Scott has OCD. Search for "obsessive compulsive disorder" here: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/04/11/going-loopy/
I wonder if the disconnect is in taking the story in an idealistic way vs a practical way. Like sure, if you had someone for whom that works utterly when nothing else works then yeah, do that. But I don't think that's a realistic scenario.
> Here’s someone who was totally untreatable by the normal methods, with a debilitating condition, and a drop-dead simple intervention that nobody else had thought of gave her her life back.