Let Me Pick Your Brain
The story of Lobotomies
For the longest time, we, as a species, have known that when something is wrong with a person’s mind, there is something wrong with their brain.
I am not talking in terms of decades or centuries but millennia. In ancient times, people used to have a hole cut out in their skulls. At the time, the sages believed it would allow the “evil spirits” to leave the body through the hole.
Interestingly, the “evil spirits” seemed to have an affinity to residing within the skull. Maybe the ventilation and spaciousness were just too good to ignore.
What If We Cut It Out?
As our understanding of psychological disorders improved in the 20th century, an obvious question was raised. What if we could treat mental disorders by cutting some parts of the brain out?
It makes sense right?
When there is an injury to another body part that won’t go away, we cut it out. That’s how all cases of appendicitis are treated. <s> The appendix and the brain are practically the same after all </s>
Unfortunately, the two are not the same. As scientists would eventually find out.
Mental Illnesses Are Cured, Finally!
In 1935, Egas Moniz, a doctor-turned-politician was attending a conference. There he saw a study which reported how violent and uncontrollable chimpanzees had turned docile and calm after their frontal lobes were removed.
He was impressed and wanted to see if it could be recreated in humans too.
Moniz started trying out his procedure on schizophrenic and severely depressed patients. He would cut out parts of the frontal lobe by drilling a hole into the skull.
The success of these operations was moderate, albeit, when they were successful, they claimed to be super successful.
People who were violent and uncontrollable before the procedure emerged from the operating room as calm, composed, and predictable. It seemed like a cure for severe mental disorders had finally been found.
For his discovery, Moniz won the Nobel Prize in 1949. One of the few Nobel prizes that the field of neuroscience has secured.
But as with any story, this wasn’t the end. In fact, it was a horrifying beginning. As time went on, lobotomies became more common and so did their consequences.
“You are irritating. Get a lobotomy”
At a time when anti-psychotic medicines didn’t exist, the only options a patient with psychosis had was electroshock therapy or being committed to an asylum.
There was a paucity of helpful options. The stigma of mental illnesses (especially those involving psychoses) was high and families were helpless.
At such a time, frontal lobotomies seemed like a godsend. They seemed to be effective and the discoverer had a Nobel Prize. Of course, it worked. Right?
Frontal lobotomies spread like wildfire, especially in the US. The US had a particular fondness for lobotomies because they had expedited the three-hour surgical procedure into a 10-minute one.
How? Through good ol’ American enterprise and innovation.
US psychiatrist Walter Freeman was unhappy about how long the lobotomy procedure took. That was when he chanced upon an ice pick in his kitchen.
He created the transcranial lobotomy - a way to cut the frontal lobe out within 10 minutes. Here is a graphic to help you understand how it happened.
Basically, people had an icepick shoved up their eyeball into the brain.
The procedure was so quick, and so popular, that Freeman started carrying it out in the back of his van at one point.
What started out as a way to heal people with severe psychosis was now being practiced on ill-behaved kids, unmanageable personalities, and people who were a nuisance in general.
What Do You Mean Actions Have Consequences?
Surprisingly, cutting out a major part of the brain had negative consequences for the patients.
See, the frontal lobe is the seat of our executive functioning. It is the place that helps with high-order thinking skills, emotional experiences, and language production.
Basically, everything that makes us "human” is a consequence of the work of the frontal lobe.
If we cut out major chunks of it, we are turning people into zombies, not healing them.
The procedure was not always a success either. It often made the situation worse for the patients. These failures were conveniently not reported in promotional media.
One of Freeman’s patients was JFK’s sister, Rosemary Kennedy.
Rosemary had been rebellious since childhood and had occasional mood swings. When her father visited Walter Freeman, he was given the option of conducting a lobotomy to help her.
The lobotomy was conducted then and there - in the first meeting itself.
After the procedure, Rosemary couldn’t speak. Her mental abilities had reverted to those of a toddler. The operation had clearly failed. She was committed to a mental institution soon after.
The procedure was soon outlawed in all countries due to being inhumane and thus, one of the most brutal and harmful periods in the history of treating psychological disorders came to an end.
The Legacy
Egas Moniz, today, has a conflicting legacy. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for a discovery that, at the time, seemed like it would lead to a lot of good. Should his Nobel Prize be rescinded today?
Thousands of families suffered due to the discovery and promotion of an untested procedure. Is it just to still celebrate the person who did this?
What do you think? If you were in charge of the Nobel Prize committee, what would you do?
You can let me know in the comments or by replying to this email!
This was such an interesting read! We were taught about Lobotomy in our first year of psychology and it had caught all of our eyes but we didn't know that it was also performed on JFK's sister. Also, the way you narrated it was very engaging and fun to read!