Roky Erickson

[Michael Bailey]

my wife had them in the state hospital back in the 70s before I met her.
When she was hospitalized in Kansas in 2003, I read up on them, on
ect.org, and asked the doctor not to administer them.
however, even ect.org's first-hand reports contain many from people
who believe they saved their lives.  and Marie in the aftermath of
them in 1978 was as lucid as she's ever been, though suffering
terrible headaches ("headaches that laugh at aspirin" she used to say)
and amnesia.

during my one stay in the psych ward, in 1978, I have an indistinct
memory of a miserable experience in a small room, and later hearing
nurses make reference to a "chest x-ray" with a sort of nod and wink.
Later in Kansas I overheard orderlies making reference with the same
double entendre feeling to "chest x-rays" -- and in my experience, the
medical attention you get in psych wards is minimal...
but I could be wrong about all that.

anyway, the bottom line for me is that I don't think it hurt me (if I
had it) any more than many of the things I've done for fun over the
years...

however, it doesn't make the cut for something I'd ever ask for.

http://www.ect.org/max-fink-the-grandfather-of-american-ect/#more-330

"He argued for years that the therapeutic effect from ECT is produced
by brain dysfunction and damage. He pointed out in his 1979 textbook
that "patients become more compliant and acquiescent with treatment,"
and he connected the improvement with "denial, disorientation," and
other signs of traumatic brain injury and an organic brain syndrome.

"Fink was even more explicit in earlier studies. In 1956 he stated
that the basis for improvement from ECT is "cranio-cerebral trauma."
In 1966, Fink cited his own research indicating that "there is a
relation between clinical improvement and the production of brain
damage or an altered state of brain function." He does not, however,
make such statements in public, in court, or in the 1990 APA Task
Force Report."

"....Max has a habit of being a little less than honest at times.

"For example, he is responsible for the famed 1 in 200 statistic,
which the APA uses in its literature. This statistic, long criticized
by ECT advocates and survivors, supposedly reflects the number of
patients who suffer memory loss. Recently, Max admitted the number was
*not* based on any scientific studies, as had been widely claimed, but
rather, was an "impressionistic" number - meaning he made it up....

"Reporters are frequently invited by Max Fink to witness patients
being given the treatment. Psychiatrist Peter Breggin has urged him to
allow them to see his patients *after* they have received a full
course of shocks. Under pressure, Fink agreed, but with a catch. While
he charges nothing for the media to watch a patient undergo the
procedure, he decided to charge $25,000 for himself and $15,000 for
the patient for a single interview with the patient awake after a
course of ECT."