Neural Neutralizer
Device invented by Dr. Simon Van Gelder in 2266 to aid rehabilitation of criminals. The neutralizer was intended to selectively remove thoughts relating to criminal acts, but was later found to have potentially lethal effects.
The neural neutralizer was a device used at the Tantalus Penal Colony in 2266, and perhaps earlier. It was an outgrowth of experimental beam neutralization technologies developed on Earth. It consisted of a room containing a chair in which the patient sat. Above him was the beam emitter, a round orange lens. A windowed alcove connected to the room housed the control panel and space for the therapist, who could view the patient through the window.
Operation of the device was straightforward. One control turned the device on and off, and another selected the intensity of the beam. The therapist could communicate with the patient through a microphone. The remainder of the control panel consisted of status indicator lamps.
The neural neutralizer was somewhat effective as a means of implanting suggestions. It created in the patient a profound sense of loneliness, also described as an "emptiness". Anything said to the patient while he was in this state would become his own thoughts. The effectiveness varied according to the complexity of the suggestion, the number of times it had been repeated, the volume of the beam, the strength of the patient's will, and the degree to which the suggestion was opposed by his own desires. Long term or repeated exposure could produce profound mental illness and synaptic damage. Additionally, the "emptying" effect could be immediately lethal; in 2266, Dr. Tristan Adams was killed by accidental, unsupervised exposure to the beam.
In 2266, for reasons that may never be known, Dr. Adams began to conduct unauthorized, unethical, and horrific experiments upon inmates and staff alike. When the USS Enterprise visited in that year, Adams' assistant Simon Van Gelder had been made severely ill by exposure. Adams later used the device on Kirk, and might have injured him severely had not Helen Noel managed to interrupt the power long enough for Enterprise crewmen to beam down and secure the colony. Dr. Van Gelder subsequently dismantled and destroyed the neural neutralizer. (TOS: "Dagger of the Mind")
