Ralph Ellison used shock therapy to symbolize the current status of society in his novel Invisible Man. It symbolized: society’s lack of morals; the white men’s need to control black men and erase their identities, and the way people often lose themselves in technology. Electro-convulsive therapy has been a controversial procedure, ever since its introduction by Dr. Cerletti in 1938. ECT is a treatment for severe mental illness in which a brief application of …showed first 75 words of 814 total…

…showed last 75 words of 814 total…seemed to have lost all sense of proportion...(Ellison 238)”. Ellison is saying that humans lose sense of where they end and where the world begins by living in such a scientific environment. Man becomes lost and alone in a world of machines. In conclusion, Ellison depicts shock therapy in a negative manor. He used it to portray white mans control over black men and their identity, society’s flawed morals, and the burden of technology.