Current Views and Practices in Psychiatric Shock Therapy

This is a pamphlet of 30 pages embodying a great number of questionnaire statistics. It is issued by the Manfred Sakel Foundation. As is well known, Manfred Sakel was the originator of insulin shock therapy. It would appear that his teaching is being ignored or criticized in one way or another, and this questionnaire has been sponsored and supported by the Manfred Sakel Foundation. On almost every page there is a footnote by Manfred Sakel himself, not to mention the three final pages of the report. The whole pamphlet gives two immediate impressions: (1) that the state of shock therapy in the United States is somewhat confused, even as it is in this country; (2) that Manfred Sakel, like many another pioneer, feels that the " classical insulin shock treatment" as initiated and developed by him, is being displaced chiefly by electric convulsant therapy. This aspect of the monograph is rather disappointing; it is distinctly affective in tone, and one concludes one's reading of the pamphlet with the feeling that the pioneer is more than a little sorry for himself over the process of variations in technique. It is not too much to suggest that more patience should be exercised with regard to the numbers of psychiatrists in the United States who are feeling out for some modification of the treatment, and in so doing are getting results that disappoint Dr. Manfred Sakel. In spite of this, the document has great merits. For those who enjoy statistics there are many tabulations which will be highly approved of by the experienced psychiatrist. In short, the pamphlet might have been even more useful than it will be in spite of this sort of devaluation of heretical variations of technique. For instance, on page 9