Understanding and Ending ECT

It may initially seem strange discussingEeT or electroshock in a journal issue devoted to violence against women. Afterall•.isnotECT asrandard psychiaaic treaonent? Indeed. it is. It is despite the fact that since its inception .in fascist [caly. there have been mammoth concerns about it. Significmdy, objections and qualms were immediatelyvoiced by both redpiem:s andprofessionals.AsLeonard Frank documents. no sooner did the fim jolt of eleaticity surge through the headofthe lillic ECf victim than the victim bolted upright, screaming in horror, "Non una seconda! Moni/icare!" (Not again, it will kill me) (8). "When I saw the patient's reaction, I thought to myself, this should be aholished," ECf's invenoor acknowledged (see Frank ii). Since this horrific beginning, the questioning and c.he protests have continued. Researchers such as Peter Breggin (1979, 199i, 1997) bave