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The story of electric shock* began in 1938, when Italian psychiatrist
Ugo Cerletti visited a Rome slaughterhouse to see what could be learned
from the method that was employed to butcher hogs. In Cerletti's own
words, "As soon as the hogs were clamped by the [electric] tongs, they
fell unconscious, stiffened, then after a few seconds they were shaken
by convulsions.... During this period of unconsciousness (epileptic
coma), the butcher stabbed and bled the animals without difficulty....
"At this point I felt we could venture to experiment on man, and I
instructed my assistants to be on the alert for the selection of a
suitable subject."
Cerletti's first victim was provided by the local police - a man
described by Cerletti as "lucid and well-oriented." After surviving the
first blast without losing consciousness, the victim overheard Cerletti
discussing a second application with a higher voltage. He begged
Cerletti, "Non una seconda! Mortifierel" ("Not another one! It will kill
me!")
Ignoring the objections of his assistants, Cerletti increased the
voltage and duration and fired again. With the "successful" electrically
induced convulsion of his victim, Ugo Cerletti brought about the
application of hog-slaughtering skills to humans, creating one of the
most brutal techniques of psychiatry.3.
*Electric shock is also called electro-convulsive "therapy" or treatment
(ECT), electroshock therapy or electric shock treatment (EST),
electrostimulation, and electrolytic therapy (ELT). All are euphemistic
terms for the same process: sending a searing blast of electricity
through the brain in order to alter behavior. Read the electrical
details of exactly how it is done.
Current Usage
Many people think that shock treatment is no longer used. This is not
so. ECT has been experiencing a resurgence within the psychiatric
community, especially as a way to keep elderly folks quiet and
manageable in nursing homes.
In his detailed and extensive article, Electroshock: Scientific,
Ethical, and Political Issues, Peter Breggin states:
Contemporary ECT is more dangerous since the current doses are larger
than those employed in earlier clinical and research studies. Elderly
women, an especially vulnerable group, are becoming the most common
target of ECT. Because of the lopsided risk/benefit ratio, because it is
fundamentally traumatic in nature, because so many of the patients are
vulnerable and unable to protect themselves, and because advocates of
ECT fail to provide informed consent to patients - ECT should be banned.
An elderly person's physical strength is already decreased without the
added harm and incredible stress put on them by running high voltage
current through their skulls. It is also becoming more common as a
"solution" to handle depression with children.
"Drugs do... quiet them down. So does a lead pipe to the head".
-Dr. Jerome Avron Associate Professor of Social Medicine at Harvard
University
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