What is ECT and how does it work?
by Nicola Davis from on (#2KC1A)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has coloured perceptions of electroconvulsive therapy, but the modern reality is different
The public perception of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is rooted in cultural depictions, not least the dramatic scene in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in which Jack Nicholson is held down as the treatment is carried out.
Sylvia Plath's account in The Bell Jar is hardly less brutal. Describing ECT, administered without general anesthetic, the protagonist says: "With each flash a great jolt drubbed me till I thought my bones would break and the sap fly out of me like a split plant."