The 1930s also saw the introduction of electroconvulsive treatment, the only one of the so-called mechanistic treatments that is still being given routinely today. Italian doctor Lucio Bini was visiting a Rome abattoir (as one does) where animals were being stunned with electric shocks before being slaughtered. The animals suffered epileptic fits, and this inspired Bini and his colleague Professor Ugo Cerletti to try administering electric shocks to the heads of their mentally ill patients in order to produce the epileptic fits that Meduna was producing with Cardiazol.

Their first patient, Enrico X, had been diagnosed  with schizophrenia. The first two shocks applied to Enrico’s head failed to produce a seizure and Enrico made clear his feelings about the whole process by shouting, “Not another, it’s murderous.” Undaunted Bini and Cerletti pressed on and gave a third shock which similarly failed to produce an epileptic seizure. A week later they tried again, this time producing an epileptic seizure. Bearing in mind that Enrico had been considered sick enough to warrant experimental treatment on 11th April 1938 it seems extraordinary, almost miraculous, that by 14th May 1938 after several more shocks he was said to have written a ‘well composed’ letter of thanks to the doctors who had treated him, giving information about his previous illnesses and treatments. Two years later Enrico was admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Milan and despite the fact that in his way Enrico had been the agent of their success, Bini and Cerletti failed to contact his doctor in the Milanese hospital although they’d been asked to do so by Enrico’s wife