cooling mudpacks: the aesthetic quality of therapy 169
in inpatient allopathic psychiatric treatment in Kerala for acutely suicidal
patients, severely depressed patients and psychotic patients who do not respond
to medications. Th ese are generally the same conditions under which ECT is
used in the U.S., although issues discussed in this section may be more acute in
India where, some evidence suggests, ECT is administered more frequently.^7
For several informants I spoke with in Kerala, aversion to ECT was a signifi -
cant factor in deciding to discontinue allopathic psychiatric care and pursue
another form of therapy.
I felt it was too intrusive to directly observe ECT sessions in India. In fact,
the awkwardness of doing so and the ease of observing the ayurvedic treatment
sessions—ECT occurring behind closed doors and the ayurvedic therapies
being administered in open view of other patients and visitors—reinforces
the distinctions highlighted in this comparison of treatment procedures. My
information on ECT comes from patient accounts and my glimpses of prep-
arations for ECT and its aftermath. Patients who are awaiting treatment at
the Trivandrum Medical College hospital sit on a bench in the hospital out-
patient area (OP). Th e only aesthetic or visceral experience patients engage
with before ECT perhaps comes from the institutional facility of the psychi-
atric OP itself. As suggested earlier, the eff ort to avoid aesthetic engagement
and create a sterile environment has the unintended consequence of creating
the feel and smell of a hospital which is not necessarily unpleasant but does
not actively engage patients with a positive aesthetic experience. Th e rooms
of the psychiatric OP are stark, and, if decorated, apparently haphazardly so,
with usually nothing more than an offi cial government calendar on the wall.
Th ere is nothing to actively engage the senses other than watching the com-
ings and goings of other patients. After the administration of the electric
currents and undergoing seizures, which are meant to be therapeutic, patients
have completed ECT and are wheeled out on a gurney looking catatonic or
unconscious, attached to an intravenous catheter, while family members who
were waiting for the patient appeared sober and concerned. Th is contrasted
with the demeanor of patients following talapodichil.
Kuttappan is a 64 year-old Hindu man who was undergoing the 45-day
panchakarma treatment at the Government Ayurveda Mental Hospital
(GAMH) having previously tried allopathy for problems that included cry-
ing and talking too much, showing too much anger and talking nonsensically.
Th ese problems started three or four years earlier after a horrible tragedy
where Kuttappan’s daughter-in-law killed her son and then herself. He was
originally treated at an allopathic hospital, and his condition improved.
Recently, however, his illness returned, and Kuttappan’s wife, who was tak-
ing care of him at the GAMH, explained that they decided not to return to