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. 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" (Reference http://www.sntp.net/ect/ect3.htm
) Today Electroshock therapy (ECT) is most often used as a treatment for severe major depression which has not responded to other treatment, and is also
used in the treatment of mania, catatonia, schizophrenia and other disorders. It first gained widespread use as a form of treatment in the sands. Today, an estimated 1 million people worldwide
receive ECT every year, usually in a course of 6-12 treatments administered 2 or 3 times a week.
Electroconvulsive therapy has "side-effects" which include confusion and memory loss for events around the time period of treatment. ECT have been shown to cause persistent memory loss. It is the effects of ECT on long-term memory that give rise to much of the concern surrounding its use. The acute effects of ECT include
amnesia. Registered nurse Barbara C. Cody reports in a letter to the Washington Post that her life "was forever changed by 13 outpatient ECTs I received in 1983. Shock 'therapy' totally and permanently disabled me. "EEGs electroencephalograms verify the extensive damage shock did to my brain.
Fifteen to 20 years of my life were simply erased; only small bits and pieces have returned. I was also left with short-term memory impairment and serious cognitive deficits.
"Shock 'therapy' took my past, my college education, my Share with your friends: