ABSTRACT
My brother Erland, who is three years older than me, developed schizophrenia in the mid-1950s while studying painting at the Royal Academy of Arts. For many years he struggled with insulin comas, ECT treatment and exclusion from ordinary human life. Professional care ruled and I recall the consultant’s irritated dismissal of my parents’ complaint that Erland had been physically ill-treated. Eventually he was transferred to another hospital that dispensed with the ECT and insulin treatment in favour of medication.
