The Skinner Effect
After university authorities observe a gruesome experiment that psychologist Dr. Stanley Burrows performs on rats, an experiment during which one of his graduate student assistants is injured, Dr. Burrows and his only loyal assistant, Edward Pine, accept exile from the academic world and embrace new supporters who want them to do different sorts of experiments on human subjects. Dr. Burrows has limitless resources to develop innovative processes for behavioral conditioning that achieve extreme outcomes. He programs his subjects with violence so they will commit violence. Spurred by conclusions drawn from the thinking of radical behaviorist B.F. Skinner, he will use his subjects to demonstrate not only the bloody extremes for which he can program a “human” but also a new understanding of “the human” susceptible to programming.
COVER ART BY THE MAGNIFICENT RUTH ANNA EVANS
“The Skinner Effect by L. Andrew Cooper is not for the faint of heart… a complex psychological experiment wrapped in an extreme horror disguise… fans of extreme horror will love this book.” –JG Faherty, author of Hellrider and The Malthusian Correction
“Somehow, the author manages to mix psychological horror with a gorefest and a bit of conspiracy theory on the side with excellent results in this book. Truly terrifying. This story will haunt my nightmares for a long time.” –Maria, ARC reviewer
“I can’t say I will now be frequenting the splatterpunk genre, but I know I will be reading more from L. Andrew Cooper. It’s dark, it’s messed up… I put my stomach aside and read it all. Ravenously. I know I will be reading this again in the future.
My only complaint is as the book progresses the horrors become so outlandish that I ceased to be fazed…
Or… maybe now I’m numb.
Perhaps…
Perhaps I’ve been conditioned.” –Jonny, ARC reviewer