Provides a historical and sociological analysis of electroshock within the parameters of American social, political, and economic institutions. This volume uncovers the roots of electroshock in America, an outgrowth of western patriarchal medicine with primarily female patients. The history of electroshock in the United States in three historic stages is chronicled as it alternated from an enthusiastic reception in 1940, to a period of crisis in the 1960s, to its resurgence after 1980. Early American experiments with electrical medicine are also examined, while the development of electroshock in America is considered through the lens of social, political, and economic factors. The revival of electroshock in recent decades is found to be a product of growing materialism in American psychiatry and the political and economic realities of managed medical care. Kneeland and Warren suggest that the choice of electroshock, made in an era when a number of other medical therapies were available, was connected to American enthusiasm for electricity and technology in the early 20th century.
Temporary rejection of electroshock in the 1960s is explained as the outcome of both an internal crisis in psychiatric authority and the external political and social pressure on psychiatry created by the civil rights movement. Scholars and students considering the history of psychology, psychiatry, science, and medicine or the history of technology will find this volume helpful.
Provides a historical and sociological analysis of electroshock within the parameters of American social, political, and economic institutions. This volume uncovers the roots of electroshock in America, an outgrowth of western patriarchal medicine with primarily female patients. The history of electroshock in the United States in three historic stages is chronicled as it alternated from an enthusiastic reception in 1940, to a period of crisis in the 1960s, to its resurgence after 1980. Early American experiments with electrical medicine are also examined, while the development of electroshock in America is considered through the lens of social, political, and economic factors. The revival of electroshock in recent decades is found to be a product of growing materialism in American psychiatry and the political and economic realities of managed medical care. Kneeland and Warren suggest that the choice of electroshock, made in an era when a number of other medical therapies were available, was connected to American enthusiasm for electricity and technology in the early 20th century.
Temporary rejection of electroshock in the 1960s is explained as the outcome of both an internal crisis in psychiatric authority and the external political and social pressure on psychiatry created by the civil rights movement. Scholars and students considering the history of psychology, psychiatry, science, and medicine or the history of technology will find this volume helpful.
Introduction: Electricity, Psychiatry, and American Culture
The Electrotherapeutic Origins of Pushbutton Psychiatry
The 18th Century: The Electric Stage
The 19th Century: The Woman on the Couch
The Electroconvulsive Century
The Birth and Triumph of Pushbutton Psychiatry: Electroshock,
1938-1965
Rage Against the Machine: The Decline of Electroshock,
1966-1980
Pushbutton Triumphant: The Rebirth of Electroshock, 1981-1999
Epilogue: Into the 21st Century
TIMOTHY W. KNEELAND is Assistant Professor of History and
Political Science at Nazareth College in Rochester, New York.
CAROL A. B. WARREN is Professor of Sociology at the University of
Kansas.
.,."there are vociferous pro and con factions in the psychiatric
world. ECT, gender issues in medicine, and the patients' rights
movements are all part of the controversial package ably explored
in this book, which belongs in the libraries of all major research
institutions. Graduate students through professionals."-Choice
?...there are vociferous pro and con factions in the psychiatric
world. ECT, gender issues in medicine, and the patients' rights
movements are all part of the controversial package ably explored
in this book, which belongs in the libraries of all major research
institutions. Graduate students through professionals.?-Choice
?This is undoubtedly the first social history of ECT....Kneeland
and Warren's masterful study shows not only how ECT-has moved
through cycles of invention, acceptance, rejection, and
re-acceptance, but also how cultures shapes and intertwines our
bodies, minds, and machines.?-Matteo Bortolini, Researcher in
Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes, University of
Padua, Italy.
..."there are vociferous pro and con factions in the psychiatric
world. ECT, gender issues in medicine, and the patients' rights
movements are all part of the controversial package ably explored
in this book, which belongs in the libraries of all major research
institutions. Graduate students through professionals."-Choice
"This is undoubtedly the first social history of ECT....Kneeland
and Warren's masterful study shows not only how ECT-has moved
through cycles of invention, acceptance, rejection, and
re-acceptance, but also how cultures shapes and intertwines our
bodies, minds, and machines."-Matteo Bortolini, Researcher in
Sociology of Cultural and Communicative Processes, University of
Padua, Italy.
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