But, it's no more long-term therapy than an anti-depressant. I mean, you'd have to get whipped regularly for it to work. Of course, it's cheaper than anti-depressants.
Joanna
Doug Henwood wrote:
> [When I was in Italy in 1976, I heard a story from a guy who said he'd
> been bicycling on Sardinia and rode past a mental hospital. On the
> hospital grounds, a female patient was tied to a tree, and three
> shrinks in white coats were slapping her, saying, "You're *not* the
> Virgin Mary!" Ever since, I've been tempted to recommend a trip to
> Sardinia for certain neurotics I know. Now this approach receives some
> confirmation from Siberia.]
>
> <http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/360/15176_whipping.html>
>
> Whipping therapy cures depression and suicide crises
>
> 03/26/2005 13:06
>
> The effect is astounding: a patient starts seeing only bright colors
> in the surrounding world
>
> Russian scientists from the city of Novosibirsk, Siberia, made a
> sensational report at the international conference devoted to new
> methods of treatment and rehabilitation in narcology. The report was
> called "Methods of painful impact to treat addictive behavior."
>
> Siberian scientists believe that addiction to alcohol and narcotics,
> as well as depression, suicidal thoughts and psychosomatic diseases
> occur when an individual loses his or her interest in life. The
> absence of the will to live is caused with decreasing production of
> endorphins - the substance, which is known as the hormone of
> happiness. If a depressed individual receives a physical punishment,
> whipping that is, it will stir up endorphin receptors, activate the
> "production of happiness" and eventually remove depressive feelings.
>
> Russian scientists recommend the following course of the whipping
> therapy: 30 sessions of 60 whips on the buttocks in every procedure. A
> group of drug addicts volunteered to test the new method of treatment:
> the results can be described as good and excellent.
>
> Doctor of Biological Sciences, Sergei Speransky, is a very well known
> figure in Novosibirsk. The doctor became one of the authors of the
> shocking whipping therapy. The professor used the self-flagellation
> method to cure his own depression; he also recovered from two heart
> attacks with the help of physical tortures too.
>
> "The whipping therapy becomes much more efficient when a patients
> receives the punishment from a person of the opposite sex. The effect
> is astounding: the patient starts seeing only bright colors in the
> surrounding world, the heartache disappears, although it will take a
> certain time for the buttocks to heal, of course," Sergei Speransky
> told the Izvestia newspaper.
>
> The whipping therapy has not become a new discovery in the history of
> medicine. Tibetan monks widely used it for medical purposes too.
> Soviet specialists used a special method of torturing therapy at
> mental hospitals. They made injections of brimstone and peach oil
> mixture to inspire mentally unbalanced patience with a will to live. A
> patient would suffer from horrible pain in the body after such an
> injection, but he or she would change their attitude to life for the
> better afterwards.
>
> "People might probably think of me as a masochist," Dr. Speransky
> said. "But I can assure you that I am not a classic masochist at all,"
> he added.
>
> The revolutionary method may take the Russian healthcare to a whole
> new level. The method is cheap and highly efficient, as its authors
> assure. Why not using something more efficient, a rack, for example?
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>
> .
>