- Delgado's stimoceiver promised electrical control of aggression after dramatic Spanish bullring demonstration, exemplifying midcentury faith in neurophysiological localisation.
- Collaborations with Harvard psychiatrists integrated the device into psychosurgical programmes aiming at violence control and clinical intervention.
- By the 1970s critiques tied the stimoceiver to racism and repression, transforming it from scientific promise into symbol of biomedical overreach.
J Hist Ideas. 2026;87(4):849-872. doi: 10.1353/jhi.2026.a1003014.
ABSTRACT
This paper traces the history of José Delgado’s stimoceiver, a brain-implant device used to control aggression via electrical stimulation, from its Cold War-era promise to its fall into political disrepute. Beginning with Delgado’s dramatic demonstration in a Spanish bullring, the paper situates his work within long-standing neurophysiological traditions of localization and emotional brain theory. It then follows how, through collaborations with Harvard-affiliated psychiatrists, the stimoceiver became central to a broader project of psychosurgical violence control. By the 1970s, however, critiques linking such interventions to racism and repression transformed the stimoceiver from symbol of scientific progress into emblem of biomedical overreach.
PMID:42861511 | DOI:10.1353/jhi.2026.a1003014
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