Senator Thomas Eagleton, the Democratic nominee for Vice President, unexpectedly revealed today that he was hospitalized three times between 1960 and 1966 for psychiatric treatment, suffering from "nervous exhaustion and fatigue."

Under questioning, he said the illness involved "the manifestation of depression" and that twice he received electric shock therapy, which he described as a recognized treatment for that type of ailment.

Sen. George McGovern, the Democratic Presidential nominee, promptly expressed full confidence in Eagleton, and said he would discourage any talk of dumping Eagleton from the ticket.

Eagleton revealed his medical history after reporters for the Knight Newspapers had confronted McGovern staff members with accounts of it [...]

The Democratic nominee declined on Tuesday even to consider Senator Eagleton's offer to withdraw from the ticket, saying that its make-up was irrevicably set. Three days later, he began orchestrating an attempt to persuade Mr. Eagleton to withdraw from the ticket.

Having asserted on Tuesday that "there is no one sounder in body, mind and spirit than Tom Eagleton," Mr. McGovern was telling reporters aboard his chartered campaign plane last night that "the one thing we know about Eagleton is that he has been to the hospital three times for [mental] depression."

The Democratic Presidential nominee publically admonished his staff to stop gossiping about what effect Mr. Eagleton's disclouse might have on th Democrats' chances in November. A day later, he contrived through his staff to assemble a group of reporters for a casual discussion on the same subject.

Mr. McGovern appeared, even to disillusioned members of his campaign staff, to be saying one thing and doing another -- which was the charge he had been preparing to make in the campaign against President Nixon.

In the Democratic primaries, Senator McGovern managed to convey the impression that he was somehow not a politician in the customary sense -- that he was more open, more accesible, more attuned to the issues and more idealistic than other candidates.

But his reaction to Mr. Eagleton's disclosure may have seriously impaired that image.