The 04 Center
More Against Electroshock
RECEIVED Mon., July 17, 2006
Dear Editor,
I received electroshock treatments at Stoney Lodge Psychiatric Hospital in Ossining, N.Y. It is famous for treating Judy Garland and Rose Williams, Tennessee's sister who was lobotomized there (Glass Menagerie) [“Naked City,” News, July 7].
My mother had gone to the doctor, and they conspired to get me into this hospital because I had quit high school and I didn't want to go to college (it was the Sixties after all). I only remember admitting myself to the hospital when my mother begged me to and the doctor discussing all the benefits for me during the stay. Once inside I had no choice of the treatments they were to soon give me. My mother loved me and only wanted the best for me. She readily approved whatever the doctor suggested. I was 17 at the time, and she believed in the doctors. The next thing I remember was awakening in a straitjacket in a padded cell. It was terrifying to discover that I didn't know who I was, where I was, or even the difference between night and day. When my mother came to see me, I didn't recognize her. When they let me out to walk, I didn't know how to turn a doorknob.
Some things began to return when I went outside, like the color of the blue sky and the form of buildings and trees, but I had to remember what they were called. Parts of my memory slowly returned over the next month, and gradually afterward. But the continuity of my life has never returned. My long-term recall is all jumbled and out of sequence. My short-term recall has slowly degenerated over the years to where I have a severe handicap. I can't imprint names and faces in my memory; anything that has sequences is beyond my ability, like dances or martial arts. If it has more than three steps or more than two sequences I am totally befuddled. Thank God I can reason and I'm a logical person, or I'd probably kill myself.
I once watched the torture (I am not exaggerating) of another undergoing these electroshock treatments; the severe pain is not remembered as the treatment totally regresses one's memory, even back to that primitive place of pain. I have a friend, Barbara Williams who had the treatments the same time as I did, and she also has never recovered and has been on disability for the last 35 years. I have been under the help of a psychologist for my memory, and nothing seems to help. It just seems like a way in which my doctors have damaged me and then spend years trying to fix the problems they gave me. There is an economic value in this treatment for these doctors.
I received electroshock treatments at Stoney Lodge Psychiatric Hospital in Ossining, N.Y. It is famous for treating Judy Garland and Rose Williams, Tennessee's sister who was lobotomized there (Glass Menagerie) [“Naked City,” News, July 7].
My mother had gone to the doctor, and they conspired to get me into this hospital because I had quit high school and I didn't want to go to college (it was the Sixties after all). I only remember admitting myself to the hospital when my mother begged me to and the doctor discussing all the benefits for me during the stay. Once inside I had no choice of the treatments they were to soon give me. My mother loved me and only wanted the best for me. She readily approved whatever the doctor suggested. I was 17 at the time, and she believed in the doctors. The next thing I remember was awakening in a straitjacket in a padded cell. It was terrifying to discover that I didn't know who I was, where I was, or even the difference between night and day. When my mother came to see me, I didn't recognize her. When they let me out to walk, I didn't know how to turn a doorknob.
Some things began to return when I went outside, like the color of the blue sky and the form of buildings and trees, but I had to remember what they were called. Parts of my memory slowly returned over the next month, and gradually afterward. But the continuity of my life has never returned. My long-term recall is all jumbled and out of sequence. My short-term recall has slowly degenerated over the years to where I have a severe handicap. I can't imprint names and faces in my memory; anything that has sequences is beyond my ability, like dances or martial arts. If it has more than three steps or more than two sequences I am totally befuddled. Thank God I can reason and I'm a logical person, or I'd probably kill myself.
I once watched the torture (I am not exaggerating) of another undergoing these electroshock treatments; the severe pain is not remembered as the treatment totally regresses one's memory, even back to that primitive place of pain. I have a friend, Barbara Williams who had the treatments the same time as I did, and she also has never recovered and has been on disability for the last 35 years. I have been under the help of a psychologist for my memory, and nothing seems to help. It just seems like a way in which my doctors have damaged me and then spend years trying to fix the problems they gave me. There is an economic value in this treatment for these doctors.
David Ginzberg
Houston
Houston
