Ireland: “Mentally Ill Still Forced to Endure Shock Treatment”

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Despite the promises of two successive governments to end forced shock treatment in Ireland, unwilling patients are still being forced to undergo the therapy, according to the Sunday Independent. “Writer Ernest Hemingway, who committed suicide shortly after ECT, is reported to have said before his death: ‘It was a brilliant cure but we lost the patient.’”

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  1. Re: “still being forced to undergo the ‘therapy'”. Why is the word “therapy” used instead of “traumatic brain injury” or “closed head injury concussion”?
    So the College of Psychiatrists in Ireland (CPI) did “concede” in 2014 that “ECT can cause amnesia, affecting past memories as well as the ability to form new ones.”?? Really. And imposing these brain injuries creating more deficits in already terrified, sick, distressed people is still considered “treatment”or “therapy”?

    All ECT should be banned; there is no such thing as “informed consent” to ECT. It cannot be “consensual” anymore than agreeing to have someone hit you in the head with a bat should be considered consensual.
    It is a bogus lunatic “quack”
    “treatment” used by faux “doctors” (shrinks) who refuse to admit they have “nothing” in their “toolkit” other than poison and brain injury.
    It is truly unfortunate that this barbaric assault goes on, bolstered by famous “shock docs” (see denial and cognitive dissonance at work) and stories of a very few “celebrity” poster-child “miracle” recoveries claimed by people like Sherwin Nuland. His TED talk, with its lack of balance, information, and warnings, is dangerous and misleading. It should be preceded with or followed by a statement stating his “outcome” is not the usual or majority one, followed by a list of real risks of permanent amnesia and cognitive dysfunction.
    Yes, maybe “Shep” endured or survived ECT or thought it helped him recover. His story should be followed by the hundreds and thousands of stories of those crippled for life who do not have the platform of a TED talk to truly warn and protect people. I want a TED talk on ECT by Mary Maddock, Linda Andre, Jonathan Kott, Wendy Funk, Debra Schwartzkopf, Ted Cyabasinski or Dorothy Dundas played back to back with Nuland’s story.

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