Little Albert did not have an illness. He was a healthy infant who participated in a famous psychological experiment conducted by John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner in 1920. The experiment aimed to demonstrate that fear could be conditioned in humans.
The experiment involved presenting Albert with a white rat, which he initially showed no fear of. However, Watson and Rayner paired the rat with a loud, startling noise, which caused Albert to cry and show fear. After repeated pairings, Albert began to show fear of the rat even without the loud noise.
The experiment, though ethically questionable today, helped establish the principles of classical conditioning and its influence on human behavior.
