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Violence Against Women
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Electroshock as a Form of Violence Against Women

Bonnie Burstow

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, Canada

This article reframes electroconvulsive therapy as a form of violence against women. Drawing on women’s testimony and on scientific research, it establishes that this "treatment," which is overwhelmingly given to women, results in extensive cognitive and physical impairment. Correspondingly, it functions and is experienced as a form of assault and social control, not unlike wife battery. Emergent themes include electroshock as life destroying, a sign of contempt for women, punishment, a means of enforcing sex roles, a way to silence women about other abuse, an assault, traumatizing for those who undergo it and those forced to witness it.

Key Words: assault • brain injury • ECT • electroshock • punishment • social control • trauma • vicarious trauma • violence against women

Violence Against Women, Vol. 12, No. 4, 372-392 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1077801206286404
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