This controversial depression treatment approach called whipping therapy may
indeed have some valid effect explanation; however, it is hard to expect that
it will ever be used in our society due to the borderline ethical issues. Even
the research arrangement for the statement validation would be problematic.
Let’s review the approach description from the Russian developers,
published in once the most famous Soviet newspaper Pravda (Truth):
Russian scientists from the city of Novosibirsk, Siberia,
made a sensational report at the international conference devoted to new
methods of treatment and rehabilitation in narcology. The report was called
“Methods of painful impact to treat addictive behavior.”
Siberian scientists believe that addiction to alcohol and
narcotics, as well as depression, suicidal thoughts and psychosomatic diseases
occur when an individual loses his or her interest in life. The absence of the
will to live is caused with decreasing production of endorphins - the
substance, which is known as the hormone of happiness. If a depressed
individual receives a physical punishment, whipping that is, it will stir up
endorphin receptors, activate the “production of happiness” and eventually
remove depressive feelings.
Russian scientists recommend the following course of the
whipping therapy: 30 sessions of 60 whips on the buttocks in every procedure. A
group of drug addicts volunteered to test the new method of treatment: the
results can be described as good and excellent.
Doctor of Biological Sciences, Sergei Speransky, is a
very well known figure in Novosibirsk. The doctor became one of the authors of
the shocking whipping therapy. The professor used the self-flagellation method
to cure his own depression; he also recovered from two heart attacks with the
help of physical tortures too.
”The whipping therapy becomes much more efficient when a patient
receives the punishment from a person of the opposite sex. The effect is
astounding: the patient starts seeing only bright colors in the surrounding
world, the heartache disappears, although it will take a certain time for the
buttocks to heal, of course,” Sergei Speransky told the Izvestia newspaper.
The whipping therapy has not become a new discovery in
the history of medicine. Tibetan monks widely used it for medical purposes too.
Soviet specialists used a special method of torturing therapy at mental
hospitals. They made injections of brimstone and peach oil mixture to inspire
mentally unbalanced patience with a will to live. A patient would suffer from
horrible pain in the body after such an injection, but he or she would change
their attitude to life for the better afterwards.
”People might probably think of me as a masochist,” Dr.
Speransky said. “But I can assure you that I am not a classic masochist at
all,” he added.
The revolutionary method may take the Russian healthcare
to a whole new level. The method is cheap and highly efficient, as its authors
assure. Why not using something more efficient, a rack, for example?
This is the only original article on the whipping,
which I was able to find in the English sources. Everything else looks more
like humorous commentaries and reference to Masochism and sexual minorities’
weirdness. So, I checked the source in Russian Internet to see if that is not
April Joke, and the related therapeutic approach has been indeed tested and
approved.
No, there are many Russian posts on the topic, and
that does not seem to be a joke. Sergei Speransky claims that has not invented
the whipping therapy method. About 40 years ago, in the home library of his
older sister, Dr. Speransky found a German medical book, describing the
prosperous medical institution in pre-First World War Germany, where many
diseases, and not just neuro-psychological, were successfully cured by whipping.
The idea has been idle for long, before Dr.
Speransky got affected by severe depression himself, triggered by personal
stressful life events. He applied self-whipping approach, and miracle cure
came, when he got substantial improvement in his health conditions, what all
other scientific traditional approaches failed to achieve.
Dr. Speransky has not even expected the recovery
will be so drastic and so fast, so he started to look for volunteers wishing to
try this therapeutic approach as well. The next person, who has agreed to participate
in the trial, was 50-years-old T., having difficulties to recover from stroke –
half of his body was paralyzed, and he was unable to speak. The whipping
procedure has been performed on a weekly base under supervision of the several
specialists. After the 8th treatment, the patient returned to work. Now it's
almost a healthy man: he is walking with slight limp, but his speech and memory
has been fully restored. The only reminder on this devastating medical
condition is unstable blood pressure.
So, how Dr. Speransky explains the method
effectiveness? The mechanism is simple: the marks of flogging trigger
activation of the body internal immune forces. And there is not much difference
for the white blood cells where to apply the healing effect: on bruises on your
ass, or on scars on the heart. They do both tasks simultaneously. In addition
to the physical disorders, whipping therapy is efficient for treatments of the
following: alcoholism, drug addiction, depression, and other psychosomatic
diseases.
In a way, depression means going away from the real
life to the internal world of sadness, and losing taste of the real life,
caused by reduction in "happiness hormones" production – endorphins. The whipping activates
endorphin receptors; endorphins are released to the blood stream, and the person finds a
new interest in real life. If you never experienced pain, you cannot learn on
how to live without it!
Some guidelines for the whipping therapy:
- The patient
should be mentally ready for the procedure and should understand its
mechanism and background. Do not try to use it for people, who are not
prepared for it, and who might still consider it humiliating.
- The effect
is usually amplified in the event that the procedure does a person of the
opposite sex. The recommendation
might be routed in the traditional cultural sexism, which is still flourishing
in the Russian society.
- The
recommended course is 30 procedures, 60 strokes each time with one 15
minutes rest in the middle of the process.
- Strikes
should be applied to the buttocks, taking in consideration a personal physical
build, with constant monitoring of the affect and patent conditions.
- The method is not applicable for children and teenagers’ treatment, as they may not be psychologically ready for this approach, and may perceive it as preventive punishment.
To my surprise, whipping therapy (called “porko-therapy”)
is gaining popularity among Russian therapists. Some of them have already
officially included it in the treatment plans, and report amazingly good
results of the applied treatment courses.
The closest you can find to the whipping therapy in
the Western society is so-called spanking therapy. But, do not mix these two.
Spanking therapy is usually related to the sexual games, and does not claim in
most cases to have a clinical therapeutic effect on the patients. There are,
however, the first attempts, to apply the therapy for the wellbeing
improvement. For example, holistic center in Washington, DC, Spanking for Wellness,
is helping its patients to achieve wellness through positive spanking experiences.
Their philosophy of positive spanking encompasses spanking experiences which
are geared toward personal growth, wholeness and healing, emotional, physical,
spiritual and psychological well being, and that which fosters deep connection
and mutual respect in family environment. We claim to have good success record
in using spanking for stress reduction/relaxation and releasing blocked
emotions as well as changing negative behavior patterns that the client wishes
to transform.
You are skeptical? Me too. But, is there a big
difference between whipping or spanking therapy and highly intrusive Korean
massage? Really, not much… But nobody will even think laughing on the statement
that Korean massage is good for your physical and emotional state.
Sources
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