| Tortures as treatments in psychiatric history
The following excerpts are from "History of the organic treatment of schizophrenia" by Hans Hoff, M.D., Professor, Vorstand der Psychiatrisch-Neurologische Klinik der Universitat Wien, Vienna "The desire to treat such [psychotic] patients caused a great deal of economic competition among physicians on different islands in the Aegean sea. In the temples, patients were put into some kind of sleep mostly induced by alcoholic drinks. The sleep treatment lasted for days, or even weeks...Also, attempts were made to treat some organic changes in the supposed relation between fluid and gas in the ventricles of the brain. It is quite interesting to note that during those days the importance of dreams already played a part, and mental diseases were thought to be of organic origin." "Already towards the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the new period an interest developed in attempting to treat schizophrenics by some form of shock. In Switzerland at this time schizophrenics were put into nets and lowered into lakes until they were almost drowned and then pulled out again. Sometimes short-lasting remissions were witnessed. In other countries patients were hit with chains and whips. Some of these patients died. But again there were some very impressive recoveries and remissions." "Stansky described a schizophrenic patient who in a delusional state escaped from a mental asylum, then climbed an electric pole from which he was thrown to the ground. This left him in a serious physician condition for weeks, but also left him free of any psycho-pathological symptoms. In spite of the fact that this patient died due to the consequences of his fall, a new development of treatment had been inaugurated." "Klasi in Switzerland treated schizophrenic patients with sleeping cures. Patients were kept under sleeping drugs for weeks...It was thought possible that rest would cure a the sick mind just as inactivity cures a sick lung. However, the treatment was fraught with danger...But this form of treatment showed some success." "A very ingenious form of treatment was attempted by Potzl...He found a disturbance of a distinct system in the brain causing such specific symptoms and signs [similar to schizophrenia]. He described this fiber system of the brain as consisting of thalamocortical and thalamo-commissural connections. He therefore made the attempt in some schizophrenics to change the pathological functions of the brain by causing injury to the thalamus itself. This came close to the starting point of one of the organic treatments of schizophrenia called psychosurgery." Source: Insulin Treatment in Psychiatry, Proceedings of the International Conference on the Insulin Treatment in Psychiatry Held at the New York Academy of Medicine, Oct. 24 to 25, 1958. Rinkel and Himwich, eds. 1959. Philosophical Library, New York. Additional "treatments" imposed on psychiatric "patients" have included insulin coma therapy, injecting them with insulin and inducing coma and convulsions. This practice endured into the 1960s. There have also been lobotomy, the intentional destruction of parts of the brain, electroconvulsive therapy (still used), and the use of various powerful brain-modifying medications. Thomas Szasz has described the imprisonment and mistreatment of epileptics. Of course there are many other examples, including the widespread medical experiments conducted on Jews by psychiatrists and other doctors during the Third Reich. A recent history, Mad in America, catalogs the baneful history of this pseudoscience. American Iatrogenic Association A project of the Consumer Health Education Council |
Nymphomania: A History In 1841, Miss T., the twenty-nine-year-old daughter of a Massachusetts farmer, was diagnosed with nymphomania. According to the physicians who described the case in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, her conversation and actions left no doubt that she suffered from the disease: she uttered the "most disgusting obscenities" and moved her body in ways that expressed her uncontrolled "libidinous feelings." Although in good health, she had been restless and morose, exhibiting a "paroxysm of hysteria" when the doctors arrived. After a vaginal  examination, they determined that her uterus was enlarged, her vagina over-abundantly moist, but her long and "tumid" clitoris was the telltale sign of nymphomania. They applied various caustics to her genitals to cool her ardor and tried other traditional remedies, such as bleeding and cold-water douches. After several weeks, the doctors pronounced her greatly improved, with "not a symptom remaining referable to nymphomania." This time when she was examined vaginally, she exhibited "every appearance of modesty," including a retracted and very diminutive clitoris.> Carol Gronemann Read the extended excerpt |
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