Her first patient, Mr Smith, was an alcoholic in his late forties with a heavy beer belly. He was divorced and had little contact with his two children. This was his final attempt to stop drinking. ‘We had to wake him up and give him a tumbler of neat whisky, followed by an emetic to make him throw up, at which point we would play a tape recording. I’m pretty certain it was Sargant’s voice – Sargant made sure he wasn’t actually in the room during the treatment. The voice was rich and low.’ Afterwards, everything that Mr Smith had evacuated from his body was left in the room with him for
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