Why Wormwood is a must see

Last December Netflix released its True Crime Docuseries Wormwood. As I was browsing through my Upflix app last sunday, it suggested me to watch it. I checked out the trailer and was triggered by the reference to the 50’s CIA Project MK Ultra. If you are a bit into the Second World War’s aftermath or into the Cold War (or a Muse fan), you must have heard of this mind control program of which stil a little is known.

Historical Background

As CIA director Richard Helms ordered the destruction of all MK Ultra files in 1973, investigation concerning the project had to rely on testimonies of direct participants and some left-over documents. What is known today is that the project started in April 1953, led by Sidney Gottlieb under supervision of CIA director Allen Welsch Dulles. The aim of MK Ultra was to develop a mind controlling drug as a response to the alleged use of mind control techniques by the Soviet Union on US prisoners during the Korean War. At least that’s what the CIA wanted the public to believe… (source: WIKIPEDIA)

One of the drugs tested during the project was LSD-25. The drug was administered to “people who could not fight back”, like mental patients, drug addicts, prisoners and prostitutes. During “Operation Midnight Climax” the CIA even set up a number of brothels inside some of the Agency’s safehouses. They expected the men who ended up there would be too embarrassed to talk about the events. The men were given LSD and the sessions that followed were filmed and used for research. (source: WIKIPEDIA)

It’s important to know that the time the project began, was considered as a time of paranoia, because the US had lost its nuclear monopoly and fear of communism was at its absolute height. In 1973, Watergate caused the CIA to panic and destroy a massive amount of documents including the ones on MK Ultra. Luckily a cache of 20000 documents survived the purge, because they were incorrectly stored in a financial records building. They were discovered and investigated in 1977 during The Senate Hearings. (source: WIKIPEDIA)

The Deputy Director of the CIA revealed that over thirty universities and institutions had been involved in “an extensive testing and experimentation program, which included covert drug tests on unwitting citizens.” At least one death, that of Dr. Frank Olson, could be attributed to the administration of LSD. (source: WIKIPEDIA)

The Series

Olson was a biochemist working for the United States Army and conducted research on biochemical weapons at the time he got involved in the MK Ultra project. He started working at the CIA’s Technical Services Staff, run by Sidney Gottlieb and his deputy Robert Lashbrook. Wormwood is his story. And it’s the story of his family, his oldest son Eric in particular, trying to uncover the truth behind the events leading up to his death on November 28th 1953.

What’s fascinating about the series itself is that it parallels Eric’s journey with Hamlet’s and it refers to the 1940’s movie by Lawrence Olivier regularly. Besides other movie referrals the sequences that tell Frank’s story are alternated with parts of interviews, primarily with Eric Olson. Eric developed a formative psychological technique, called the collage method, as an antidote to the trauma he experienced when his father died. About his method Eric says the following:

It is a medium whose essence is the overlapping of images, collage is literally based upon the logic of the coverup. In collage, however, this logic works not as a technique for blocking thought, but rather as a model of the mind’s fundamental process of representation and symbolization.

(source: www.frankolsonproject.org)

Part of the aesthetic of the series is also based on collage, especially the interview parts. On the other hand the revelation of the CIA’s coverup story is a major theme through the six episodes of Wormwood. Whereas LSD symbolises the fragmentation of his and his fathers life and mind, Eric tried to rebuild the story through collage, and so did Errol Morris, the series director.

What’s in a name?

As we already ended up with Shakespeare we can ask the question, why is the series called Wormwood? What’s in the name? Artemisia Absinthium or Wormwood is a plant that is used as an ingredient in the spirit absinthe and alcoholic beverages like wine, bitters, vermouth and beer. In the Middle Ages it was used to spice meat or in tea. Etimologically the word is derived from the Middle English wormode or wermode and the German Wermut (Vermouth). (source: WIKIPEDIA)

For a very long time absinthe has been thought of as a dangerously addictive psychoactive drug and hallucinogen and was banned in the United States and big parts of Europe by 1915. Although the spirit was vilified it has never been proven more dangerous than ordinary spirits and recent studies have even shown that its psychoactive properties have been highly exaggerated.

A lot of artists have been associated with absinthe or Wormwood. Writers like James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Rimbaud and Charles Baudelaire. But also painters like Picasso, Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec.

Historian figure Nicholas Culpeper, an English botanist, herbalist and physician insisted on the fact that Wormwood was the key to understanding his 1651 book The English Physitian. Benjamin Woolley, who was Culpepers biographer, thinks of the piece as an allegory for bitterness, as Culpeper had spent his life fighting against the Establishment.

In the Bible, The Book of Revelation, tells of the star named Wormwood that falls down upon the earth, carrying bitterness that poisons a third of all the Earth’s waters on The Day of the Lord. (source: WIKIPEDIA)

And this is where we lay our scene… Enjoy!