Jack Nicholson receiving shock treatment in the second greatest...

Jack Nicholson receiving shock treatment in the second greatest movie ever made, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

Now called “electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)” after the great American tradition of applying more syllables to something horrible to make it sound scientific (then using parenthetical initials to render it completely soulless) shock treatment is still given to an estimated 1 million people worldwide every year. All systematic published reviews of the literature have concluded that shock treatment is effective in dealing with depression, probably because life always seems better after they stop electrocuting your brain.