{"id":49208,"date":"2021-10-04T01:56:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T05:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=49208"},"modified":"2021-10-04T10:22:29","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T14:22:29","slug":"shock-therapy-economics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/shock-therapy-economics\/","title":{"rendered":"The Economics of Shock Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is shock therapy in the context of economics? What measures does economic shock therapy entail? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In economics, shock therapy is a way to quickly improve a country\u2019s economy through rapid privatization, deregulation, and severe cuts in government spending<\/a>. It imposes strict free-market policies on the country in question as quickly as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this article, you\u2019ll learn about the concept of shock therapy, and how it relates to economics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Shock Therapy: The Search for the \u201cClean Slate\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Shock therapy is traditionally known as a treatment for mental disorders. It was pioneered in the 1940s and 1950s by Dr. Ewen Cameron. In his day, Dr. Cameron was a renowned psychiatrist\u2014for a time, he was even the president of the World Psychiatric Association. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Dr. Cameron developed and practiced treatments that we would now consider torture. He frequently used electroconvulsive therapy (ECT): <\/em>a treatment wherein electric shocks are administered to a patient\u2019s brain, intentionally triggering a seizure. He also gave his patients massive doses of stimulants, depressants, or hallucinogens, and subjected them to isolation and sensory deprivation. In short, he tried to break their minds in any way he could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cameron\u2019s ultimate goal was to regress his patients to infancy\u2014what he termed a blank slate. He believed that, once their current thoughts and memories were wiped away, he could easily reprogram his patients with new, healthy thought patterns<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, while Cameron was very successful at breaking his patients\u2019 minds, he was completely unsuccessful at rebuilding them. He couldn\u2019t get them to accept the new thought patterns that he tried to imprint on their \u201cblank slates.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On top of that, many of his patients suffered from new and much more severe symptoms\u2014both physical and psychological\u2014than they\u2019d shown before treatment. Medically speaking, Dr. Cameron\u2019s techniques were complete failures because he fundamentally misunderstood what he was doing to his patients; he wasn\u2019t wiping their minds clean, he was just destroying them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Electroshock to Economic Shock<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Disaster capitalists<\/em>\u2014those who take advantage of disasters to push economic reforms that would otherwise fail\u2014also can\u2019t seem to see the difference between destroying and healing, this is essentially shock therapy in economics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The American-British invasion of Iraq in 2003 is the perfect example. The Bush administration believed that they could attack with such overwhelming, unimaginable force that the Iraqis would be left all but catatonic. After that, they imagined that it would be an easy matter to tear down what remained of Iraq\u2019s economy and replace it with a free-market democracy. They envisioned Iraq as a perfect model for the rest of the world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, instead of a clean slate on which to build their ideal new government, Iraq and its people were left in ruins; they were damaged, angry, and ready to fight back. No matter how many times US forces \u201cshocked\u201d the country, they\u2014like Dr. Cameron\u2014couldn\u2019t wipe it clean. They kept on destroying but were never able to rebuild.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is shock therapy in the context of economics? What measures does economic shock therapy entail? In economics, shock therapy is a way to quickly improve a country\u2019s economy through rapid privatization, deregulation, and severe cuts in government spending. It imposes strict free-market policies on the country in question as quickly as possible.  In this article, you\u2019ll learn about the concept of shock therapy, and how it relates to economics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":14744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81,275],"tags":[494],"class_list":["post-49208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economics","category-politics","tag-the-shock-doctrine","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Economics of Shock Therapy - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In economics, shock therapy is a way to quickly improve a country\u2019s economy by minimizing government spending and intervention. 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