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The Gay Man and the Pleasure Shocks

It’s 1970, and after a long consultation with a psychiatrist, patient B-19 signed up to an experimental treatment plan, hoping it would change his desire for men.

In The Human Subject, Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw investigate the threads connecting modern day medicine to its often brutal origins.

This is the story of patient B-19, a 24-year old who, in 1970, walks into a hospital in Louisiana troubled by the fact that the drugs he’s been abusing for the past three years are no longer having the desired effect. He claims he is β€œbored by everything” and is no longer getting a β€œkick” out of sex.

To Dr Robert Heath’s intrigue, B-19 has β€œnever in his life experienced heterosexual relationships of any kind”. Somewhere along the way, during the consultations, the conclusion is drawn that B-19 would be happier if he wasn’t gay. And so they set about a process that involves having lots of wires sticking out of his brain. Julia and Adam hear from science journalist and author, Lone Frank, author of The Pleasure Shock: The Rise of Deep Brain Stimulation and Its Forgotten Inventor.

Presenters: Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw
Producer: Simona Rata
Assistant Producer: Mansi Vithlani
Executive Producer: Jo Meek
Sound Design: Craig Edmondson
Commissioner: Dan Clarke

An Audio Always production for ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4

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28 minutes

Last on

Sun 8 Sep 2024 23:00

Broadcast

  • Sun 8 Sep 2024 23:00

The Human Subjects Who Participated in History’s Darkest Medical Experiments

The Human Subjects Who Participated in History’s Darkest Medical Experiments

Dr Julia Shaw investigates some profoundly unethical experiments.

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