Binding: Unknown Binding Label: Catholic Pub. Co Manufacturer: Catholic Pub. Co Number Of Pages: 186 Publication Date: 1987 Publisher: Catholic Pub. Co Studio: Catholic Pub. Co
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Customer Rating: Summary: Mind Twisters Comment: This is the story of Ernest Tottosy, who, in 1952, was drugged while in prison in Hungary on "conspiracy" charges which caused him to have visions, hear voices and confess to certain crimes. Here is an excerpt from the book's Preface by Dr. Laszlo Luka on California State University, Hayward:
So what happened to Ernest Tottosy?
Tottosy had no symptoms of schizophrenia before 1952, or after 1953. He is a balanced, happy person. The war, and the occupations of Hungary by different powers, educated him to become a concerned, dutifull Hungarian politician. He, like Vladimir Bukovski, who spent many years in various Soviet mental institution-prisons, is an example of a poised, spiritually well-functioning person. His mental state thus can rightfully be described as an induced schizophrenia. The exact reason for the symtoms' onset will not be known until the authentic medical records are made available. We can only guess until then: was it Mescalin? LSD? Or some other secret chemical used by the AVH under the supervision of the Soviets?
We, the readers, face the same situation as a medical expert examining the patient. The illness - through the detailed description - develops in front of our eyes. This mental state, so easily followed in the book, will undoubtedly become the topic of research some day. I am afraid the experts of the future will have but a few such verified reports from real, live witnesses. They will have to work like anthropologists, piecing together from fragments the entire picture of the psychiatric abuses of our age. It is obvious that the investigating authorities used the help of specialists in selecting the drugs, as well as their use. Naturally, the participating doctor could tell us the most about the case. Perhaps some day such testimony will survive.
I have not heard of a similar case, neither during the three years I spent in prison. nor during the almost 30 subsequent years. None of my prison-inmates had talked about anything remotely similar to this case. This also represents a puzzle. It is to be feared that the authorities, trying to extract a favorable testimony from the accused, used medical knowledge to artificially break the prisoner's resistment. We do not hear about these cases because the captors took care that the victims did not survive their sentences, making certain outside confessions would not occur. In a similar case the fate of the Polish officer of Katyn only became known to the unbelieving world through Josef Czapsky, an officer who inadvertently happened to be hospitalized away from camp at the time.
It is very probable that Ernest Tottsky's story is not unique, but as an eyewitness account, in undoubtedly is. At the same time it is a brilliantly presented story trough which the reader can look into how madness develops. It also serves as a documentary account of the last year of Stalin's rule, 1953-1953. The events perfectly depict the behavior of those in power at the time, of madmen, comparable only to Dr. Mengeles of concentration camps, acting without inhibitions of scruples.
