‘He still features in my nightmares’: how a sinister psychiatrist put hundreds of women in deep, drug-induced comas

[IwantToRetire]

Behind the medical rationale, however, the Sleep Room served a more sinister purpose. As the 60s started to swing and Sargant’s reputation soared, middle-class parents sent their wayward daughters to him for moral correction. In the mid-60s, for example, a wealthy businessman contacted Sargant, explaining that his daughter had fallen in love with an “unsuitable” local man in Europe and wanted to marry him. Could Sargant help? A photo later emerged of Sargant, the father and a heavily sedated daughter standing at the door of the aeroplane that had returned her to the UK. “Basically, Sargant brought this attractive young woman back at the end of a needle,” recalls a retired professor, who was a student at St Thomas’ at the time.

Sargant’s surviving patients believe he represented the epitome of patrician arrogance, echoing the way men have, throughout history, exerted control over women’s bodies. Suffering from a range of eating disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety, as well as postnatal depression, many were in their teens or early 20s during their treatment, which means they are now in their 70s. Sixty-year-old recollections can be unreliable, particularly those dimmed by repeated electric shocks and large doses of drugs. And there are those who will argue that memories set down while thoughts are distorted by mental illness are not real and should not be trusted. But the brain is a resilient organ. Sargant underestimated its plasticity, its resistance to being permanently “repatterned”. And now his patients, for so long neither heard nor believed, are ready to tell their story.

Very long article, with some details some may find disturbing. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/mar/29/he-still-features-in-my-nightmares-how-a-sinister-psychiatrist-put-hundreds-of-women-in-deep-drug-induced-comas

Horrifying article; especially that it all happened so recently.
There’s quite a bit more about Linda Keith in ‘Life’ (Keith Richard’s autobiography).

For anyone interested in the gruesome way psychiatry has treated women, Sargant is a particularly ghastly example. I remember reading a piece of his where he said that ECT was particularly good for women because the memory loss and cognitive difficulties which were often complained of didn't matter beause they could still carry on being housewives. Whereas for a man the loss of professional knowledge or expertise might be more of a handicap. I'm paraphrasing slightly but that was the gist of it. Dr David Owen (who later became a politician) was his research assistant/registrar for a while as a young man. Rumour has it that as well as being a great advocate for giving patients drugs, he tried many of them out on himself too.

I had ECT for particularly resistant post partum illness (1981). It was a last resort but it worked extremely well. It took three sessions, the side effects were moderate short lived headaches and short term confusion. Within a month I was able to pursue my studies (Maths degree) once again.
ECT has had a bad press, but it was borderline miraculous for me. I was told that it was seen as particularly effective for my condition, though only used when other treatments had failed. Of course, any treatment can be misused, but a treatment is not bad simply because it might be misused.

My MIL had ECT for very resistant depression, and it was also successful. I guess this was about 10 years ago or so. She did have some significant memory loss though. She recovered well, including her mental faculties, but some of the memories were gone permanently, mainly ones from the few years before the treatments.

The songwriter Townes Van Zandt was treated in his 20s and lost ALL of his childhood memories.

I think it can be really miraculous in some situations but isn't to be used lightly.

As research goes, it was a bit shit wasn't it. No records kept. No learning done. Repeated treatments on unconscious women, so no idea if any progress was ever made, and if it was, at which point in the treatment.

I think the point of the article, or the book, is not about whether one aspect of the treatment can in itself by good or a last resort, but that this was basically a mass experiment of combining treatments.

And judging by the article was not being used to help patients who had a specific health problem.

It seems to have been a programme to stop young women who for whatever reason were rejecting the expected trajectory of their lives. ie school, part time job, get married, have children and in all case dont have opinions.

And this did happen in different ways in other european countries. France had a terrible record of getting young women who were brave enough to come out as lesbian confined to mental health institutions. Just as in earlier years, unmarried mothers were committed.

And the US has a history of performing lobotomies on non conforming women.

These programme was being used as to re-educate to know their place.

The medical profession hates women. The misogyny is deeply deeply ingrained and it is dangerous.

Women are more likely to die than men from heart attacks. Women are less likely to be taken seriously.

In general never go alone to an appointment - take a man with you. If you can’t record or take your own notes.

Ask questions and don’t let them talk you into anything without you going away and looking into it. See Hystoscopy for more information.

It seems to have been a programme to stop young women who for whatever reason were rejecting the expected trajectory of their lives. ie school, part time job, get married, have children and in all case dont have opinions.

I sometimes think of the various stories swirling around Rosemary Kennedy’s lobotomy. Some versions say that as somebody who had acquired a brain injury during her birth, when she reached her 20s and had become less cooperative, more outspoken, less manageable, and able to sneak out at night (at risk of exploitation or actually being sexually active), her father had her lobotomised.

The Wikipedia account relates how this left her immobilised, incontinent, and with the understanding of a 2 year old. One of the surgeons thought that she wasn’t learning disabled as such but more depressed. But the Kennedys thought mental health issues were not compatible with the family’s brand or ambitions.

That is so sad.

And now you have posted this, I do half remember some talk about this.

I think the occassions on which society has tried to use the medical route to get women to stay in their place are far more than is really recorded.

It is or was well known that after WWII (without saying it was fun or anything) many women had the opportunity to do work and take responsibility and be independent.

But in fact post WWII both in the US and the UK there was government propoganda to get women to go back to the kitchen and be happy about it.

And there was an increase in the recorded number (so who knows how many there really were) of women having "break downs".

In fact the Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, which started the discussion that then became Women's Liberation, was about "The Problem With No Name".

I think the point of the article, or the book, is not about whether one aspect of the treatment can in itself by good or a last resort, but that this was basically a mass experiment of combining treatments.

Absolutely - but I always challenge the idea that ECT = bad, unevidenced treatment, when I see it. I was devastated at the idea of it, mostly because my understanding of it had been formed by fictional accounts, as it seems to be for most people.
As I said, for me it was astonishingly effective, and gave me my life back.

Sort of linked, but also quite interesting as a topic, although I always have my doubts about academic dabbling at feminism.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/institute-of-advanced-studies/events/2025/may/i-have-kind-husband-beautiful-baby-no-financial-problems-and-still-i-want-die

Am surprised that the phrase "mental illness" isn't in quotes.