e·lec·tro·con·vul·sive ther·a·py n
the passing of a small electric current through the brain to induce a seizure, used in the treatment of severe psychiatric disorders.

At 3am they found you—barefoot, your long trouser cuffs tucked under your heels. You were wandering the train station all night, all night wandering on scraps of blank paper. You didn’t have a ticket. Excuse me sir. Do you have a ticket? You need a ticket in this station. So they took you to the table, (we should have wiped the table before we laid you there) and they laid you there. A kitchen table. Took off your cloths. Oh Artaud, they were holding their breaths, holding your hands, fixing electrodes into your skin: jolt in the forehead, shock on the anus. You were a teapot, Artaud: poured in, poured out, screaming, you screamed your tongue on your brain. Blue lips. Blue skin. But the blood flowed back to you—like going home—so they all went home. When you woke you told them the world was round. Indeed, we agreed. The world is round.