Ludovico technique

The Ludovico technique apparatus.

The Ludovico technique is a fictional aversion therapy from the novel A Clockwork Orange administered by a "Dr. Brodsky" with the approval of the UK Minister of the Interior.^[1] It involved forcing a patient to watch, through the use of specula to hold the eyes open, violent images for long periods of time, while under the effect of a nausea-inducing drug. The aim of the therapy was to condition the patient to experience severe nausea when experiencing or even thinking about violence, thus creating an aversion to violent behaviour.

The therapy renders the protagonist of the novel, Alex, incapable of violence even in self-defense, and unable to touch a naked woman or think about having sexual intercourse. In the original novel, Alex is accidentally conditioned against all classical music due to the background score of the films. In the 1971 film, he is conditioned only against Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. "Ludovico" is the Italian equivalent of the German name "Ludwig"; it is possible the name was selected for this reason.

Film critic Thomas Nelson has compared this brainwashing technique with the recruit training in Kubrick's subsequent film Full Metal Jacket. He notes that the latter produces a contrasting effect when one of the recruits (Leonard Lawrence) becomes conditioned, during boot camp training, to become a violent killing machine who associates his sexuality with his rifle.^[2]

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