Stanley Kubrick serves as a true "guinea pig" in A Clockwork Orange. Beginning as a wayward teenager who is tormented by his malevolent thoughts to rape and kill innocent people with his colt, Stanley is imprisoned and participates in an experiment entitled the “Ludovico Technique” while serving his time. This therapeutic treatment engrains violent images to reverse negative thoughts and actions. Beethoven’s 9th streams in the background of these daily treatments for the two week period as a control, but this was ironically Stanley’s favorite symphony before he went on his tangent. Therefore, the music evoked the evil thoughts that incited the murder and rape and ultimately brought him back to his previous state before the treatment took place. The psychological principle that explains this reaction (or lack thereof) to the treatment is called classical conditioning. Beethoven’s music was the stimuli because it incited a reaction (unconditioned stimulus). Beethoven’s symphonies are soothing to most people, but Stanley has a previous association with the music (murder and rape) so it makes him anxious (unconditioned response). The music triggered his memory of murder and rape because he has listened to it before he committed these crimes (conditioned stimulus). In the end he was back to his original demented state and history of psychopathy (conditioned response) because the music reminded him of his past and the treatment did nothing.
Specifically read the "Music and Moods" portion of the article.
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