Blow Up...IV

[Michael Bailey]

 Ian Livingston  wrote:
> Wallace died of depression, not enlightenment.
>


mr wallace was on the weirdly named "nardil" (reminds me of Narda,
Mandrake the Magician's love interest) for years and - according to
the accounts i've read - it had stopped working for him.

his psychiatrist sent him for ect -- i believe i've read that he
requested it, though can't immediately cite anything besides some
passages in ij that seem to show that this (shock therapy) was an idea
that had appealed to him as a way to shut off unhappy thoughts...a
radical fix...it's advertised as "a jump start for the endorphins" and
is quite a profit center for its practitioners

like Hemingway, he was unable to write after the treatment...like
nearly everybody who undergoes it, he likely suffered memory loss,
which would be especially rough for a writer...

inability to write exacerbated his depression...

had he lived longer, it's likely at least some of his abilities would
have returned (see Roky Erickson)


sure, check nami.org, they love ect -- but for a different viewpoint
that cleaves  (imho) closer to the truth, please see ect.org




-- 
- where the bee sucks, there suck I