Reposted by James KennawayMike Jay @mikejay.bsky.social · 19/08/2026headpress.com/blog/2026/08...headpress.comMind Control in Carnaby StreetWhat would you do if you could experience “ecstasy with no consequence”? It’s a possibility explored with great style in Michael Reeves’ 1967 film, The Sorcerers, as JENNIFER WALLIS explores. 033
Reposted by James KennawayMike Jay @mikejay.bsky.social · 10/03/2026Coming in October yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...yalebooks.yale.eduWireheadsThe story of the mavericks and scientists, crackpots and artistic visionaries who imagined a future where machines fuse with our mindsAs humanity and technol... 085
James Kennaway @jgkennaway.bsky.social · 02/09/2026This is my dormiphone, a device that its manufacturers claimed would allow you to learn a language in your sleep (it doesn't). It was also used in literal CIA-funded mind control experiments. I hope my students appreciate my new toy. 191
James Kennaway @jgkennaway.bsky.social · 04/08/2026My monograph “Only a Scratch”: British Military Surgery and the Romance of Pain, 1750–1914" has gone into production with Cambridge University Press. It looks at the cult of heroic fortitude in surgery and at the related racial theories about what sort of person could "take it." 1193
Reposted by James KennawayAparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 17/03/2026Am teaching a course on Pain & the humanities this yr, and I can't stop thinking about this 1950 experiment conducted in New York hospitals and Cornell University hospital, where physicians burned the hands of women in labor (IN LABOR) to create a measure for pain/study pain thresholds. #histmed 45386150
Reposted by James KennawayRules Don't Work @rulesdontwork.bsky.social · 17/03/2026I want to throw up now 2185
James Kennaway @jgkennaway.bsky.social · 27/10/2025I've got a chapter in this: www.campus.de/buecher-camp.... I wrote about the history of the idea of music as a form of programming for the psyche.campus.deDie Macht des Psychotechnischen, ein Buch von Bernd Bösel, Julia Weber - Campus VerlagBernd Bösel, Julia Weber: Die Macht des Psychotechnischen - Band I Zur Erschließung eines transdiziplinären Forschungsfeldes 020
James Kennaway @jgkennaway.bsky.social · 16/10/2025I'll be talking about "mind control" in Aachen next week. khk.rwth-aachen.de/event/worksh...khk.rwth-aachen.deWorkshop “Cultures of Credence: Mind Control and Other Fringe Epistemologies” 040
James Kennaway @jgkennaway.bsky.social · 07/09/2025Everything that Mike Jay writes is worth your time.lrb.co.ukMike Jay · Priest of the Devil: On Shamanism‘Shamanism’, as a concept, is of course a Western invention, and from the earliest cross-cultural encounters it was... 060
Reposted by James KennawayFaine Greenwood @faineg.com · 02/08/2025does the bicycle make women cruel 56973199
Reposted by James KennawayDorota Dias-Lewandowska @dorotadias.bsky.social · 01/08/2025Post-doc position in Boundaries of Drinking project: 2 years, full time, research only. Closing date 1 September 2025. #academicjobs iaepan.edu.pl/konkurs-na-s... 172
Reposted by James KennawayTimothy Neale @tdneale.bsky.social · 01/08/2025Wellcome-funded 'Between Deception and Dissent' project is recruiting a postdoc working at the interface of medical STS and socio-legal studies, supervised by Martyn Pickersgill @ Edinburgh #STS www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNY639/r... 01515
Reposted by James KennawayLesley A Hall @erinacean.bsky.social · 30/07/2025The diary of 'Lady Hillingham' c. 1912, no location given, cited by Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy in The Rise and Fall of the British Nanny 1972, which is (almost) entirely responsible for the 'close your eyes and think of England' line, though I did discover an earlier, 1940s, example.lesleyahall.netVictorian sex factoids 0112
Reposted by James KennawaySausalito Library @sausalitolibrary.bsky.social · 17/06/2025Some books are here for only a short time after which they outlive their usefulness. Sadly, there are no copies of How To Deprogram Your Valley Girl on MARINet or LINK+, so future generations may be doomed to repeat history. Fortunately, there are over 6.5 million other items to choose from. 151
Reposted by James KennawayMatthew Guariglia @mguariglia.bsky.social · 16/06/2025Excited to share the *incredible* cover for the Church Committee Report! The first version of the 1975 report on illegal surveillance & the national security state ever published by a mainstream press. Abridged/introduced by @brianhochman.bsky.social and I. Published by W.W. Norton January 2026. 1317235
Reposted by James KennawayKirkdale Bookshop @kirkdalebooks.bsky.social · 11/06/2025The first time I ever heard the Beach Boys as an adult, was on Hugh Grant's Desert Island Discs. Took me about twenty seconds before I started crying. Listen out for the recorders. And the cut-out to the brothers singing on their own. www.youtube.com/watch?v=71LU...youtube.comSloop John B (Mono)YouTube video by The Beach Boys - Topic 2163
Reposted by James KennawayTom Whipple @whippletom.bsky.social · 10/06/2025This is a tale of how the search for the death ray led to something less deadly, but equally useful. In the 1930s, the air minister offered £1,000 to the inventor, "‘who could demonstrate the killing of a sheep at a range of 100 yards" using radio waves. 🧵 75515
Reposted by James KennawayFrance Culture @franceculture.fr · 08/06/2025Dans l’Europe des Lumières, Mary Ann Davies, 9 ans à peine, fait sensation. Ce n’est pas seulement son talent qui intrigue, mais aussi l’instrument étrange qu’elle fait "chanter" : un harmonica de verre inventé par… Benjamin Franklin. ➡️ l.franceculture.fr/xSd 04320
Reposted by James KennawayHelen King @helenking.bsky.social · 05/06/2025Hello, UK paperback publication day! 0348
Reposted by James KennawayJoel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 05/06/2025I wrote this the day before the Unbound thing broke and we found out they’d taken our money. Now it seems to be about that too. 1252
Reposted by James KennawayJoel Morris @gralefrit.bsky.social · 04/06/2025How the tech capitalists treat us like saloon sex robots. I’ve made the connection, now I can’t unsee it. joelmorris.substack.com/p/are-we-the... 1312549
Reposted by James KennawayShannon K. Supple @mazarine.bsky.social · 02/06/2025Who am I to say no to taxidermied deer heads formerly owned by David Lynch? www.juliensauctions.com/en/auctions/...juliensauctions.comThe David Lynch CollectionA rare look behind the red curtain of one of the most influential artists of our time: Julien’s & TCM Presents: The David Lynch Collection. Almost... 2102
Reposted by James KennawayIwan Rhys Morus @irmorus.bsky.social · 01/06/2025This has *never* been the way successful technology develops. Not at the beginning of the nineteenth-century technological revolution, and not now. I’m currently developing a book pitch on this ….. 0125
Reposted by James KennawayMatthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · 30/05/2025sshm.org/notices/ Vacancy: Social History of Medicine journal is seeking a Co-Editor. Please consider applying!sshm.orgNoticesVacancy: Co-Editor for Social History of Medicine Social History of Medicine (SHM) seeks a new co-editor to join Dr Elma Brenner (co-editor), Professor Flurin Condrau (co-editor), Dr Janet Greenlee… 01920
Reposted by James KennawayMunicipal Dreams @municipaldreams.bsky.social · 29/05/2025🚨 New on Substack, this fine guest post by @benaustwick.bsky.social on the Amsterdam School: Expressionism and Experimentation ... municipaldreams.substack.com/p/the-amster...municipaldreams.substack.comThe Amsterdam School: Expressionism and ExperimentationMunicipal Dreams travels abroad for the first time this week, thanks to this fascinating account by Ben Austwick of pioneering social housing in Amsterdam. 2105
Reposted by James KennawayMaaike @maaikeverbruggen.bsky.social · 29/05/2025A post-it on which someone wrote "Say no to generative AI art. Buy art from real degenerates." 1357
Reposted by James KennawayKarin Wulf @kawulf.bsky.social · 26/05/2025“This debt …should be at the forefront of our minds this Memorial Day….We are being asked not to charge into a hail of …artillery fire but only to speak up and to stand up in the face of foundational threats.” Historian and former Harvard president Drew Faust. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/26/o...nytimes.comOpinion | We Are Not Being Asked to Run Into Cannon Fire. We Just Need to Speak Up. 5459145
Reposted by James KennawayPanospria @panospria.com · 24/05/2025"Electronic Concert Not Very Amusing" -Boston Globe, February 27 1966 14357119
Reposted by James KennawayH-Soz-Kult @hsozkult.bsky.social · 23/02/2025CFP: Masculinities, Militaries, and Mass Violence in Transition www.hsozkult.de/event/id/event-1533… Potsdam, 22.01.2026-23.01.2026, Prof. Isabelle Deflers / PD Dr. Anke Fischer-Kattner, University of the Bundeswehr Munich; Prof. Christa Hämmerle, University of Vienna; Prof. Karen …hsozkult.de 042
Reposted by James KennawayProf. Elaine Chalus @profelainechalus.bsky.social · 20/05/2025Wound Nationalism: ‘Culture Wars’ and the Politics of ‘The People’ - text of Prof. Joanna Bourke's Alan Graham Memorial Lecture, Trinity Coll., Dublin, 25/04/2025 #skystorians 🗃️#politics www.joannabourke.com/post/wound-n...joannabourke.comWound Nationalism: ‘Culture Wars’ and the Politics of ‘The People’(This is the spoken version of the Alan Graham Memorial Lecture, that I gave at the conference ‘We The People’, Irish Association for American Studies, Trinity College Dublin, 25 April 2025. It is not... 093
Reposted by James KennawayErika Gaffney @erikagaffney.bsky.social · 30/04/2025Congratulations to Leendert van der Miesen on the publication of his new book "Marin Mersenne and the Study of Harmony: From Sound to Music"! www.aup.nl/en/book/9789... It is the 7th volume to be published in the @amsterdamupress.bsky.social book series Scientiae Studies, www.aup.nl/en/series/sc... 0103
Reposted by James Kennawaythe beggars out of here getter @milesklee.bsky.social · 04/05/2025“The whole thing feels like Black Mirror.” “He would listen to the bot over me.” “It gave my husband the title of ‘spark bearer’ because he brought it to life.” Relationships are being destroyed thanks to spiritual mania, supernatural delusions, and arcane prophecy — all fueled by AI chatbots:rollingstone.comPeople Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual FantasiesMarriages and families are falling apart as people are sucked into fantasy worlds of spiritual prophecy by AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT 962187600
Reposted by James KennawayZach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 10/05/2025Wow futurism.com/spotify-accu... Wonder how long till instagram cracks this. And YouTube. And Reddit. And twitter. Probably mood music is low hanging fruit for ai.futurism.comSpotify Employees Say It's Promoting Fake Artists to Reduce Royalty Payments to Real OnesAccording to a shocking new book, Spotify has been promoting "ghost artists" so it can avoid paying piddling royalties to real artists. 1114547
James Kennaway @jgkennaway.bsky.social · 10/05/2025I just had my first experience of seeing students using chapgpt to answer questions in class live. 120
Reposted by James KennawayDaniel Bellingradt @dbellingradt.bsky.social · 06/05/2025Miele hatte 1963 übrigens schon den bestmöglichen Slogan für #ChatGPT und Co. im Angebot: „Elektrogehirn im Vollautomaten“. #AI 88826
Reposted by James KennawayMelissa Reynolds @melkatrey.bsky.social · 30/04/2025Really looking forward to the “Medicine, Race, and Slavery in the Atlantic World” conference happening in two weeks @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social, featuring yours truly, plus @alltoosuman.bsky.social, @meghankroberts.bsky.social, @claireweeda.bsky.social & so many more. Link to register below! 0125
Reposted by James KennawayCMA: Islamic Art @cmaislamic.bsky.social · 28/04/2025Peacock-shaped Hand Washing Device: Illustration from The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices (Automata) of Inb al-Razza al-Jazari clevelandart.org/art/1945.383.a 175
Reposted by James KennawayMike Jay @mikejay.bsky.social · 12/02/2025Henri Michaux’s mescaline drawings at the Courtauld until June courtauld.ac.uk/whats-on/exh... 0165
Reposted by James KennawayPhysicians' Gallery @physiciansgallery.bsky.social · 06/03/2025This is the first known asylum patient art ever printed. It is by Bedlam inmate James Matthews. It shows the range of his delusions - he feared a machine which was powered by the ‘effluvia of dogs’ and which attacked him using ‘lobster-cracking’ and ‘thigh-talking’ 33513
Reposted by James KennawayMark O Pilkington @markopilkington.bsky.social · 06/03/2025You can read the whole incredible story of Matthews' visionary obsession in The Influencing Machine by @mikejay.bsky.social strangeattractor.greedbag.com/buy/the-infl...strangeattractor.greedbag.comThe Influencing Machine”One of the greatest books you’ve never read’ William Gibson A revised and updated edition of this weird science classic. Confined in Bedlam in 1797 as an incurable lunatic, James Tilly Matthews’ c... 142
Reposted by James KennawayMike Jay @mikejay.bsky.social · 29/03/2025Long overdue and thoroughly chilling biography of William Sarganttheguardian.com‘He still features in my nightmares’: how a sinister psychiatrist put hundreds of women in deep, drug-induced comasIn the 1960s, William Sargant used a combination of narcosis and ECT to ‘reprogram’ troubled young women. Now his patients, including the actor Celia Imrie and the former model Linda Keith, are trying... 0115
James Kennaway @jgkennaway.bsky.social · 18/04/2025The edition of Zeitschrift fuer Medienwissenschaft that Bernd Boesel and I put together on mind control is out now. zfmedienwissenschaft.de/heft/archiv/... #mindcontrol #histsci #histmed 193
Reposted by James KennawayPessimists Archive @pessimistsarc.bsky.social · 13/04/2025It's Jefferson's birthday In 1818 he warned about novel reading "A great obstacle to good education is the inordinate passion prevalent for novels... ...when this poison infects the mind, it destroys it’s tone, & revolts it against wholesome reading" newsletter.pessimistsarchive.org/p/thomas-jef...newsletter.pessimistsarchive.orgThomas Jefferson Hated Kids Reading NovelsOver two hundred years ago - in 1818 - Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter in which he communicated his distaste for ‘kids these days’ reading too many novels… 1134
Reposted by James KennawayMatthew Smith @healthhistory.bsky.social · 10/04/2025One of the things I got up to on the @sshmedicine.bsky.social writing retreat at Ross Priory @unistrathclyde.bsky.social @strathhumanities.bsky.social www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/a-sh...psychologytoday.comIs Rural Living Better for Mental Health?Does being a rural mouse give you a better chance of having good mental health than being a city mouse? 063
Reposted by James KennawayElizabeth Boyle @thecelticist.bsky.social · 09/04/2025"... in one of his books he recommended lobotomy, instead of divorce, for unhappy wives." (Content warning for mental illness & inhumane treatment thereof 👇🏻) 📚 www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...theguardian.comThe Sleep Room by Jon Stock review – shocking tales from 1960s psychiatryThe horrifying truth behind the practices of psychiatrist William Sargant, one of Britain’s most influential mental health practitioners 081
