Anti-psychiatry activists respond to reports that use of ECT therapy is increasing
U.S. regulators are meeting this week, considering whether to “downgrade the risk classification of electroshock devices, reinforcing what many psychiatrists consider a deepening acceptance of electroshock in modern therapy.” Anti-shock advocates and survivors are speaking at the hearings of the FDA, providing their personal stories and experiences.
The Canadian Psychiatric Association last year issued its first position paper on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) since 1992, saying that ECT “should remain readily available as a treatment option.” The paper was followed by media stories suggesting that electroshock therapy is experiencing a comeback. Activists and groups, such as Mind Freedom International, were alarmed by the position paper. Anti-psychiatry activist Bonnie Burstow says that, at a minimum, ECT should be phased out due to its documented harms.
We spoke with Bonnie Burstow, co-founder of the Coalition Against Psychiatric Assault, and with Sue Clark-Wittenberg, an electroshock survivor who was subjected to forced ECT at Brockville Psychiatric Hospital in 1973, in an interview first broadcast on People First Radio July 8, 2010.
