The History of Shock Treatment

The History of Shock Treatment is an anthology of more than 250 chronologically arranged excerpts and articles by proponents and opponents of psychiatry's most controversial procedure, which every year is administered to hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world.

Many of these writings appear in professional journals and reflect a positive attitude towards the procedure. With these alone, it would not be apparent that a small but growing number of professional and lay people have emerged who are highly critical of the procedure on moral, legal, and medical grounds. In addition to the chronologically arranged articles for and against, the remainder of the book consists of four original articles, a survey of ECT-related deaths as reported in the literature, a roster of psychiatrists who presently employ shock treatment, a glossary of psychiatric terms, and an extensive bibliography.