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I can report firsthand (well, nearly) on the effectiveness of correctly administered electroshock therapy. My mother has been treated successfully with modern e
by c1sc0 15y ago
I can report firsthand (well, nearly) on the effectiveness of correctly administered electroshock therapy. My mother has been treated successfully with modern electroshock therapy for major depression. It is entirely painless and the only debilitating side-effect is memory loss. For many patients this approach is more valid than the lengthy trial-and-error approach of finding the right mix of andtidepressants. Disclaimer: my father is a biological psychiatrist, so she may have received better-than-average treatment.
What blew me away was the effectiveness: it was like rebooting a system. After the treatment an entirely different person came back.
- noduerme 15y agoSorry if this is rude, but... was there at any point a discussion about the ethics involved in having one's wife rebooted and turned into an entirely different person?
- brazzy 15y agoHave you ever had to deal with someone suffering from clinical depression? It is not a condition likely to have the ethics of an effective therapy doubted by anyone, including the patient.
- noduerme 15y agoAh, so if the ends justify the means then there's no one qualified to question the method? Why not diagnose demonic possession and write a prescription for drowning? Who's to doubt the ethics of the method if it's "effective"? And "effective" by whose measure, anyway? A husband who wants his wife to "act normal"? The health establishment? You?
- jff 15y agoYou're right, he should have let his wife be herself and just commit suicide.
- brazzy 15y agoAh, so you haven't.
- noduerme 15y agoI think this goes to the point of the article. You bring up "clinical depression" and immediately say that the ethics of an "effective" therapy shouldn't or can't be brought into question. At what point are mere mortals no longer allowed to question the ethics of a form of therapy...right when depression is diagnosed by a clinician? Or does your experience with depressives you know make it okay to electroshock anybody if those are the shrink's orders? If that's your view then you certainly fall well within the authoritarian camp, and it's ironic how little you took away from the article.
- brazzy 15y agoI think your loaded rhetorics are entirely divorced from reality in this point; You're painting this picture of an evil conspiracy between an authoritarian establishment and intolerant relatives using draconian brainwashing measures to attack any minor deviation from a questionable norm. In reality, clinical depression is a condition that causes great suffering to the patient and their loved ones, and massively changes their personality (to a state where they lose all will to live). It is not something easily misdiagnosed or confused with any state anyone would want to be in. Any effective therapy will not be questioned by anyone because the patient is too happy about getting back their ability to enjoy life, and their relatives about seeing them turn back into the person they were before.
- noduerme 15y agoWell, that's kind of the point of Brave New World; most people are happy to occupy the place they're given, take the drugs they're given, and only misfits question the validity of drugging the whole population to produce an artificial state of euphoria. Maybe depression is a natural state that shouldn't be interfered with. It certainly leads to great works of art and literature. For all we know, it may be necessary for the fitness and survival of the species. It may be a prerequisite to civilization. So now, because society grants a license to psychologists to play God with patients' emotions, and just because you, and they, and even the patients say they're only too happy to be "cured" of their depression, that's supposed to provide a valid mandate for a license to play God? See if you can answer this question directly: By your logic, is there any reason people should not be lobotomized if it produces a happier or calmer patient?