Shock Therapy as Positive Punishment

When learning operant conditioning, it is easy to confuse the difference between punishment and reinforcement as well as if the punishment or reinforcement is positive or negative. Reinforcement is when a stimulus, “increases the frequency of the,” desired behavior (T.S.). Punishment is when a stimulus is added or removed which would result in the behavior to decrease in frequency. Reinforcement and punishment both can be either positive or negative. Despite what it may seem to mean, positive in this sense, does not mean that it is good. When a reinforcement or punishment is positive it means that a stimulus is being added. In contrast, when a reinforcement or punishment is negative it means that a stimulus is removed. Shock therapy is a medical treatment to relieve patients suffering from a mental disorder by sending a small amount of electricity to the brain. Knowing this, we can deduce that shock therapy is an example of positive punishment. Shock therapy is positive because a stimulus, the shock, is being added. Shock therapy is also punishment because this treatment is given in order to decrease the patients the frequency of the patient’s behavior. For example, If someone who was depressed received shock therapy, they would do so to become less depressed. In the book, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey Nurse Ratched uses shock therapy as punishment when she believes one of her patients has done something bad and does not want them to act that way again.

Electroconvulsive therapy. (2007). In World of Health. Detroit, MI: Gale. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CV2191500419/SCIC?u=sacred&sid=SCIC&xid=447d5b37

T., S. (n.d.). What is the difference between reinforcement and punishment in operant conditioning? Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://www.mytutor.co.uk/answers/8603/A-Level/Psychology/What-is-the-difference-between-reinforcement-and-punishment-in-operant-conditioning/

Effect of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest on Shock Therapy

The history of shock therapy, or electroconvulsive therapy, is long and complicated. Although initially proposed as a humane treatment for depression and other mental disorders, shock therapy eventually earned a much darker reputation thanks to its misuse and adverse effects. The rapid decline of shock therapy’s reputation throughout the 60s and 70s is also thanks in part to the movie adaptation of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest released in 1975, which features a particularly graphic scene depicting the practice. During this scene, McMurphy is administered shock therapy as a punishment and it induces a seizure as his body violently convulses. This scene was extremely detrimental to the practice of shock therapy, though it did shed some light on the reality of the time. Although professional shock therapy did not cause the patient to violently convulse, it was proved to be used as a punishment for unruly patients. This was a big factor in the diminishment of its use. Protests were held for nearly a decade after news emerged of psychiatric hospitals abusing their powers and intentionally harming patients with the use of shock therapy. However, it can be argued that the unrealistic scene of shock therapy depicted in the movie did more harm than good. Shock therapy has proved to be highly effective time after time and if used correctly and professionally, it can greatly benefit patients suffering from severe mental disorders.

Fields, R. D. (2017, November 27). Beyond the Cuckoo’s Nest: The Quest for Why Shock Therapy Can Work. Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/beyond-the-cuckoos-nest-the-quest-for-why-shock-therapy-can-work/

Sadowsky, J. (2017, January 13). Electroconvulsive Therapy: A History of Controversy, but Also of Help. Retrieved January 19, 2019, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/electroconvulsive-therapy-a-history-of-controversy-but-also-of-help/

Does the Church support Shock Therapy?

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For most people, the Catholic teachings show that they don’t entirely support the scientific and technological progression.  They believe that it’s not Gods plan; however, they do express their gratitude to the scientist involved in the biomedical research.  As for the institution of punishment, which requires shock therapy, the Church sees this as an evil-doing that no good men or human would ever part take in.  However, they do admit that we could not skillfully operate in a society that is without punishment, and we would inevitably lead ourselves to failure. The church does, however, recognize that science and technology originate from, and are dedicated to, human activity.

Nevertheless, the Church teaches science and technology that you must always be at the service of a human being in their complete fullness.  The Catholic opinion on shock therapy formed from what society has made of it. It’s not known for helping examine a person with a mental illness but instead seen as an evil doing.  Despite this, some psychiatrists have considerable differences of opinion as to the causes and treatment of mental illness and the proper role of the psychiatrist. In the novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, they discussed the psychiatric system and the backlash received during the ’60s.

Work Cited:

Armor, D., & Klerman, G. (1968). Psychiatric Treatment Orientations and Professional Ideology. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 9(3), 243-255. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2948409

A Catholic Guide to Ethical Clinical Research: The Catholic Medical Association and the National Catholic Bioethics Center. (2008). The Linacre Quarterly,75(3), 181-224. doi:10.1179/002436308803889521

McCloskey, H. (1978). Crime and Punishment: Deviance and Corrective Social Therapy. American Philosophical Quarterly,15(2), 91-98. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20009700

The Effects of Shock Therapy Based on the Number of Treatments

The treatment is straightforward, attaching the electrodes to the patients head, causing an electric current to pass between which is what creates a change in the brains chemistry and activity. For ECT to work, you must undergo multiple treatments. For example, people with severe depression say you need between 4-20 sessions. However, every time you part take in treatment the possibility to experience more effects is higher. Patients use to have to endure shock therapy while being awake. The shocks would cause convulsions and broken bones, and with each treatment, you get there is a higher risk of getting seizures although it has been said that you need to experience a seizure for the procedure to work. Present day, technology has gotten better, making it easier for you to get multiple treatments.

During the session the patient’s brain waves are monitored to ensure safety; also psychologists have started saying that the more procedures you do for severe depression, the more it helps. Due to the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo Nest, the image of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has been tarnished. Both the book and movie portray shock therapy in a way that has left society feeling a significant amount of distrust in psychiatry and the use for it. The novel didn’t examine the real world behind psychiatry, which is to help people with mental illnesses.

Work Cited:

Winnicott, D., Mackwood, J., & Dillon, F. (1944). Shock Therapy. The British Medical Journal,1(4336), 234-235. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20344546
LILIENFELD, S., & ARKOWITZ, H. (2014). The Truth about Shock Therapy. Scientific American Mind,25(3), 70-71. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/stable/24946118
Van Uden, M. (2000). Psychotherapy and Religious Problems. Archiv Für Religionspsychologie / Archive for the Psychology of Religion,23, 243-252. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/23909955

History of Shock Therapy

Electroconvulsive therapy, widely known as “shock therapy”, is a treatment for mental illnesses that has been used for decades and is performed by inducing a seizure by means of electric shock. A major aspect in Ken Kesey’s novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, shock therapy has caused controversy for its common misuse and adverse side effects. Shock therapy has a long and turbulent history with both positive and negative outcomes. Originally discovered in 1934 by Italian neurologist Ugo Cerletti, shock therapy was initially used as a positive alternative to the chemical metrazol, which was also used in treating mental illness by inducing seizures. Metrazol was known for causing an intense feeling of terror in patients and was incredibly traumatizing and unsafe. Shock therapy however, was far more controllable and caused a loss of memory of the moments leading up to the shock, meaning patients did not experience fear after repeated use, unlike in the use of metrazol. Shock therapy also proved to be highly effective in curing depression, with 90% of cases of severe depression being cured within three to four weeks. Shock therapy quickly spread around the globe, benefitting depressed patients in several different countries. However, its popularity took a sharp decline in the 60s and 70s due to the emergence of more effective drugs and widespread misuse. Evidence proved that shock therapy was being used in psychiatric hospitals as a form of punishment rather than a form of therapy. Troublesome patients were receiving multiple shocks a day without any anesthetic in order to hurt and subdue them. Many began to protest shock therapy and believed it was no more than a form of torture. This negative reputation was only strengthened by the 1962 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, in which it is solely used as a punishment when patients misbehave. Shock therapy is widely feared by patients in the novel, as the institution purposely makes it a painful and negative experience. Despite its negative reputation, shock therapy continues to be used to treat depression today and has made great improvements in terms of safety.

https://www.cchrint.org/2010/01/24/think-they-dont-electroshock-people-anymore-think-again-even-toddlers-and-pregnant-women-are-being-shocked/

Fink, M. (2001, March 06). Convulsive therapy: A review of the first 55 years. Retrieved January 19, 2019, from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165032700003670

Sabbatini, R. M., PhD. (n.d.). The History of Shock Therapy in Psychiatry. Retrieved January 19, 2019, from http://www.cerebromente.org.br/n04/historia/shock_i.htm

Sadowsky, J. (2017, January 13). Electroconvulsive Therapy: A History of Controversy, but Also of Help. Retrieved January 19, 2019, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/electroconvulsive-therapy-a-history-of-controversy-but-also-of-help/

Effects of Shock Therapy

In the book One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey, Nurse Ratched uses shock therapy, which is also known as electroconvulsive therapy, to punish the patients. This form of treatment was used to reduce symptoms of mental illnesses through stimulating seizures by sending electricity into the brain. Studies have shown that this treatment results in, “substantial improvement in at least 80% of patients,” but with any medicine, there are side effects (“Electroconvulsive therapy.”). Shock therapy was typically used on people with mental disorders such as schizophrenia or people who were extremely depressed and had tried other forms of medication that had failed. Although there have been many improvements to decrease the side effects of this procedure over time, there are still serious side effects to consider before having yourself, a friend or family member go through shock therapy. The most common and threatening side effects to shock therapy include memory loss and uneven heart rhythms, such as bradycardia or tachycardia. Immediately after waking up from the treatment, it is common for patients to say that they are experiencing muscle pain, back pain, or a headache. Some patients that suffered from memory loss after shock therapy stated that after the treatment, “they never fully recovered,” (Barstow). Other cases of electroconvulsive therapy would sometimes result in broken bones from the thrashing of their bodies during seizures. The debate is whether the positive effects outweigh the negative effects.

Barstow, D. G. (2015). Electroconvulsive therapy. In J. L. Longe (Ed.), The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine (5th ed.). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/SRNFGF848319840/SCIC?u=sacred&sid=SCIC&xid=d0be8941

Electroconvulsive therapy. (2007). In World of Health. Detroit, MI: Gale. Retrieved from https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CV2191500419/SCIC?u=sacred&sid=SCIC&xid=447d5b37