#electroconvulsive

Tony McMahon shares his memories of a British lunatic asylum called Claybury hospital where both his parents worked in the 1960s

One building dominated the horizon near where I grew up in north east London. It had the distinctive, squat, red-brick water tower common to the Victorian era British lunatic asylum. This was Claybury Hospital, a vast complex covering 290 acres for treating the mentally ill of east London and the Essex suburbs. Both my parents were on the medical staff at Claybury in the 1960s and in fact, it’s…

Tony McMahon shares his memories of a British lunatic asylum called Claybury hospital where both his parents worked in the 1960s

One building dominated the horizon near where I grew up in north east London. It had the distinctive, squat, red-brick water tower common to the Victorian era British lunatic asylum. This was Claybury Hospital, a vast complex covering 290 acres for treating the mentally ill of east London and the Essex suburbs. Both my parents were on the medical staff at Claybury in the 1960s and in fact, it’s…

Electroconvulsive Therapy: A History of Controversy, but Also of Help

Photo credit: Otis Historical Archives National Museum of Health and Medicine/Wikimedia Commons (CC by SA 2.0)

Critics have portrayed ECT as a form of medical abuse. Yet many psychiatrists, and more importantly, patients, consider it to be safe and effective. Few medical treatments have such disparate images. Jonathan Sadowsky, Case Western Reserve University

Carrie Fisher’s ashes…