Photo credit: Hilary Stock
In the sixth of a series of articles about authors appearing at Marlborough LitFest who have a local connection, Marlborough.news has been speaking to author, journalist and vice-chair of Marlborough LitFest Committee, Jon Stock.
Jon Stock is already well known to LitFest audiences as his psychological thriller, The Man on Hackpen Hill, written under his pseudonym J. S. Monroe, was chosen as LitFest’s Big Town Read in 2022. He has written six spy novels and five psychological thrillers but at LitFest this year he will be speaking about his latest and first non-fiction book – The Sleep Room: A Very British Medical Scandal.
Jon told Marlborough.news that he has always carried out extensive research for his novels, so much so that his agent suggested he would be well placed to write a work of non-fiction. At Marlborough LitFest 2022 Jon interviewed Sam Knight, the author of The Premonitions Bureau which is about a controversial psychiatrist from the 1960s with an interest in clairvoyance. This sparked Jon’s interest in post-war psychiatry and led him to another controversial psychiatrist of the 1960s and ‘70s, Dr William Sargant.
Sargant ran the notorious Ward Five, known as the ‘Sleep Room’, of London’s Royal Waterloo Hospital. Here he set to work on vulnerable patients, mainly women, using techniques such as huge doses of antipsychotic, sedative and antidepressant drugs, as well as electro-convulsive therapy and lobotomy. Jon describes him as ‘a hugely divisive figure’. “Some people think I am a marvellous doctor. Others think I am the work of the Devil,” said Dr William Sargant.
Sargant’s patients did not give consent to their treatment but another very disturbing aspect was that his treatments began to be seen as a form of social correction/control. Middle class parents would send their daughters to Sargant to have memories of any unsuitable suitors erased.
Jon also found evidence that Sargant worked with the intelligence services who were interested in his attempts to manipulate the human mind. In 1967 he was called upon to assess the mental health of a Russian physicist who was thought to be defecting. He was also in close contact with Ewen Cameron, a psychiatrist who ran a ‘Sleep Room’ near Montreal funded by the CIA.
No biography of Sargant exists but Jon was able to access Sargant’s papers held at the Wellcome Collection as a starting point together with recently released documents at the National Archives. He spent over two years researching and looking for Sargant’s former patients who would be prepared to speak to him. Many have been left with a lifetime of trauma as a result of their experiences in the ‘Sleep Room’.
The actor, Celia Imrie, came forward and spoke of her experiences when she was hospitalised with anorexia and put under Sargant’s care. Her first person account and that of five other women are included in the book. Some also had memories of being sexually molested by Sargant.
Jon commented, “Sargant’s former patients who spoke to me wanted their stories to be heard. It was the first time someone was listening to them. Critics say they are unreliable witnesses but I’ll leave the reader to make up their own mind.”
Sargant had friends in high places, friends made during his time at Cambridge, and no complaint against him was ever investigated during his lifetime or since.
Jon commented, “The Sleep Room feels like the most worthwhile book I have written. It gives a platform to Sargant’s patients whose stories have never been heard before. It’s dark territory but hopefully done with empathy, some humour and a lot of extraordinary women.”
Jon will be speaking at Marlborough LitFest on Sunday September 27th at 4pm in the Town Hall. Click here for tickets
Marlborough LitFest is grateful to Brearley&Rich estate agents for sponsoring this event.
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