Diminished: Canadian Women's Experiences of Electroshock
Keywords:
Electroshock, Women, Brain-Damage, Apathy, DiminishedAbstract
Abstract
“Diminished” is the result of a two-year feminist inquiry into the gendered experience of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) in Canada. This paper focuses on seven women’s experiences with electroshock and how it affected their lives. It raises pressing questions for Canadian feminists about the apparent dispensability of women’s minds, with the purpose being to re-ignite feminist interest in women’s experiences of psychiatry in general and the damaging effects of electroshock in particular.
Résumé
L’article intitulé « Diminished » est le résultat d’une enquête féministe de deux ans sur l’expérience de la thérapie électroconvulsive (TEC) basée sur le genre au Canada. Cet article met l’accent sur l’expérience de sept femmes qui ont subi la TEC et la façon dont cette thérapie a eu un impact sur leur vie. Il soulève des questions pressantes pour les féministes du Canada au sujet du caractère apparemment superflu de l’esprit des femmes, dans le but de raviver l’intérêt féministe envers l’expérience des femmes avec la psychiatrie en général et les effets néfastes de la thérapie électroconvulsive en particulier.
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