A Pitchfork to the Temple
Colin Taufer
The last memories pigs have before they are slaughtered are electrodes being attached to their heads.
A moment later they are stunned with a jolt of electricity that blasts its way through their brains. This induces an epileptic seizure which renders the hog insensate, not responsive to any stimuli, and floppy. They are now ready to be butchered.
This very scene of pigs being shocked into unconscious numbness on their way to the slaughterhouse was the the twisted revelation that inspired the invention of psychiatry’s most deadly legacy: shock therapy. It’s hard to imagine the butchery of livestock being the aha moment for a new cure to bring sanity to the insane. But that’s exactly what it was for one Ugo Cerletti, resident of 1938 fascist Italy, who was the first to attach a live wire to someone’s temples, flip a switch, and blast electricity into their head in the name of healing.
Brain damage as a “cure” was born.
Two years later, at the American Psychiatric Association’s 96th annual meeting in downtown Cincinnati, psychiatrist Douglas Goldman strapped one of his luckless charges to a table in front of a crowd of eager psychs and fried the patient’s brain with a current of crackling electricity. Of course, by then the procedure had been improved. Unlike Cerletti’s patients, this doomed soul was injected with the poison curare to paralyze his muscles. This moderated the vertebrae-cracking force of the convulsions he experienced.
Brain damage as a “cure” arrived to the States.
Since its emergence from Hell some eighty years ago, the electric shock machine in the hands of psychiatrists around the world — and in your hometown — continues to ruin the lives and damage the brains of millions while lining psychiatry’s pockets with billions.
Despite all the evidence making it clear to any decent person this is a barbaric procedure and needs to be banned immediately: brain damage, permanent memory loss, lifelong mental deterioration and emotional instability, diminished reason, and, the psychiatrist’s favorite result, increased tractability and docility, shock therapy continues to be practiced worldwide. But the end of shock therapy may be closer than ever. As reported by Peter Breggin, MD, in October:
A long-awaited major electroconvulsive therapy case that was on the eve of trial just settled…While the settlement amount remains confidential, as an expert in the case I am pleased to report that this resolved litigation is a significant victory. The evidence secured has paved the way for more suits against ECT manufacturers that are on the way!
The lawsuit against the ECT manufacturer had its critical breakthrough when the California judge recently allowed the case to proceed to jury trial after their motion for summary judgment was denied. The judge’s decision has effectively established the methodology for bringing this and other lawsuits against ECT manufacturers for their failure to warn of known or knowable risks of brain damage caused by ECT.
Eight decades ago a devil in a lab coat stuck his glowing pitchfork into the temple of a doomed human being and called it a “cure”.
Today is the day to send him and his demonic device back to Hell.
++
Colin Taufer is a career educator, writer and lifelong advocate for human rights. With each article, he hopes to shine a light onto the dark world of psychiatry, to make stronger champions of human rights, to stir into action, to enlighten. He appreciates feedback from readers.
He can be reached at: ColinsColumn@gmail.com