Monday, October 19, 2009

Classical Conditioning in A clockwork Orange

The Ludovico Treatment in A Clockwork Orange is a severe example of classical conditioning. Alex receives a treatment every day and is forced to watch grueling movies about situations involving rape, murder, and serious violence. Once over, Alex feels nauseous every time he is involved in violence or tempted to commit an "evil" act. This causes him to associate the overwhelming feeling of nausea with any sins he may commit, making him "good" as the doctors say.
The label of "good" on Alex is an inaccurate one, for the boy has been manipulated by the serum that he was given. This serum is the unconditioned stimulus. Through cause and effect, it can be determined that the feeling of illness is the unconditioned response. Through Alex's experience with the movies of violence (below), he begins to associate this nausea with the violence, which would be considered the neutral stimulus.



We see in the scene at Alex's house the effect of the serum in making Alex "good". Though tempted to punch the man who rents out his room and insults him, Alex instead is overwhelmed by the nausea, and is unable to do anything he wants because of this ill feeling. Although Alex may still have the desire to punch the man, his body will not allow it. While his body is restraining him from being "bad", his mind still wants to be. Therefore, Alex is not "good", he is just being prohibited from being "bad" physically.




1 comment:

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