Shock therapy : a history of electroconvulsive treatment in mental illness / Edward Shorter, David Healy.

New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers University Press, [2007], ©2007.

xii, 382 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references (p. [299]-362) and index.

The penicillin of psychiatry? -- "Some experiments on the biological influencing of the course of schizophrenia" -- "Madness cured with electricity" -- From the university clinic to the psychiatric institute: shock therapy goes global -- The couch or the treatment table? -- "ECT does not create zombies" -- "They're going to fry your brains!" -- The end of "Bedlam" and the age of psychopharmacology -- The swinging pendulum: the effects of politics, law, and changes in medical culture on ECT -- Electrogirl and the new ECT -- Magnets and implants: new therapies for a new century? -- Epilogue: irrational science.