{"id":5151,"date":"2015-04-16T12:41:16","date_gmt":"2015-04-16T12:41:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skylight.gr\/administrator_wordpress\/index.php\/2015\/04\/16\/lou-reeds-sister-talks-about-singers-electroshock-therapy\/"},"modified":"2015-04-16T12:41:16","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T12:41:16","slug":"lou-reeds-sister-talks-about-singers-electroshock-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/2015\/04\/16\/lou-reeds-sister-talks-about-singers-electroshock-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Lou Reed’s sister talks about singer’s electroshock therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"


Days before Lou Reed\u2019s posthumous induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame<\/span>, his sister wrote about long-held rumors concerning the musician\u2019s mental health treatment and history. Merrill Reed Weiner said she hoped the piece<\/span> would provide \u201cclarity and context\u201d to Reed\u2019s childhood, which has been subject to increased scrutiny since he died of liver disease in October 2013<\/span>. In the essay, she disputes rumors that he was sent to electroshock therapy for homosexual urges and that he was abused by their father. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor all those whose families\u2019 lives were damaged by the pervasive medical thinking of the time, I hope to offer solace and comfort,\u201d wrote Weiner, a psychotherapist. She published the story on the online publishing site Medium.<\/p>\n

She said that as a teenager in Long Island, New York, Reed avoided socialising and was very anxious, sometimes hiding in his room to avoid meeting people.<\/p>\n

\u201cPanic attacks and social phobias beset him. He possessed a fragile temperament. His hyper-focus on the things he liked led him to music and it was there that he found himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that at 16, he started gigging in New York City, experimenting with drugs and closing off communication with his parents.<\/p>\n

Weiner chastised the mental healthcare system of the 1960s and how it was treated as a family secret by society.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies at a loss for how to deal with their loved ones\u2019 genetically based mental illness were treated as perpetrators by the psychiatric establishment,\u201d Weiner said. \u201cThey were blamed for poor parenting, left feeling hopeless and guilty.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said their parents sought psychiatric help again after Reed suffered a \u201cnervous breakdown\u201d in his freshman year at New York University. The doctor accused Reed\u2019s mother of causing schizophrenia by not picking her son up enough as an infant. Weiner repeatedly emphasized that her parents believed they were responsible for all of Reed\u2019s mental issues. \u201cIt was a belief and a burden she took to her grave,\u201d Weiner said of their mother.<\/p>\n

Reed had returned to a state of high anxiety and avoidance, when a psychiatrist recommended electroshock therapy. \u201cEach of us suffered the loss of our dear sweet Lou in our own private hell, unhelped and undercut by the medical profession,\u201c Weiner said.<\/p>\n

Weiner struck down the rumor that Reed was sent to electroshock therapy because he had homosexual urges. \u201cMy parents were many things, but homophobic they were not,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

But she acknowledged that the treatments were a mistake that tore apart the family and disputed claims that their father hit Reed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI must say that I never saw my father raise a hand to anyone, certainly not to us and never to my mother,\u201d Weiner said. \u201cNor did I see a lack of love for his son during our childhood.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Source: The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Days before Lou Reed\u2019s posthumous induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5151\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skylight.gr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}