Achilles

Achilles Asylum: 1980s Audio Therapy

Added 2025-01-12 23:20:56 +0000 UTC

With the advancement of the robotic tickling hands that began development after the influx of military funds in the 1960s, patients could often be left alone for hours while their doctors attended other duties. Without the personal touch of an attending physician, they were sometimes able to resist their treatment.

Verbal taunting and teasing from the doctors was an important component of the therapy so, if patients had to be left alone, they were given audio via headset to help break through their attempts to hold back laughter. Some patients responded to the more traditional taunts such as "kitchy kitchy koo". Doctors would record themselves saying the specific trigger phrase that would set their patients off. In other cases, patients responded better to hearing the laughter of their fellow inmates, layered on top of each other in looping tracks.

While these methods worked in a pinch, nothing could quite substitute for a doctor actually being in the room to personally interact during the session.