Is Modern Day Shock Therapy like room 101?

[jellolover07]

Is the machine in room 101 that is used on Winston to "erase" parts of his memory anything like modern day shock therapy used in mental hospitals? I wondered this after I saw that they kept telling Winston that he was sick because of his inability to control his memory. If Winston, and others that have had this technique used on them, are completely at the mercy od Big Brother and truly are brainwashed like everyone else, why do they bother killing them? Surely having a survivor tell of the horrors in room 101 would keep others from committing thought crime.

[Enjoi.]

Shock therapy is much less brutal and powerful than modern day. Winston also said that after it was used on him he didn't remember certain things. I don't think that was electricity. The Party doesn't want room 101 to be spoken of, they want it shrouded in mystery just as much as the Ministry of Love is. I think they are killed after a few years because they are no longer useful. The Party pays them for sitting around drinking. Elimnating them is one less thing they have to worry about. Winstons death (or what we can predict is his death) symbolises Orwell's never dying caution against totalitarianism. That government, once powerful, is completely unstoppable.

[The Atheist]

Is the machine in room 101 that is used on Winston to "erase" parts of his memory anything like modern day shock therapy used in mental hospitals?

Yes, it is very similar. Electro-convulsive therapy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_therapy) is supposed to act in the same way as Winston's shock treatment - not so much aversion therapy as jumbling the brain's contents in the hope that the usual order is disrupted.

Note that the shock treatment isn't delivered in Room 101. That's later.

[jellolover07]

Yes, it is very similar. Electro-convulsive therapy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroconvulsive_therapy) is supposed to act in the same way as Winston's shock treatment - not so much aversion therapy as jumbling the brain's contents in the hope that the usual order is disrupted.

Note that the shock treatment isn't delivered in Room 101. That's later.

thanks

[lukgem]

less lobotomising than ken kesey's rp mcmurphy certainly,but the point was for the patient to really love big brother.not just say it,to mean it.the party had learnt from previous dctatorships that killing dissidents that still held hatred toward their masters at death was a victory against them and highlighted their weaknesses.how can the party be strong and right if its might cannot change one mans belief,make them see the error of their ways?
thats where the power really lay they had discovered.to stay absolute all polits must not be killed until they truly loved big brother.

unadulterated and totally frightening maddness from the inner party.
atheist is right again,
room 101 did not contain the shock treatment.

[The Atheist]

lukegm:

I was born in Norwich and moved here young, but me old man was born in Portobello Rd.

There must be nothing nicer than being a 1984 fan and looking at this every now and then:

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s97/TheAtheist/vhallx.jpg

[lukgem]

yes atheist,it must have been designed by a senior member of the inner party don't you think?you could not get a more orwellian nightmare style of architecture than the mi5 hq!