Waiting for Oblivion: Women's Experiences with Electroshock

Abstract

This article presents findings and analysis stemming from a two-year qualitative study that explored, in their own voices, women's lived experience of electroshock. Feminist standpoint theory frames and provides the moorings for both the validity and methodology of this woman-centered inquiry. In addition, nurses’ experiences with and views of ECT are explored and compared to the experiences reported by the women recipients themselves. Vulnerability and disconnection as emergent themes are presented for the nursing profession's sober consideration. The nurses interviewed believed electroshock culminated in a net gain for patients, but for the majority of the women interviewed, electroshock resulted in damage and devastating loss. This article closes with pressing questions for nurses to ask ourselves as we enter the second decade of this new and promising millennium.