Pushbutton Psychiatry: A History of Electroshock in America

Rating:
Summary: Not a Medical Book
Review: Descartes Li misses the point. This is not a medical book. This is not a self-help book. You should NOT be buying this if you are trying to evaluate the strengths or possibilities of ECT for yourself or anyone else. This is a social and historical examination of the practice. If you want to know about the social implications of ECT, or how medicine and medical "knowledge" affect our selves, our society, and our bodies, then you should read this book--because that's what it's about.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth your time or money
Review: Is electroconvulsive therapy(ECT) effective in treating depression? According to the authors, “…this is not our question.” However, throughout the book, the answer appears to be “maybe.” By not seriously reviewing this issue, the authors make a fundamental error in discussing this subject, because one of their theses is that “…electroshock seems poised at some midpoint in the cycle of (re)invention, dissemination, acceptance, criticism, and retrenchment that it and other treatments go though…again, and again, and yet again…in Western medicine.” At one point in history, people thought that the earth of the center of the solar system. With Galileo, we went through a cycle or two about the truth of this fact, but we (or at least most of us) now believe that the sun is the center of the solar system.

Similarly, other “controversies” have dogged our society such as: “Is Evolution a law of nature or merely a hyothesis or theory?” “Do cigarettes cause lung cancer?” “Are we in danger of global warming?” “Is the earth round?” By not addressing the possibility that ECT is in a similar social situation, the authors miss out on an important sociological phenomenon surrounding ECT. How do we define “truth” in our society? After a serious review of the literature and an evaluation of the reliability of the sources of this literature, most readers will probably understand that individuals, who are honest and reliable and knowledgeable about ECT, support the use of ECT for mood disorders, depression and bipolar disorder. With this understanding, the social aspects of ECT can be seen in a completely different light.

Unfortunately the authors do not take the effort to make a decision about “Does ECT work?” They do not consult directly leading speakers for or against ECT, and instead rely on media sources for their information. They do not cite any scientific studies of the efficacy of ECT. Thus, they do a major disservice to the public at large by fostering the idea that there is a (scientific) controversy around ECT. Let’s faceit, if ECT didn’t work, it would have gone the way of blood-letting or insulin coma therapy as a medical practice.

It is only 135 pages long, with 30 pages devoted to bibliography and index. So at $75, it is too expensive to simply peruse and discard. In addition, I did not find the book to be particularly well-written nor well-argued. It reads more like a undergraduate student’s term paper, with topic sentences frequently not supported by the following arguments. If I were a (paid) teacher grading this paper, I would give this work a “C” or maybe a “B-“.

If you are a person considering ECT as a treatment for yourself or a loved one, I would recommend Max Fink's "Electroshock: Restoring the Mind." You can also obtain informational pamphlets from the American Psychiatric Association under "Public Education" or from the Madison Institute of Medicine.