Aversives

Aversives are a form of punishment used for inducing behavior changes. They are used in rat behavior studies, dog training, torture, certain religious activities, military interrogation, and as part of controversial autism treatments.

Electroshock aversives have historically been used by people who believed they could cure Homosexuality and Transsexualism. Such treatment is now banned in most countries.

The Stanford prison experiment

Human nature and lack of very strong institutional checks lead rapidly to widespread abuse. This has been proved by the Stanford prison experiment[1] (http://www.prisonexp.org/), in which ordinary students randomly assigned the 'guard' role abused ordinary students randomly assigned the 'prisoner' role. The result was that one third of 'guards' were abusing every rule, and each abuse was documented by hidden cameras the 'guards' were unaware of. Other 'guards' didn't question 'the system' regardless of explosively increasing abuse.

The experiment has to be shut down early as frequent inhumane treatment and flagrant human rights abuse was already taking hold after a few days(it took a fellow researcher to see that the experiment's designers were desensitized to the very aversive abuse they were trying so hard to sensitize people to, just by designing the experiment).

One third of 'guards' were clearly enjoying inflicting both the allowed and forbidden aversives to the 'prisoners' as often as possible, many being creative in the invention of new aversives. No such experiment can ever be performed again on random healthy volunteers, as the level of violence and dehumanisation rises too quickly for the experiment to be ethical to duplicate.

It is logical to assume that real life Prisons, military prisoner camps, dictatorships, hospitals treating inhumane-looking patients such as Teratology patients or Kanner Autism, religious extremist institution where alleged Sinners are not allowed to leave, and other institutions where strong aversives are available without strong institutional checks usually lead to institutional abuse and institutional damage. The crimes/sins or alleged crimes/sins of the prisoners, or their claimed lack of 'humanity', make aversive abuse and not investigating extreme aversive abuse cases (i.e. prisoner rape) all the more likely.

Medical ethics issues

Doctors who treat victims of the most flagrant aversive abuse or deaths through abuse have an ethical duty to report at least the most serious cases to the government (or the press, in case of dictatorship).

-In the military, dehumanisation of the 'enemy' to prevent hesitation when killing them and for prisoner Interrogation is seen as part of the job. The choice of prisoner may be arbitrary and some have no special knowledge or dangerous activities; they may still be detained as 'illegal combatants' and denied any rights at all until politics change and they are suddenly liberated without compensation or excuse.

-In hospitals, very few doctors will point out the abuses committed by medical staff; for fear of medical staff pointing out their own abuse or medical errors (or perceived medical errors). The fear of being fired may be present.

-In dictatorship, fear of them or their family being killed or becoming a prisoner will silence all but the most heroic people as long as the dictatorship has the power to do torture and kill at will.

-In autism institutions, false beliefs that autistics become normal if punished until autistic behavior go away (despite the lack of proper brain stem size and heavy serotonin imbalance which are incurable) can lead certain untrained or ideological staff into inflicting more aversives than would be allowed by law on a serial killer. Because of the idea that autistics are better off dead or not worth as much as a regular individual unless 'cured' through whatever is necessary, some autism 'treatments' are the only form of Torture allowed outside the military in some democratic countries.

-Similarly in some religious extremist institution, saving the soul of sinners is more important than saving their lives or human rights.

In any case very few abuses are ever reported in the regular press or investigated by the government - governments will actively prevent the creation of statistics about deaths caused by its own abuse(especially if that involves spending government money) except in rare countries with an Ombudsman.

Aversives used in prison

Not limited to obtaining cooperation on crime investigations, illegal aversives are commonplace in most countries. The continual use of aversives is believed by the conservatives to scare or annoy prisoners into committing fewer crimes later. For lifetime sentences without parole or a death sentence, this is certainly not useful; the remaining motives are vengeance and scaring away potential criminals (which doesn't work for most serious crime types).

-Unfair pricing and low quality of items they are allowed to buy only from the prison; without money you can go without new socks for years at a time. A phone call to a friend, relative, or lawyer will be exorbitantly costly to the person receiving it.

-Being snitched on

-In juvenile crime centers, telling the family you have been misbehaving (even noncriminal 'juvenile' behaviors the parent might find offensive).

-In some juvenile crime related 'reeducation' institutions, sex is totally denied for years routinely while this practice is illegal in adult prisons. A large number of 'juvenile' behaviors may be punished as if it were a crime, especially in certain religious establishments.

-Being beaten up by other prisoners, often after other prisoners heard something you did they don't like - like snitching. This requires a snitch to work for the guards, for a prisoner group, or an outright lie.

-Being beaten up by guards

-Being denied hygiene items, such as toilet paper (sometimes blamed on low budget, but sometimes as punishment)

-Denial of parole or early release for good behavior

-Additional sentences for crimes or alleged crimes committed in jail; going to trial for crimes committed in jail that would be ignored if the prisoner was cooperative.

-Placed in cell with dangerous or sexually abusive prisoners; without supervision.

-Rape by guards, or even costumers buying 'prisoner time'

-Overcrowded cells with little or no supervision on abuse prisoners do to one another (especially in third world countries).

-Isolation cells under very unpleasant conditions

-Very long isolation

-Preventing sleep

-Death sentence and death sentence threats (a death sentence might not actually lead to execution if a decade-long trial is possible like in the US)

-Denial of access to lawyers, a phone call, relatives, conjugal visits, illegal drugs otherwise tolerated, and other contacts with outsiders

-Getting more mandatory work or a more unpleasant job - or less pay for the work than other prisoners

-Restraints, usually handcuffs

-Denial of the right to buy cigarettes (extremely effective on cigarette addicts)

-Denial of a rare entertainment activity, such as a small spectacle on Holidays.

-Medication as an aversive - or denial of necessary medication.

-Turning over prisoners to mental health institutions; or not allowing prisoners transfer to mental health institution (depending on what the prisoner finds most unpleasant). This may be temporary and relate to the fact mental institution may use devices prisons lack, i.e. electroshocks and straitjackets.

-All forms of torture might be used, depending on the prison type (military prisons for enemy soldiers are the worst)

-Humiliations (i.e. chain gangs systematically chaining black prisoners with white prisoners, all of them dressed in pink). Suing a prison for psychological humiliation or torture is illegal in the US.

-Other (prisons can be quite creative and diverse, especially for technicalities allowing an otherwise banned aversive)

Heavy use of aversives does not cause prisoners to commit fewer crimes; in fact it forces prisoners to stick together in gangs and learn skills with little or no legal use such as pickpocketing, smuggling, beating up people, social manipulation skills, intimidation, etc. Very little training or true reeducation efforts occur in jail except for learning to read; the emphasis is usually on punishment. A few prison systems in Europe are the exception and recidivist criminal rate in those countries is much lower.

In Florida, the Legislature has mandated by law that prisons are for punishment, not for rehabilitation. Absolutely no secondary, or college level, educational courses are offered prisoners. Prisoners are fed on 2.45$ a day unless they can afford food. They are denied the right to type personal or legal documents.

Officially allowed aversives used in autism, and a few very rare syndromes

-Forced to smell ammonia

-Spanked

-Slapped

-Pinched

-Restraints. For example being tied to a bed; being sit on(occasionally fatal)

-Forced to eat "taste aversives" -- either a vinegar mix, or jalapeno peppers or hot sauce.

-Hair pulled

-Denial of food (in extreme cases, caused starvation to death)

-Electroshocks (sometimes 5300 per day, every day)

-Water squirts (they're more disturbing to autistics than normal people due to sensory filtering dysfunctions)

-White noise helmet (they're more disturbing to autistics than normal people due to sensory filtering dysfunctions)

-Being shouted at extremely loudly (this may be more disturbing to autistics than normal people due to sensory filtering dysfunctions)

-Many other aversives are allowed, and many more are tolerated.

-Illegal aversives, such as those used in prisons, can be illegally used by example for obtaining silence about the rape of an autistic or for any kind of behavior modification. Such crimes are even more under-reported than prison rape, but occasionally fail because staff does not understand the autistic mind.

Some aversives have been used despite the fact some low IQ Kanner autistics didn't make the link between the aversives and the behavior changes the staff was trying to promote. Some staff also have an unrealistic idea of what specific autistic individuals can learn, leading them to use more and more aversives for things an individual will never be able to learn from current education methods or at all. The cause of such behavior in staff is partly rooted in very low pay, very low staff/autistic ratio, lack of proper training, apathy, lack of informal communication between the staff and the autistics, lack of adequate supervision, and the claimed 47% success of the Lovaas study on behavior modification of autistics.

The use of aversives on autistics may lead to PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), especially when an individual has no idea why he's being punished or cannot do at all what is expected due to brain damage. A lifetime of substandard treatment can lead to depression.

Such abuse has repeatedly lead to death; in the majority of cases no police investigation is made.

One example is the death of Linda Cornelison [2] (http://www.normemma.com/lcorneli.htm) who had 61 aversives on the day of her death and was restricted to a 300-calories diet for failing to answer a computer test.

Not all deaths would be obvious to an inspection of the institution. For example a 3-day tour of the Central State Hospital by several inspectors gave the hospital a 92 out of 100 points, a glowingly favorable report. They also bestowed the commission's highest ranking for patients' rights and care when they concluded their review on June 28, 1996.

However they missed the fact Gloria Huntley was writing "Pray for me, I'm dying!" whenever she was not tied to her bed as she was constantly during the inspection.

Gloria Huntley died [3] (http://www.copaa.net/newstand/day3.html) the next day(at age 31) from a heart fatally weakened due to constant use of restraints; her heart was inflamed to 150% times its normal size.

Nine months later, the Joint Commission gave Central State an even better score in a follow-up review; not losing any points Gloria's death.

Gloria Huntley herself, smart enough to know she was dying, had turned to abuse investigation organizations in her last months of life. Her case was not investigated when she was alive.

The autistics themselves have been known to be excellent scholars despite social difficulties; in one case Michelle Dawson, and autistic, has produced a scholar document about the abuse of aversives used in autism: [4] (http://www.sentex.net/~nexus23/naa_aba.html)

There is one study on whether staff using severe aversives on autistic were distressed by the pain, panic, and dehumanisation of the autistic. The study showed strong correlation between job satisfaction of staff and use of strong aversives; just like the the Standford prison experiment. Here is the reference:

Harris, S.L., Handleman, J.S., Gill, M.J., and Fong, P.L. (1991). Does punishment hurt? The impact of aversives on the clinician. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 12, 17-24.

Not all aversive uses are bad however, and even the most severe aversives may be necessary frequently in case of severe or potentially fatal self-mutilation syndromes like Lesch-Nyhan syndrome[5] (http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health_and_medical/disorders/lesch_doc.htm). Not using aversives and solid restraints in the case of this peculiar syndrome will shorten the patient's life due to agonizing self-mutilation starting with lip and finger destruction (the patient finds his own self-mutilation extremely unpleasant and will request restraints himself - the syndrome is not psychological but neurological). This hereditary syndrome is however very rare and not at all like the facial scratches or head banging that a very few autistics may inflict on themselves when their environment refuses to communicate with them on terms they understand.

The use of more aversives that is used on normal children on highly intelligent (i.e. clearly not mentally retarded at all) autistics who are potentially self-supporting is however clear-cut discrimination; it has rarely if ever been debated because such individuals, like those who have Asperger syndrome, almost completely lack the social skills necessary to attract sympathy or prevent abuse; or form a social group by themselves to fight abuse effectively. The historical infliction of electroshocks on such individuals in order to have them make eye contact has only resulted in 'robot-like' blank starting because autistics don't understand nonverbal eye language and facial expressions; and looking at a face is unpleasant to them because it distracts/annoys them without bringing in any understandable information. It can be unpleasant enough that some will not make eye contact even in presence of frequent electroshocks, fully understanding how their behavior results in uninterrupted punishment.

Modern aversive treatments in the US, such as ABA, claims no severe aversives are used and also claim "scientific proof" from the Lovaas study in which severe aversives were proven in a study-within-the-study to be the only active ingredient of ABA at that time; both claims are completely incompatible and modern ABA's claims to scientific proof is a fraud. [6] (http://www.sentex.net/~nexus23/naa_aba.html) However some modern ABA programs have been known to succeed for reasons not related to the original use of strong aversives; or use extremely severe aversives that would be considered mild by people with a fully functioning brain stem to filter sensory input; or simply be the old ABA without the active ingredient - therefore being scientifically proven to fail.

The use of aversives in autism remains controversial on several levels. Lovaas, for example, has also been involved in a campaign to eliminate Homosexuality with electroshocks and other aversives before it was made illegal; he then turned to use the same tactics on autistics without modifying any of them - 'simply use the strongest punishment available and socially obnoxious behavior will disappear' sums it up. Such a simplistic view will never agree with the Scientific method

External links

• [7] (http://www.neurodiversity.com/murder.html) Murder of autistics through aversives, including restraints used in religious practices such as exorcism or attachment therapy.

• [8] (http://www.neurodiversity.com/aversives.html) and [9] (http://www.neurodiversity.com/restraints.html) Aversives/restraints horror stories & deaths involving autistics.

• [10] (http://www.spr.org/) Stop prisoner rape

• [11] (http://prison.com/) Prison.com

• [12] (http://www.prisonexp.org/) The Standford Prison psychological experiment

• [13] (http://www.penalreform.org/english/nla16.htm) Prison reform in Africa

• [14] (http://www.fplao.org/FloridaPrisonFAQs.html) Official Florida prison FAQ.

• [15] (http://www.fplao.org/FamilyIssues.html) The monopoly of Florida prisons on phone calls - corruption issues raised by families.

• [16] (http://www.handcuffs.org/) About handcuffs.

• [17] (http://crimetimes.org/) This publication comes up regularly with scientific studies saying certain crimes(especially violent crimes) are biologically-influenced in nature and may not be substantially prevented by aversives or fear of aversives. They also claim brain defects, alcoholism, or very bad diet (such as prison food) is inherently capable of raising crime or recidivist rate when severe multiple deficiencies in mineral/vitamins are present in a heavy metal poisoned individual (lead poisoning and lead poisoning worsened by fluoridation, especially). They do not claim all crimes are biological.