Aruta Alessandro
Museo di Storia della Medicina, Sapienza University di Roma, Italy.
Med Secoli. 2010;22(1-3):11-24.
April 1938. The patient with the shaved head is passively lying on a bed on the first floor of a room-laboratory of the Clinic of Nervous and Mental Diseases of the Royal University of Rome. Several electric shocks are administered under strict supervision of the medical team of Ugo Cerletti (1867-1963). After the treatment, his psychic conditions get somewhat better. The electroshock machine, whose prototype is preserved at the Museum of the History of Medicine of the Sapienza University of Rome, together with manuals, patents and scientific and historical documentation, was invented and patented by Lucio Bini (1908-1964), a pupil of Cerletti. The use of electroshock replaces both the insulin therapy and the first attempts at a chemical treatment of psychic disorders. Until the 1950s no alternative treatments were available. Electroconvulsive therapies divided the public opinion and the scientific community. This controversial history is reflected in the eyes of the visitors to the Museum. When looking at the Bini-Cerletti machine they seem to ask: how did the patient feel? Was it fair to resort to such an practice so invasive, and lacking a definite scientific experimentation?
1938年4月。一名剃了光头的患者被动地躺在罗马皇家大学神经与精神疾病诊所一间用作实验室的房间的一楼病床上。在乌戈·塞尔莱蒂（1867 - 1963）的医疗团队严格监督下，实施了几次电击。治疗后，他的精神状况有所好转。这台电击机的原型与手册、专利以及科学和历史文献一同保存在罗马第一大学医学史博物馆，它是塞尔莱蒂的学生卢西奥·比尼（1908 - 1964）发明并获得专利的。电击疗法取代了胰岛素疗法以及对精神障碍进行化学治疗的最初尝试。直到20世纪50年代，都没有其他替代疗法。电惊厥疗法在公众舆论和科学界引发了分歧。这段有争议的历史在博物馆参观者的眼中得到了体现。当他们看着比尼 - 塞尔莱蒂机器时，似乎在问：患者当时是什么感受？采取如此侵入性且缺乏明确科学实验的做法公平吗？
