mental health

This book investigates the history of somatic therapies which were generally applied in mental hospitals during the first half of the twentieth century, among them electroshock therapy, lobotomy, metrazol shock therapy, malaria fever therapy, and forced sterilization. Such treatments are most often dismissed straight away as cruel and barbaric (which is, of course, not entirely incorrect). The strength of this study is that it investigates how, on a local level, these therapies were administered (in two small, public California hospitals). For example, it appears that doctors liked their patients suffering from paresis more after they learned it was caused by a specific bacterium (before it had been associated with sexual excess). At times, patients volunteered for draconian treatments because they believed that these had benefitted their fellow patients. This book brings a more human perspective on early practices in mental hospitals and makes their application understandable.

well written and comprehensively researched insightful analysis and meaningful commentary scary applications for our present mind set this is an important book readable, thoughtful,entertaing at times, and all around brilliant