Table Of ContentBEHIND THE
SHOCK MACHINE
BEHIND THE
SHOOK MACHINE
The Untold Story of the Notorious
Milgram Psychology Experiments
GINA PERRY
NEW YORK
LONDON
Copyright © 2012, 2013 by Gina Perry All rights reserved.
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First published in Australia by Scribe, Brunswick, 2012
This revised edition published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2013
Distributed by Perseus Distribution LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION
DATA
Perry, Gina.
Behind the shock machine : the untold story of the notorious Milgram psychology experiments / Gina
Perry. -- Revised edition.
pages cm Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-59558-925-5 (e-book) 1. Milgram, Stanley. 2. Interpersonal relations. 3. Social psychology-
-Experiments--History. 4. Behaviorism (Psychology)--Moral and ethical aspects. 5. Human
experimentation in psychology--Moral and ethical aspects. 6. Psychology--Research--Effect of
experimenters on. 7. Obedience--Psychological aspects. I. Title.
HM132.P4185 2013
302--dc23
2013014976
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CONTENTS
Note to Readers
Timeline of the Obedience Experiments
Prologue
Introduction
1. The Man Behind the Mirror
2. Going All the Way
3. The Limits of Debriefing
4. Subjects as Objects
5. Disobedience
6. The Secret Experiments
7. Milgram’s Staff
8. In Search of a Theory
9. The Ethical Controversy
10. Milgram’s Book
11. Representing Obedience
Conclusion
Appendix: List of Conditions
Acknowledgments
Notes
Additional Sources
NOTE TO READERS
Before we start this journey, a few words about language, use of names, and
privacy. You’ll notice that I refer to some people in this book by their first names
and others by their surnames, and some not by name at all but by number. Let
me explain. With their permission, I have used the real names—except where a
pseudonym was requested—of those I interviewed. I’ve referred to them by their
first names because “Mr. Menold” or “Mrs. Bergman” didn’t feel apt, given they
shared their intimate experiences with me. But where I’ve quoted from
conversations that took place during the obedience experiments—which
Milgram recorded on audiotape—I’ve had to refer to people by their subject
number or make up a name to help you picture them more accurately. These
recordings are classified until 2039, so they have been sanitized, meaning that
the names of subjects have been removed before being made available. At the
time of my research, 140 recordings had been made available, each of them
around fifty minutes long. I spent over two hundred hours listening to and
transcribing them, from which I have quoted selectively.
I refer to people I didn’t meet, such as Milgram and his staff, by their
surnames, as that’s how they were named in the transcripts, reports, and research
documents I read. In a sense, they’re the titles by which I’ve come to know
them, and it would feel like an uninvited intimacy to refer to them otherwise
(even if they’re no longer around to call me on it).
I struggled with how to describe the people who took part in the experiments.
Were they subjects? Volunteers? Participants? Each suggests something different
about the power relationship between the researcher and the researched. The
term “volunteers” was misleading: they did not volunteer for the experiment
they found themselves in, but for a benign-sounding memory test. And while I
preferred the term “participant,” it reflects a more contemporary attitude than
Milgram held. Despite my discomfort with the term “subject,” with its
connotations of passivity and people-as-objects, it does more accurately reflect
the attitude implicit in Milgram’s relationship to the people he studied and is a
reminder to readers of the times. In the end, I used all three.
I have also quoted from Milgram’s records of conversations between himself
and psychiatrist Dr. Paul Errera and from the post-experiment sessions that
Errera conducted for the subjects. These records have been transcribed from
Milgram’s audio recordings.
Lastly, when I’ve quoted from Milgram’s original documents, I’ve retained
any misspellings or careless expression in order to capture his mood or give an
insight into his state of mind at the time of writing. I’ve shown others this same
courtesy.
TIMELINE OF THE OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENTS
1960
Between September and October, Stanley Milgram and a group of his
students begin a project on what will become the obedience
experiments.
1961
From January to August, Milgram makes preparations for the
obedience experiments. In August, they begin. Between August and
November: • Joe Dimow is in condition 2.
• Bill Menold is in condition 5 or 6.
• Herb Winer is in condition 5 or 6.
• Bob Lee is in condition 9. (See appendix for a full list of the
1962
conditions.) From January to May, the obedience
experiments continue. Between March and May: • Hannah
Bergman is in condition 20.
• Bernardo Vittori and Enzo Cerrato are in condition 24.
Milgram shoots his documentary Obedience during the last three
days of the experiments, in May. Fred Prozi is one of the subjects
filmed during this time. In July, Milgram sends out a questionnaire to
all subjects.
1963
Between February and May, Dr. Paul Errera conducts interviews with
selected subjects. In October, Milgram’s first article about the
obedience research is published, causing a media storm.
Description:In the summer of 1961, a group of men and women at Yale volunteered for a memory experiment to be conducted by the young, dynamic psychologist Stanley Milgram. The volunteers were placed in front of a shock machine and asked to administer a series of electric shocks to a man they'd just met. What th
