Captive Brains: Electroshock for Mind Control

A Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) document dated 3 December 1951 described the use of subconvulsive electroshock as having the effect of “making a man talk.” An unnamed psychiatrist quoted in the CIA document stated that the lower setting of the device “produced in the individual excruciating pain and that the individual would be quite willing … Read more

Misleading Consumers About Electroshock “Side Effects,” Negating How ECT Harms Lives

People in need of help are being consistently put at risk by the treatments the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves and by researchers and practitioners in the mental health system recommending them, including antidepressants and electroshock. The misleading information given consumers should be investigated, especially when marketed as being prescribed for “treatment resistance,” a … Read more

The Wall Street Journal Gets It Wrong on ECT

A June 30, 2019 Wall Street Journal article by Sumathi Reddy entitled “New Thinking Challenges the Stigma Around ‘Shock Therapy’” argues that modern Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) is safer now than it was in the past. That article, however, is inaccurate, in view of the science behind ECT. Below are six quotes from the article along … Read more

Electroshock: The Nazi Heritage

How did electroshock, with no history of having done anybody any good, venture into countries like the United States and United Kingdom with “authoritative” recognition? How was it that it continued to be used, despite its link to Nazi atrocities? In a 1992 paper, “The Introduction and Spread of Shock and the Emigration of Psychiatrists,” … Read more

Consumers Betrayed: Electroshock Inflicts Pain

Excerpted from information booklet written for CCHR: ELECTROSHOCK – PAIN AND FRAUD IN THE NAME OF THERAPY   Why is electroshock (ECT) continually dogged by controversy? Why is it that women, the frail elderly and children are psychiatry’s main targets for ECT? Where is the true weight of public and scientific opinion? Who profits from ECT? … Read more