Phoenix Rising - Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto

Hugh Tapping
Connie Neil
I work as a payroll clerk for the Public Works Depaitment.
I write little figures, and that's about all I am
really confident of doing at this point. And that's a
direct result of the treatment. There isn't anything really
that can be done to help me in this situation; I've
learned to handle it the way I can. But I came to speak
here because I would not like what happened to me to
happen to any other person, no matter who they are and
no matter what they are doing.
Connie is still working as a payroll clerk in Toronto.
lam a victim oftorture. In 1984 psychospeak it's called
"treatmeht." I have been brutalized ... it's called "clinical
intervention." My brain and my life are a shambles.
I have been "cured." Medicine generally has a
rational, scientific basis. The theoretical basis of
shock-the supposed benefit of grand mal seizures-is
totally discredited. Ask the Epilepsy Association about
just what good seizures do ....
Shirley Johnson
I'm a shock therapy victim; a survivor who is still struggling.
The damage done to my brain and other parts of
my body is still very evident. I am still being treated to
try and compensate for this damage. We are here testifying
as survivors of shock, but there are many who
don't survive. The pain and hardship it causes cannot be
justified. There are alternatives, and we must look at
those alternatives.
Shirley is working in a holistic therapy centre in Hamilton,
Ontario.
Leonard Roy Frank
Janet Gotkin
Between 1961and 1971 I had over 100 shock treatments,
some with anesthesia, some without, in public hospitals
and private institutions. I never signed a consent form
and was never told what the procedures would consist of
or what lasting, debilitating effects I might endure. I
have large, unpredictable blank spots in my life history
-empty spaces I cannot fill.
Janet is an antipsychiatry activist in the US.
Twenty-two years ago there began for me the most horrible
and painful experience of my life. It was the start
of a series of 50 insulin comas and 35 electroshocks.
According to my psychiatric records, I was "withdrawn,"
"secretive" and "negativistic," and had
"piercing eyes," "religious preoccupations," and
"food idiosyncracies" (I was a vegetarian). I was pronounced
"paranoid schizophrenic, severe and chronic"
and, under court order and against my will, given the
shock "treatment" series. The major effect of the shock
therapy was the obliteration of my memory of two years
of my life. It also rendered permanently vague the
memory of my entire earlier life. I was 30 years old at
the time.
Leonard is the author of The History of Shock
Treatment.
(Vol. 4 No. 3-4: "Testimony On Electroshock", Vol. 5
No. 2-3: "Survivors Speak Out at Shock Doctor
Conference' ')
27 / Phoenix Rising