference, working to demystify our own voices. Rowling “wasn't aware of Robert Galbraith Heath” when selecting the name, a representative said. Mission accomplished, then? Wolf is now dead and Mullen has long been out of the public eye; Alan Scheflin, the Santa Clara law professor (and co-author of The Mind Manipulators) who validated her claims of CIA abuse, refused requests for an interview. His argument was that “orgasmic reorientation” – a behavioural therapy programme based around masturbation – seemed to get equivalent results for much less effort. While them. However, one critic noted that a key plot line in The Silkworm — the second novel in the Cormoran Strike series — includes a trans character “being threatened with prison rape.”. James Eaton, a colleague of Heath’s who witnessed a failed demonstration for visiting dignitaries, says it became clear that the patients were acting crazy because that’s what they realised Heath wanted: when the “taraxein” was administered by other doctors, their behaviour was unchanged. Conversion therapy, meanwhile, has been banned in 20 U.S. states and countries like Albania, Argentina, Germany, and Malta. Contributor Katelyn Burns described the scene in detail in a 2018 op-ed for them. Start your Independent Premium subscription today. Rabble Books & Games in Perth, Western Australia, will not carry the Harry Potter author’s new novel, nor will they stock those written under her pseudonym, Robert Galbraith Heath — … Heath was experimenting in 1953 on inducing paroxysms through brain stimulation. The report caused a sensation. He injected horseradish peroxidase into the brain to see how it carried chemicals. those whose parents would rather they had a trans- child than a gay one. One of the real Robert Galbraith's was a pioneer of gay conversion therapy claiming to have successfully converted a homosexual man to heterosexuality using electroshock therapy to the brain. He tested a ‘brainwashing’ drug called bulbocapnine for the CIA, on both animals and (although he denied it for decades) on a human prisoner, as a small part of the vast and largely illegal “MK-Ultra” programme to explore the limits and limitations of the American body. He experimented with dripping drugs deep into the brain down tiny pipes called cannulae, targeting the same regions as his electrodes. And out of 44 or 45 fellows or residents, he made me his chief resident, and he trusted me until his death. Yet a wider backlash against psychosurgery was stirring. Yet from the available evidence, it is hard to disagree with the judgement of Alan Baumeister, a Louisiana State University psychiatry professor and the leading academic expert on Heath, that the Tulane electrical brain stimulation experiments were “dubious and precarious” not just by today’s standards, but by those of the time. “At least at the time I knew [B-19], it was less about whether he was homosexual or heterosexual. The store then claimed that Rowling chose her pseudonym, Robert Galbraith, in honor of Robert Galbraith Heath, “a psychologist who helped develop conversion therapy.” “Hard to imagine that’s a coincidence,” they stated. He generally used them, he insisted, on incurably sick patients for whom all other treatments had been tried and had failed – although the B-19 case and others suggest that is not entirely true. A scientist who pioneered, among other things, gay conversion therapy. Author JK Rowling Under … There was talk of a Nobel Prize. The patient, who had been arrested for marijuana possession, was implanted with electrodes into the septal region(associated with feelings of pleasure), and many other parts of his brain. The momentary spark induced an “almost overwhelming euphoria and elation,” according to a paper published on Heath’s research. During that time, her remarks were met with criticism by the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD, as well notable LGBTQ+ public figures like poet and activist Alok Vaid-Menon and model Munroe Bergdorf. We don’t have time to get stuck into the this-and-that of those opinions at the moment, but the Internet Drama Diary 2020 summary is that Rowling is a what-about-the-toilets trans-exclusionary feminist and publishes crime novels under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith – two-thirds of the name Robert Galbraith Heath, a psychiatrist who experimented with gay conversion therapy in the 1950s. The best place to find the truth about B-19 and Heath’s other experiments would be his archives, which are held by his old department at Tulane. The 55-year-old writer wrote four previous novels under the alias, which was originally intended to distinguish her adult-oriented fare from the Harry Potter series. Yet what Heath had, ultimately, was a procedure in search of a purpose. “Heath, throughout the history of his work, justified what he was doing on therapeutic grounds,” says Baumeister. “My criticism of Heath,” he says today, “was really that he didn’t seem to know how to test his own conclusions for verification. And while he did map out the “aversive” areas of his patients’ brains (including “a site which, when stimulated, would turn on intense killing rage, instantaneously”), and carry out that experiment with bulbocapnine on the CIA’s behalf, he also claimed to have rejected a request from the CIA to study the brain’s pain centre. Because of the controversy, the #RIPJKRowling went viral on Twitter earlier this week. Interestingly, Rowling's pen name, Robert Galbraith, is eerily similar to the psychiatrist Robert Galbraith Heath, who experimented gay conversion therapy in the 1950s. But after Troubled Blood came under fire earlier this week for a transphobic subplot in which a serial killer hunts his victims while dressed in women’s clothing, Rowling denied that the alias is a reference to “ex-gay” therapy. Take Elliott Valenstein’s book Brain Control. “I said: ‘What are you talking about? Scientists are now, again, attempting to use deep brain stimulation to treat mental illness – such as intractable and crippling obsessive–compulsive dsorder. Her pen name is Robert Galbraith … Much of his research, for example in mapping the pleasure circuit of the brain or monitoring it during orgasm, was pioneering. While he had also returned to homosexual activity, this had only happened twice, “when he needed money and ‘hustling’ was a quick way to get it when he was out of work”. Sound familiar? Not quite. The research team then paid a sex worker $50 to engage in intercourse with the subject in the dark, concluding the experiment to be a success. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated as of 1/1/21) and Your California Privacy Rights. (Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images), reportedly unmasked the author’s true identity, were later followed by a 3,000-word op-ed, near-universal condemnation for a series of transphobic tweets, https://twitter.com/dev_deets/status/1270387782402392065, https://twitter.com/ashleydijon/status/1270472561751621632, https://twitter.com/ganjababygrey/status/1270463231606177792, posted on the fictional Robert Galbraith’s website, replaced the term “gender identity disorder”, countries like Albania, Argentina, Germany, and Malta, https://twitter.com/fayekinley/status/1270344731961294863. Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate? 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