In a world quick to prescribe electrical violence to the brain under the guise of “treatment,” it is a profound relief—and a moral imperative—to sit down with one of the clearest voices challenging this relic of psychiatric barbarism. On The Breggin Hour, my husband Peter Breggin and I spoke at length with Professor John Read, a clinical psychologist from the University of East London whose work has helped pierce the veil of denial surrounding electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).
Professor Read is no outsider throwing stones. He comes from the heart of the clinical psychology establishment, yet he has become one of its most formidable critics on ECT. His recent international survey—the largest ever, with 1,100 participants from 44 countries—gives voice to the lived reality of those who have endured this procedure. The findings are damning.
What the Largest ECT Survivor Survey Reveals
The research team, which included ECT survivors like our colleague Sarah Hancock, asked hard questions about efficacy, memory loss, and informed consent. The results:
On five different measures of effectiveness, the “majority” of recipients reported “no improvement” or that their condition was “made worse”.Two-thirds experienced significant memory loss—both retrograde (losing past memories) and anterograde (inability to form new ones). For most, this persisted for at least three years, which in practical terms means it is often permanent.The vast majority were not adequately informed about these risks. Neither were their families.Women continue to receive ECT at twice the rate of men, with 82% of the psychiatrists administering it being male—an observation that raises uncomfortable questions about power, empathy, and whose distress we choose to “treat” with electricity.These are not abstract statistics. They represent shattered lives, erased memories, and families left picking up the pieces. As Peter has long documented, ECT is essentially a closed-head electrical lobotomy that exceeds OSHA safety thresholds for electrical brain injury. The brain is not “reset”—it is traumatized.
Professor Read put it plainly: we are inducing grand mal seizures in people while another branch of medicine works desperately to prevent them. The original 1930s theory—that schizophrenia and epilepsy were mutually exclusive, so inducing seizures could cure the former—was bizarre even then. That we continue this practice ninety years later, with so little rigorous evidence, is a scandal.
Legal Victories: Hitting Them Where It Hurts
Professor Read has served as an expert witness in key cases that are finally forcing accountability. In a 2023 Florida jury trial, manufacturer Somatics was found liable for failing to adequately warn about brain damage and permanent memory loss. A 2024 California case against individual psychiatrists and a psychiatric center—alleging negligence, fraud, malpractice, and battery—settled just before trial after surviving all dismissal attempts.
MECTA, another major manufacturer, has filed for bankruptcy amid mounting litigation and withdrawn its Spectrum device, only to introduce a near-identical “Sigma” model. The industry adapts, but the human cost remains.
Peter shared his own observations from decades of work, including the first successful ECT malpractice case (Salters, 2005). He described the visible horror: patients emerging confused, amnesic, and disoriented—much like victims of repeated concussions. This is traumatic brain injury, period. The temporary “euphoria” some experience is often the brain’s response to injury, not genuine healing.
The Deeper Problem: Over-Medicalization of Human Suffering
John Read situates ECT within a larger tragedy—the reduction of complex human distress to a purely biological problem solvable by pills or electricity. Poverty, trauma, abuse, loneliness, and loss are pushed aside while white coats reach for the shock machine. Many psychiatrists, he notes, lack the skills or willingness to sit with profound emotional pain, especially in women and older patients.
This resonates deeply with our work exposing psychiatric harm. Whether antidepressants, antipsychotics, or ECT, the pattern is the same: interventions that promise quick fixes but deliver dependency, disability, and despair. The public understands that life circumstances drive mental suffering. Too many professionals still do not.
A Call to Survivors, Families, and Truth-Seekers
If you or a loved one has been harmed by ECT, know that you are not alone. Professor Read’s survey papers are open access—search “John Read ECT survey” to read them directly. Share your story. Support organizations fighting for informed consent and bans on this outdated practice.
We must demand real informed consent, rigorous science, and an end to the normalization of brain damage as “therapy.” Peter and I continue this fight because human rights do not end at the psychiatrist’s door. The brain is not a machine to be jolted into submission.
Listen to the full conversation on The Breggin Hour (available on America Out Loud and major podcast platforms). Professor Read’s humility, clarity, and dedication shine through. We are grateful for his partnership in this long struggle and look forward to future collaborations.
Download and print this free brochure
“No One Should Be Given Shock Treatment“
To all who have suffered:
Your experiences matter. Your memories—however fragmented—are worth fighting for. The truth is emerging, one voice, one lawsuit, one honest conversation at a time. Share this widely. The more light we shine, the harder it becomes for these practices to hide in the shadows.
Peter and Ginger Breggin have spent decades exposing psychiatric harms. Subscribe for more unfiltered truth on mental health, freedom, and the defense of the human spirit.
About our Guest
Dr. John Read is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East London.
He has published over 200 research papers, primarily on the relationship between adverse life events and psychosis; the negative effects of bio-genetic causal explanations on prejudice; anti-psychotic and anti-depressant medication; electroconvulsive therapy; and the toxic influence of the pharmaceutical industry on clinical research and practice.
John is Chair of the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal [https://iipdw.org] and is on the Board of Hearing Voices Network, England
He has been the editor of the scientific journal ‘Psychosis’ since 2009, and is the editor/author of several books, including:
Read J, Sanders P. (2022) ‘A straight talking introduction to the causes of mental health problems’. PCCS Books.
Read J, Dillon J. (eds) (2013) ‘Models of Madness’, Routledge.
Further Reading/Resources:
Professor John Read’s publications:
A large exploratory survey of electroconvulsive therapy recipients, family members, and friends: what information do they recall being given? Journal of Medical Ethics
A Survey of 1144 ECT Recipients, Family Members and Friends: Does ECT Work?, National Institutes of Health
Largest-ever survey questions ECT’s effectiveness, University of East London
Survey Findings on Electroconvulsive Therapy, Psychology Today
Models of Madness and Other Works by John Read
By Peter R. Breggin, MD:
Download and print this free brochure
“No One Should Be Given Shock Treatment“
Free Resource Center: Dr. Peter Breggin’s ECT and Deep Brain Stimulation Resources Center
Dr. Breggin’s two overview scientific articles: Breggin 1998 and Breggin 2010. The 2010 article contains a brief summary of ECT’s harmful effects, written to inform the FDA. Also read Jones and Baldwin 1992 for a powerful overview.
Read Dr. Breggin’s blogs on ECT. Like the brochure, these are also useful as an introduction for anyone who is just learning about ECT. See his blogs: “New Study Confirms Electroshock (ECT) Causes Brain Damage,” “The Stealth ECT Psychiatrist in Psychiatric Reform,” “FDA Panel Recommends Testing of ECT Machines,” “Electroshock for Children and Involuntary Adults.”
