Was electro-shock therapy as brutal as it seems to have been?

When I lived in a small house near here, I was told by many people that a guy called Hoppin' Howie died in there back in the '80's. He was called Hoppin' Howie because while he was walking or standing he would sometimes quickly hop onto one foot and do a 360 degree spin. He started doing this after he got electro-shock treatment for Shell-Shock way back in the day. One person told me they seen him do 3 in a row, and Hoppin' Howie almost fell over.