The Portrayal of ECT in the Media: Realistic or Deceptive?
Dear Sir
M Webber's letter on the benefits of electroconvulsive therapy
(ECT/Shock Therapy) was one of the few positive accounts of this treatment
to appear in recent years [1]. The value of such accounts should not be
underestimated, given a backdrop of continuing adverse portrayals of ECT.
The Oscar nominated movie, The Changeling, for instance centres on
police deception of a mother about her missing son including their
introduction of a changeling. The opening sequence claims this is a true
story, rather than just based on one. In the movie, ECT symbolises the
capacity of mental health systems to punish people. But curiously the
story and supposed administration of ECT happen 10 years before the
treatment was invented; the story in this sense is profoundly untrue [2].
The best known portrayal of ECT appears in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s
Nest [3]. Here again, the administration of an older unmodified ECT given
punitively, is used as a device to move the plot along rather than as a
treatment. Kesey’s own views of ECT may have been at odds with this use
of the treatment, in that he appears to have set up a home treatment
device probably to explore whether it might have a consciousness expanding
effect [2].
ECT also features in Robert Pirsig's novel [4] Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance. This has sold more than five million copies;
making Pirsig perhaps the most widely read philosopher alive. The book
is apparently autobiographical, and describes the author suffering a
psychotic breakdown treated by ECT, which supposedly annihilated all
memories of the author’s earlier self, producing a lost personality called
Phaedrus. However recently published biographical information on Pirsig
[5] documents that the role of ECT in Zen is also as a 'literary device',
added at a late stage in drafting the book. Robert Pirsig had no long-
term memory problems.
The term changeling implies a deception capable of wreaking mischief.
In the case of the ECT, in fiction and movies, we are faced with a
changeling; artists it seems are uniformly deceptive, replacing a real
treatment with a fantasy of punishment. Against this backdrop, realistic
accounts of this treatment in prominent journals are extremely valuable.
References
1. Webber M. A patient’s journey. Elecontroconvulsive therapy. BMJ
2008;337:a2998
2. Shorter E, Healy D. Electroshock: A History of Electroconvulsive
Treatment in Mental Illness. New Jersey, USA: Rutgers University Press,
2007.
3. Kesey K. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. NY: Viking Press, 1962
4. Robert M Pirsig. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
London: Corgi, 1976.
5. Mark Richardson. Zen and now: on the trail of Robert Pirsig and
the art of motorcycle maintenance. New York: Knopf, 2008.
Rapid Response:
The Portrayal of ECT in the Media: Realistic or Deceptive?
Dear Sir
M Webber's letter on the benefits of electroconvulsive therapy
(ECT/Shock Therapy) was one of the few positive accounts of this treatment
to appear in recent years [1]. The value of such accounts should not be
underestimated, given a backdrop of continuing adverse portrayals of ECT.
The Oscar nominated movie, The Changeling, for instance centres on
police deception of a mother about her missing son including their
introduction of a changeling. The opening sequence claims this is a true
story, rather than just based on one. In the movie, ECT symbolises the
capacity of mental health systems to punish people. But curiously the
story and supposed administration of ECT happen 10 years before the
treatment was invented; the story in this sense is profoundly untrue [2].
The best known portrayal of ECT appears in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s
Nest [3]. Here again, the administration of an older unmodified ECT given
punitively, is used as a device to move the plot along rather than as a
treatment. Kesey’s own views of ECT may have been at odds with this use
of the treatment, in that he appears to have set up a home treatment
device probably to explore whether it might have a consciousness expanding
effect [2].
ECT also features in Robert Pirsig's novel [4] Zen and the Art of
Motorcycle Maintenance. This has sold more than five million copies;
making Pirsig perhaps the most widely read philosopher alive. The book
is apparently autobiographical, and describes the author suffering a
psychotic breakdown treated by ECT, which supposedly annihilated all
memories of the author’s earlier self, producing a lost personality called
Phaedrus. However recently published biographical information on Pirsig
[5] documents that the role of ECT in Zen is also as a 'literary device',
added at a late stage in drafting the book. Robert Pirsig had no long-
term memory problems.
The term changeling implies a deception capable of wreaking mischief.
In the case of the ECT, in fiction and movies, we are faced with a
changeling; artists it seems are uniformly deceptive, replacing a real
treatment with a fantasy of punishment. Against this backdrop, realistic
accounts of this treatment in prominent journals are extremely valuable.
References
1. Webber M. A patient’s journey. Elecontroconvulsive therapy. BMJ
2008;337:a2998
2. Shorter E, Healy D. Electroshock: A History of Electroconvulsive
Treatment in Mental Illness. New Jersey, USA: Rutgers University Press,
2007.
3. Kesey K. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. NY: Viking Press, 1962
4. Robert M Pirsig. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
London: Corgi, 1976.
5. Mark Richardson. Zen and now: on the trail of Robert Pirsig and
the art of motorcycle maintenance. New York: Knopf, 2008.
Competing interests:
None declared
Competing interests: No competing interests