William Sargant - BBC Radio Documentary

BBC Radio Documentary

On 1 April 2009, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a programme researched and introduced by James Maw entitled Revealing the Mind Bender General dealing with Sargant's activities and concentrating on his Sleep Room treatments at St Thomas's Hospital. Among the interviewees were his one-time registrar David Owen, and a number of patients from St Thomas' as well as a survivor of the Porton Down human experimentation, who testified that their lives had been shattered by Sargant's treatments. Among the points that were brought out were the routine violation of patients' rights as regards giving consent for treatment; the fact that Sargant admitted in correspondence with an Australian lawyer that patients had died under his deep sleep regime; and the circumstance that all patient records at St Thomas's and the related health authorities relating to Sargant's activities have been destroyed, making it difficult - if not impossible - for patients to seek redress through the courts.

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