Torpillage neurologists of WW1, Electric therapy to send hysterics back to front | Hacker News Reader

Torpillage neurologists of WW1, Electric therapy to send hysterics back to front

n.neurology.org

27 pointsFrummy7 comments

The horrible sadistic shit doctors got away with. Plain torture under the disguise of a medical intervention for what we today recognize as PTSD.

Suspicion of malingering had a perverse impact on treatment methods because many doctors believed that these soldiers should receive aggressive treatment. A vast field of medical experimentation using coercive psychotherapy techniques then developed in order to find a cure for these soldiers and to send them back to the battlefield as quickly as possible. A medical–military collusion ensued.

Another example are the unfathomable acts performed by doctors in the Third Reich [1].

I'm appalled that there are always corrupt bootlicking physicians in our ranks. To this f'ing day[2]!

[1]https://ahrp.org/1932-1945-doctors-academics-perverted-medic...

[2]https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/us/politics/cia-black-sit...

To be fair the system is kinda set up so a small group of people can push their messed up approaches on other doctors. Normal doctors are made to feel like they are bad at their jobs if they don’t do the sick stuff. See lobotomies, “pain is the fifth vital sign,” etc etc.

From [2]:

The C.I.A. has repeatedly defended its use of rectal rehydration as legitimate medical practice, rather than punishment.

“Medical personnel who administered rectal rehydration did not do so as an interrogation technique or as a means to degrade a detainee but, instead, utilized the well-acknowledged medical technique to address pressing health issues,”

Sorry, what. Proctoclysis, the thing we did before IVs in the WWI is well acknowledged...

I think I saw one at the medical history museum in Barcelona once.

> At first, faradization was carried out using virtually pain-free currents so that the soldiers would relate the painless nature of the treatment to their comrades. However, Roussy recommended the use of more intense faradization in difficult cases. To begin with, electrodes were placed on the targeted areas and then, if necessary, on more sensitive areas such as the soles of the feet or the scrotum. It was sometimes necessary to incorporate certain complementary measures like disciplinary isolation or a milk diet.

Title: The “torpillage” neurologists of World War I

Subtitle: Electric therapy to send hysterics back to the front

The current HN title doesn’t make any sense, dang can we get an update (maybe to just the Title)?

Sorry about the weird title, I wanted to get the subtitle in there as well so one could see what the article is about, no one knows the word torpillage

No need to apologize, it was a very interesting article, I just couldn't understand the title at all

Reply on news.ycombinator.com