Quantum Leap - Shock Theatre
Nov. 9th, 2004 06:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ivyficSince this episode first aired in 1988, I'm not using a spoiler tag. Pbththth.
Just watched the season 3 finale of QL, "Shock Theatre." Though this is a fantastic episode from a dramatic standpoint, giving one of the most angsty plots since "The Leap Home" (godawful alphabet rap notwithstanding), I have to complain about the depiction of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
Shock therapy is demonized in the media so often I should probably be used to it. But I resent the fact that what is still a useful therapy for some cases of depression is always shown as a form of torture. True, in its early days ECT was used far too often on far too many people with far too high a voltage. But then, blood transfusion was pretty inhumane when it originated as well.
My biggest problem is the effect on Sam. I have no problem with the whole MPD thing, BUT, they clearly show that Sam remembers the shock treatment. He shows fear of the person who administered it and his doctor says in every personality he always retains the memory of the treatment. This is one thing that he would never retain. The most common side effect of ECT is memory loss. Even with treatment as it is now given, the patient generally does not remember the day of the treatment. You run a whole bunch of volts through someone's brain, it tends to mess around with memory formation, you know? And in the early days of ECT, like those depicted in this episode, ECT often resulted in permanent long term memory loss. It would just blow holes in people's memory. Not complete amnesia, but there would be periods of their life that would be gone.
So there is no way Sam would be that aware of what had happened to him. None.
End rant.
Just watched the season 3 finale of QL, "Shock Theatre." Though this is a fantastic episode from a dramatic standpoint, giving one of the most angsty plots since "The Leap Home" (godawful alphabet rap notwithstanding), I have to complain about the depiction of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
Shock therapy is demonized in the media so often I should probably be used to it. But I resent the fact that what is still a useful therapy for some cases of depression is always shown as a form of torture. True, in its early days ECT was used far too often on far too many people with far too high a voltage. But then, blood transfusion was pretty inhumane when it originated as well.
My biggest problem is the effect on Sam. I have no problem with the whole MPD thing, BUT, they clearly show that Sam remembers the shock treatment. He shows fear of the person who administered it and his doctor says in every personality he always retains the memory of the treatment. This is one thing that he would never retain. The most common side effect of ECT is memory loss. Even with treatment as it is now given, the patient generally does not remember the day of the treatment. You run a whole bunch of volts through someone's brain, it tends to mess around with memory formation, you know? And in the early days of ECT, like those depicted in this episode, ECT often resulted in permanent long term memory loss. It would just blow holes in people's memory. Not complete amnesia, but there would be periods of their life that would be gone.
So there is no way Sam would be that aware of what had happened to him. None.
End rant.
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Date: 2004-11-09 03:40 pm (UTC)I often find myself rallying against the depiction of tarot in popular entertainment.
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Date: 2004-11-09 07:08 pm (UTC)