On the Sea of Memory: A Journey from Forgetting to Remembering

Cott's story is amazing but his reaching out to experts in so many fields to help us understand memory's role in science, religion, our humanity is priceless!

This erudite author lost 15 years of his life's memories after 36 electroshock treatments in 1998. The first chapter is a MUST for anyone contemplating this procedure. Jonathan Cott didn't know Princess Diana had died and didn't recognize names in his address book. But CAVEAT EMPTOR. It appears the author has also had his cojones expunged along with his memories. Skeptically quoting the quacks who promote shock treatment (e.g. Max Fink: "ECT is one of God's gifts to mankind") he nonetheless "anxiously awaits the day" when convulsions can be induced by magnets. He calls ECT a deal with the devil, a trade off of memory and brain cells with every shock for "improvement" which is temporary at best. He believes that ECT should be used only as a "last resort," a cliche which has rationalized the procedure for 67 years and resulted in the electroshocking of more than 6 million people in the U.S. alone. Could this be an instance of the taming effect of electroshock? One would think this man would be outraged at having lost 15 years of his life's precious memories. [...]