My work is challenging psychiatric oppression. One source of my education on oppression theory is the Re-evaluation Counseling Community. From them I learned the term “targeted for destruction” to refer to specific groups (like young black men mass incarcerated in our so-called war on drugs) selected as targets of systematic oppression. The so-called mentally ill are another, and electroshock is the destructive mechanism of next resort after the drugs. I am in awe that, in the face of such terrifying experience as electroshock, the voices of the courageous and powerful electroshock survivors are the heart and soul of our cause. You are an ongoing inspiration and an awesome force for the good. You made the difference in Gaithersburg!

David Brown’s aforementioned article the next morning in the Washington Post featured a powerful quote from Evelyn Scogin, one of our heroic electroshock survivor activists: “I lost not only my memories of the time I was subjected to this torture but I was robbed of almost all memories from about 2003, two years before treatment, to 2008, three years after treatment stopped.” Brown also told the bottom line: “An expert panel advising the Food and Drug Administration decided Friday that electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) machines should undergo the same rigorous testing as new medical devices coming onto the market – a decision that could drastically affect the future of psychiatry’s most controversial treatment.” 

John Breeding, PhD

Coalition for the Abolition of Electroshock in Texas
February 4, 2011
Click here to read the entire report: https://www.cchrflorida.org/fda-hearing-on-ect.html