The use of electricity to treat mental illness in the United States, 1870 to the present

The use of electrical devices to treat mental illness in the United States is traced from the late nineteenth century (ca. 1870) to the present. This study will demonstrate how American fascination with electricity, technology, science, medicine and health combined to promote the use of electrotherapeutics (ca. 1870-1920) and electroconvulsive therapy (ca. 1939-present). The study also undertakes to demonstrate how social conceptions of race, class, and gender have shaped the application of electrical treatments.;Using published material and archival manuscripts this study will delineate how electrotherapeutics and electroconvulsive therapy are linked by responses to perceived mental health crisis and somatic conceptions of mental illness. Oscillations in electrical use and abandonment are traced through professional rivalry, social criticism, and technological change.;Previous studies have focused on electrotherapy in general, or, as in the case of electroconvulsive therapy been written entirely from the perspective of the practitioner and the patient. No published work to date has drawn the connection between electrotherapy, electroconvulsive therapy, and American culture. This study will attempt to draw these connections in the context of American culture.