I find it very interesting the connection between the way Alex is being treated and the concept of behaviorism. I remember learning last year in psych about B.F. Skinner and how he thought he could make someone act exactly as he wanted them to through operate conditioning. Maybe Burgess thought that the experiments of Skinner were wrong and this was his way to show that. Either way I think Burgess knew about behaviorism when he wrote the book and incorporated it in the way Alex was "fixed."