| INTERNATIONAL | SEPTEMBER 6, 2025 |

Electroshock: Psychiatric Torture
Posing as Therapy

A barbaric psychiatric practice known as electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) continues to maim and kill people in the name of mental health. CCHR exposes this so-called “treatment” by giving people the unfiltered facts.
Electroshock “treatment,” which many thought was banned decades ago, continues to be used today.
Electroshock “treatment,” which many thought was banned decades ago, continues to be used today.

Most people think electroshock was outlawed decades ago. However, 1.4 million people worldwide are given electroshock each year, including the elderly, pregnant women and children.

During ECT “treatment,” electrodes are attached to a patient’s scalp and up to 460 volts of electricity are sent tearing through the skull. That is enough voltage to run two elevators.

A seizure is always bad news medically. Thousands of people die each year from injuries sustained during seizures. Yet electroshock deliberately causes a seizure.

“What it is, is electrocution. That’s all it is,” says clinical psychologist Craig Newnes. “They don’t call it ‘electrocution,’ they call it ‘electroconvulsive therapy’—and one thing it isn’t is therapy.”

In the 1970s, the world learned the brutality of ECT from the Oscar-winning movie One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Though the film thoroughly discredited the practice, it didn’t disappear. Psychiatrists continue to mount a propaganda offensive in order to maintain ECT’s existence, spreading lies about the development of “humane” versions of it. Drugs, they say, relax the patient to prevent serious harm. The drug administered is succinylcholine, which paralyzes all the muscles except the heart. “The drug they use as a relaxant is also used for lethal injections,” says Newnes.

“What it is, is electrocution. That’s all it is. They don’t call it ‘electrocution,’ they call it ‘electroconvulsive therapy’—and one thing it isn’t is therapy.”

Another “innovation” is to pulse the electricity. This is said to minimize damage. However, according to Ken Castleman, PhD, brain cells are at as much risk of damage and death—if not more so—as with prior forms of ECT.

Lives continue to be ruined daily by ECT. Diana fell into the clutches of psychiatrists after bearing a child. She received a total of 28 shocks. “They just had to keep hitting your head with that hammer…. They took my soul, my mind, my intellect, my emotions. They literally raped my soul.”

Watch Therapy or Torture: The Truth about Electroshock at Scientology.TV/ECT.



FACTS

THE TRAGIC EFFECTS OF ECT

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is torturous “mental healing.”

460

VOLTS

of electricity is sent
through the brain during an ECT procedure.

1 in 14

INFANT MORTALITY RATE

following the administration of ECT to pregnant mothers.

50

PERCENT

of ECT patients
may suffer permanent
memory loss.

50

TIMES

higher ECT death rate compared to the
US murder rate.

20–40

POINTS

is how much a person’s IQ can drop after undergoing ECT.


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