First of all, I am not an advocate of psychology or psychiatry. Psychiatry is worse because it does more harm without any good. “Psychiatric disorders are not medical diseases. There are no lab tests, brain scans, X-rays or chemical imbalance tests that can verify that any mental disorder is a physical condition. This is not to say that people do not get depressed, or that people can’t experience emotional or mental duress. Still, psychiatry has repackaged these emotions and behaviors as a “disease” to sell drugs. This is a brilliant marketing campaign, but it is not science.” – CCHR

With that, when I hear about a movie, like Experimenter, telling a story about a psychologist or psychiatrist, I cringe because the way the professions practice is so barbaric, and I know most Hollywood movies depict these professions as virtuous.

Career and Personal Life

Directed by Michael Almereyda (Hamlet and Eternal), the movie stars one of my favorite actors, Peter Sarsgaard and Winona Ryder as his wife, Alexandra “Sasha” Milgram. He plays the role of the experimenter, also known as Professor Stanley Milgram. He conducted experiments at Yale, using his qualifications as a psychologist. His experiments were frowned upon by his peers because they were covert obedience tests.  

On a covert approach, he asked volunteers, who were told to electrocute a stranger if they answered any preset questions incorrectly in a controlled environment. The number of electroshocks increased as the test progressed and the stranger gave wrong answers.  

The Ethical Controversy

The key here is that none of the strangers were really electroshocked. It was all fake and lies. The volunteer was told he was shocking them, but in fact, the scream of pain was fabricated – typical psycho-mumbo-jumbo.  The message tells me never to volunteer for an experiment.

On the whole, Milgram’s experiments were not celebrated. But, he wanted to prove why the Nazi blindly followed Hitler, and why they didn’t retaliate, and end the dehumanizing and killing of millions of Jews.  No way does his experiment prove anything.

Historical Context: Understanding the Holocaust

Europe at the time of Hitler’s rise was clearly under economic strain and facing other social problems. Hitler blamed it all on the Jews. He dehumanized them over a period of time. It didn’t happen in a year. It happened in increments, over a decade at least—nothing like the experiments Milgram recorded.

Breaking the fourth wall by having Milgram speak directly to the camera is a clever, unique choice by the director. The unique style works in this case, but I do not recommend the movie because Milgram’s viewpoint of humanity is twisted.

He sees man as an animal, which is far from the truth. We are sentient beings who understand the concept of right and wrong.  If we lift society’s attitude about life and living, we will never witness a culture unquestioningly following a madman like Hitler.