Into the Mind

Michael investigates how scientists have struggled to understand that most irrational and deeply complex part of the mind - emotions. He meets survivors - both participants and scientists - of some of the key historical experiments. He explores these extraordinary research projects, some of which were captured on film, including a baby boy who is taught to fear random objects, baby monkeys who are given mothers made from wire and cloth, and an adult who is deliberately violent before a group of toddlers.

Michael traces the ways that science has been used to try to control the mind. He finds that the pursuit of mind control has led to some truly horrific experiments and left many casualties in its wake. Extraordinary archival footage captures what happens when scientists systematically change the behaviour of children; have law abiding citizens give fatal electric shocks; and implant electrodes in the head of a gay man in an attempt to turn his sexuality.

Dr Michael Mosley concludes his series exploring the brutal history of experimental psychology by looking at how experiments on abnormal brains have revealed the workings of the normal brain. Michael meets some remarkable individuals who suffer from rare conditions and unique circumstances, including the case of an amnesiac known for years only by his initials, HM, who became the most studied individual in the history of psychology and whose case opened a window on how the memory works.