slept on the floor. A group of up to seven patients were confined
in the room to remain for many days at a time. The patients
were totally removed from contact with the outside world. They
were stripped nude and often chained to one another. They were
fed through liquid food dispensers — four straws through the
wall — and received no solid foods. They were drugged with
Dexamyl, Tofranil, LSD and other hallucinogens. The room was
continuously lit, and the patients were temporally disoriented
and sleep deprived. The room was under constant observation,
either through a one-way mirror in the ceiling or by closed circuit television with a high-quality audio amplifying system.
[50] In his paper “The Total Encounter Capsule”, supra,
Dr. Barker described the room in which the patients were con-
fined as follows:
After eight months’ experience with the operation of the Sunroom program,
the Total Encounter Capsule was designed. It was to function as a place of
undisturbed security where a small group of voluntary patients could focus
upon issues they felt important enough to warrant the exclusion of the usual
physical and psychological distractions, and the possible risks of suicide or
homicide that might attend extremely intense personal encounters.
The Capsule is a specially constructed, soundproof, windowless, but continuously lighted and ventilated room, eight feet by ten feet, with a soft rug-over-foam floor, which provides the basic essentials — liquid food dispensers, washing and toilet facilities — and in which it is possible for a group of
up to seven patients to live for many days at a time, totally removed from
contact with the outside. The Capsule group is under constant observation,
either through a one-way mirror in the ceiling and/or by closed circuit television, and a high-quality audio amplifying system.
Patient observers, trained specifically for this full-time job, work eight hour
shifts, and have a wide variety of duties. They must keep a continuous supply of liquid foods — soups, milkshakes, tea, coffee, cocoa — available to the
group, regulate the temperature of the Capsule to comfortable levels at all
times, record on video tape any interaction that is deemed significant
enough to replay for the participants or staff, keep a continuous written record of events as they unfold, and intervene if it appears that physical acting
out is imminent.
It was decided, as the ground rules for the first groups were being drawn up,
that the patients would participate in the Capsule without clothes. This
move was prompted by the experience of Paul Bindrim, a psychologist working in California, who felt that uncovering of the private parts of one’s body
might facilitate the uncovering of the private parts of one’s mind, and partly
because the fear that clothing might be used in a dangerous manner.
[51] Dr. Barker believed that the use of force is legitimate in
treating patients for illnesses that they did not recognize in settings in which they will be incarcerated until they change. In his
paper “Buber Behind Bars”, under the heading “Coercion and
