William Walters Sargant (24 April, 1907 - August 27, 1988), psychiatrist, Founder and director of the Department of Psychological Medicine at St Thomas' Hospital in London, where he established a laboratory for mind control experiments. He was also a consultant to the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI5/6).

William Sargant was a pioneer in methods of placing false memories into patients. He attested at a 1977 U. S. Senate hearing, "that the therapist should deliberately distort the facts of the patient's life-experience to achieve heightened emotional response and abreaction. In the drunken state of narcoanalysis patients are prone to accept the therapist's false constructions."

William Sargant published one of the first books on the psychology of brainwashing, Battle for the Mind 1957.

William Sargant passed away on August 27, 1988.

References

• Wellcome Library - http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cats/20/2898.htm

• 1977 U.S. Senate hearing on MKULTRA,
  Joint Hearing before the Select Committee on Intelligence and the Subcommitte on Health and Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, United States Senate, Ninety-fifth Congress, First Session, Wed, August 3, 1977 - http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1950/mkultra/index.htm
  http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/e1950/mkultra/Hearing04.htm#f27

See Also

• Brainwashing
• Mind control
• Project MKULTRA