The Ward 5 Association believes that Dr William Sargant got some kind of gratification from keeping female patients drugged and helpless in a dark room.

There is nothing new about administering drink or drugs to women in order to assault them. In France there is the shocking case of Dominque Pelicot, who repeated drugged his wife in order to allow other men to rape her. This kind of assault has become known as CHEMICAL SUBMISSION. In the case of Dr William Sargant there could hardly be a more apt description of his actions in Narcosis.

Previously, there were suspicions about Dr Sargant’s conduct around female patients and staff at the hospitals where he worked and at his private practice. There are now several credible cases of patients who have accused Dr Sargant of sexual assault. Doctors who worked with William Sargant knew very well that he was capable of making sexual advances to women but chose to allow the situation to continue, in some cases making light of what must have been frightening experiences for the women concerned bearing in mind the power imbalance between patients and their doctors or junior medical staff and hospital consultants.

The fact that Dr Sargant repeatedly attempted to pester patients and nurses without censure says as much about the culture at St Thomas’ at that time as it does about Dr Sargant.