"Ken Kesey voluntarily took shock treatments before writing his book, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
Did he say it helped ?
Dick Cavett had them too, and he said they definitely helped.
I don't think he was looking for "help" any more than when he was abusing medical grade LSD.
He was looking for a new kind of kick. So was Timothy Leary but he didn't make the same mistake as Leary in thinking that this was the "answer" to life.