The Madness of Crowds

Louise Penny incorporates the historical figure Donald Ewen Cameron into The Madness of Crowds. Cameron lived from 1901 to 1967; he was born in Scotland and trained as a psychiatrist before continuing his career in the United States and Canada. He achieved significant renown in psychiatry, including serving as the president of both the American and Canadian Psychiatric Associations in the 1950s. He eventually moved to Montreal, Canada, in the 1940s, where he served as the first director of the Allan Memorial Institute and as the first chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at McGill University.

However, Cameron’s legacy in the psychiatric world is controversial. In 1945, Cameron was part of a team of psychiatrists who evaluated Rudolf Hess, a high-ranking member of the Nazi party, during the Nuremberg trials post-World War II. Cameron and others determined that Hess was suffering from amnesia, although Hess himself later admitted to faking amnesia during the trial. Cameron also achieved notoriety due to his involvement with the MKUltra human experimentation program, funded by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the 1950s and 1960s. The goal of the program was to develop procedures and identify drugs that could be used to elicit confessions during torture and interrogation. Cameron conducted experiments on individuals who did not consent and were not aware of their role in this research. Instead, these patients sought treatment for anxiety and post-partum depression. Experiments included administering drugs, using electroconvulsive shock therapy, and applying brainwashing techniques. Elements of Cameron’s techniques were subsequently applied in interrogation by various governments.