SEVERE PSYCHIC TORTURE

All that is missing from the equation is the element of control. And how would that control be attained? Estabrooks shied away from the details, only alluding to the severe psychic torture that is required to split a person’s core personality and then exert control over the alter personalities that are created. The trauma is often referred to euphemistically as “a form of hypnotism”. In one passage, for example, Estabrooks noted that multiple personalities “are caused by a form of hypnotism”. In one passage, for example, Estabrooks noted that multiple personalities “are caused by a form of hypnotism in the first place! We will see that emotional shock produces exactly the same results as hypnotism”. Later, he came a little closer to the truth: “multiple personality [can] be both caused and cured by hypnotism. Remember that war is a grim business. Suppose we deliberately set up that condition of multiple personality to further the ends of military intelligence”. Still later, he came even closer: “everyone [can] be thrown into the deepest state of hypnotism by the use of what [I] termed the Russian method - no holds barred, deliberate disentegration of the personality by psychic torture... The subject might easily be left a mental wreck but war is a grim business”. - Programmed to Kill