ECT

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ECT or electro-convulsive-therapy is a powerful tool used (or, more properly, misused) by psychiatrists. It involves passing an electrical current though a patient’s brain, inducing a grand mal seizure. It is known to be hazardous. Psychotropic drugs are known to be hazardous, too, but that hasn’t stopped them from wide use. ECT is only resorted to when drugs have failed. After drugs have done their damage.

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Morey Bernstein was an amateur hypnotist who had discovered he could not himself be hypnotized. The following, near as I can tell, took place in 1952.

I had an idea that if I could smooth out some of the kinks in my nervous system I could then relax and be hypnotized. Consequently I started my search for the universal key. To a friend, a psychiatrist, I pointed out the possibility that if shock treatment could convert a psychoneurotic to normality the same treatment given to a supposedly normal person might eliminate some of his nervous habit patterns--might, in other words, calm him down, make him more easygoing.

The doctor agreed that this was a possibility; he laughingly proposed that I find out for myself. I startled him by immediately agreeing to do just that.

I am sure that the doctor had doubts as to whether I was serious about this shock business until one afternoon when I showed up at his hospital and reminded him of his offer. For a time he attempted to discourage the plan, pointing out that shock treatment was not exactly comparable to sticking your finger in a light socket. Besides, he admitted, this idea of somebody's just walking in and asking for a shock treatment wasn't in the book.

Finally, however, curiosity overtook him too. After some preliminaries, including a careful physical examination, he led me down the corridor and into the electric therapy room. I was surprised to learn that the contraption which is responsible for the whole show is not much bigger than a cigar box and quite simple. I have operated more complicated electrical apparatus myself.

I had read and heard a great deal about these treatments, and none of it, except the results, was pleasant. I knew, for instance, that the patient must remove his shoes, otherwise his violent thrashing might cause some damage. Likewise, he must wear a mouthpiece similar to that used by boxers to prevent the teeth from being rattled out of his head.

I knew, too, that the patient is instantly knocked unconscious, after which he sucks in air with a desperate reflex action. The body goes completely rigid, followed by hideous convulsions somewhat similar to an ordinary epileptic fit. During this time the patient must be held down by attendants to prevent injury from the violence of the contractions. Even so, there are records of fractured spines, jaws, arms and hips.

Well, I would soon have firsthand knowledge of the whole thing--the first jolt, whether there is any memory of the convulsions, and the sensations afterward.

The doctor called in four attendants, two male and two female. I looked them over carefully, wondering whether they would be strong enough to hold me down when my limbs started to flap all over the place. I noticed that they regarded me with complete indifference; this was just another distasteful, routine job to them. I only hoped that they would not continue to ignore me once the electricity went on.

I was asked to lie on a flat, narrow table; then the doctor placed a pillow, not under my head but under the small of my back. He asked an attendant to remove my shoes, and then he smeared some paste over my temples to insure the electrical contact, after which he strapped a belt-like gadget around my head. This, I knew. held the electrodes against the temples.

The rubber mouthpiece was jammed into place. I braced myself and waited for the impact of the first jolt.

But it never came

The next thing I recall was looking at two attendants, who were still just as bored and uninterested as regulations permit. I looked at the woman, then at the man. I'm not sure that I knew, at that first moment, who I was. I still wish that someone had quizzed me at that point so that there could have been a check on just how much of my memory had temporarily lapsed.

Again I looked at the woman, then at the man. By now they were the only two left in the room besides myself. They watched me get off the table; as soon as they saw me in action they walked out too. But the woman turned at the door as though she had forgotten something and shouted back, "Do you know where you are?"

Since I was aware of the table and the shock apparatus and the general hospital accouterments, I somehow managed a stumbling bit of deduction: "Yeah, I'm taking a shock treatment."

Even though she wore the same cold expression, that answer must have satisfied her; she wheeled around and went down the corridor, leaving me all alone. Believe me, I was confused. I knew who I was as soon as I had answered her question concerning where I was. But that was just about the sum total of my knowledge.

I reached into my pocket, looking for anything that might serve to fill in the blanks for me. I pulled out a letter. From its date I oriented myself to some degree, and from the contents of the letter, which concerned a current business project, I learned more about myself. Enough, at any rate, to venture out into the hall.

I bumped into the busy doctor, who had apparently forgotten all about me by this time. "Oh, hello," he said. "How do you feel?"

"Fine. This is Saturday, June twenty-first. The time is 3:15 P.M., and I just took a shock treatment for experimental purposes." The time had come from the clock in the therapy room, and the remainder of the dope had been wrung from the letter.

I expected the doctor to break out in applause at this fine performance. But he merely nodded his head and rushed on.

Wandering out onto the hospital grounds, I kept piecing together the balance of the puzzle. When I finally remembered how I got to the hospital I found my car and drove home.

Within three or four hours my memory was back to normal. But I must admit that during these hours some of the questions I put to my wife, who did not at that time know about the treatment, had her watching me out of the corner of her eye. When I asked, for instance, whether my father was in town and what college my brother attended, she began to grow a little concerned. But she became downright alarmed when she found me trying to recall what she had served me for lunch only a few hours before. So I finally told her about the shock treatment.

  It should be emphasized, however, that the shock treatment was not painful in any manner whatsoever. I felt nothing; I had no stiffness, no bruises, no damaging aftereffects of any kind. Even the temporary loss of certain memories was only silly, not frightening. Referring to the doctor's earlier comment that this was not comparable to sticking a finger in the electric light receptacle, my own conclusion was that the sensation from a light socket is somewhat more unpleasant.

Afterward I really did feel calm, relaxed, somewhat more at ease than usual. And remember that the whole purpose of this experience was to achieve a relaxed state in order to determine whether in such a condition I was actually hypnotizable. But I am afraid that the effort was wasted; my hypnotist friend, Bill Moery, could not work on me--I learned at the last minute--that night. Days later, when Bill ultimately got to me, I was back in the old groove at my office; those post-shock moments of tranqullity were all gone.

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“just walking in and asking for a shock treatment wasn’t in the book”

The first edition of the DSM was published in 1952

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There is evidence that ECT promotes brain growth. Perhaps this is why single treatments are never given. Instead it is repeated on a daily basis. Memory is lost, but then it comes back. Psychiatry wants to suppress mental activity it considers undesirable.

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The place where you don’t know who you are, where you are, or how you got there is the place where everything begins.

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I propose using ECT to deliberately induce a temporary loss of memory. That way you experience your memory returning to you. You may be able to use that memory later.

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Does ECT cause a greater risk of dementia?  http://davidgratzer.com/reading-of-the-week/reading-of-the-week-ect-dementia-the-new-lancet-psychiatry-paper/