In this book, Max Gawlich challenges accepted historiography on electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for missing an essential point. Existing analyses of ECT from a socio-critical perspective as well as analyses that highlight its healing effect in a somewhat a-historical, seemingly objective medical historical fashion typically portray ECT as a psychiatric therapy that works by means of triggering an epileptic convulsion using a short electric current. In both instances, he points out, the historical situatedness of the ECT machine and the practical uptake of the technique itself is overlooked. In doing so, important historical insights about ECT and its controversial history are missed. In an in-depth analysis of the ECT machine and its technological working, Gawlich adds an innovative and significant contribution to the history of ECT, offering a nuanced portrayal of the therapeutic acceptance of ECT and of differences in its use and understanding across regions and contexts.
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