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Posted By: davidcycleback

For the original shock treatment, they shaved the patient's head and pour on cold water (Read Nicolai Gogol's 'Diary of a Madman').

If you read Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (basis for the movie 'Apocolypse Now') notice that someone measures the narrator's head before he goes into the jungle. The book doesn't explain why this was done, but, at the time, a change in head size and shape was considered indication that someone had gone insane. Presumably, they intended to remeasure the narrator's head when he returned.