Electroconvulsive therapy is often used as a last line of treatment against mood disorders. It works by sending short electrical shocks to the brain to induce a seizure. The approach was innovated in Italy, where they coined an efficient transitive verb to describe what the machine does to you: zapare , meaning “to zap.”

As a grateful zappee, I sometimes get the question: Why do so many writers get ECT? I’m not sure we do, really. I just think we’re more likely to write about it. The less-glib response would be that writers are often down to try the risqué, or to make experiments in our lives.

For a long time, I resisted writing anything about my experiences of getting voluntarily electrocuted, or about the touches of memory loss that followed. It didn’t seem the sort of thing one should crow about. But I kept getting maddening questions about the whole process. “Were they punishing you?” Or, “Isn’t that just a high-tech lobotomy?” Not at all.…