Healthy Skepticism Library item: 15129
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: Journal Article
Yawar A.
The fool on the hill
The Lancet 2009 Feb 21; 373:(9664):621 - 622
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)60383-4/fulltext
Abstract:
The spinning chair. Bloodletting (copious). Removal of possibly infected viscera. Extraction of teeth. Electric shock. Forcible restraint, for days or weeks. Wrapping in cold blankets. Brain damage. Repeated coma. Back-breaking convulsions. Slicing through the brain with an ice pick. Sterilisation. Female genital mutilation.
Since the Enlightenment, all the above have been used to treat the “madâ€. Even the most grotesque treatments have often been introd …
