Lobotomy (synonym: frontal leukotomy) is a surgical procedure to the brain in which nerve fibers are deliberately cut. Lobotomy was proposed in 1935 by the Portuguese physician Egas Moniz. Moniz suspected that mental illnesses were caused and maintained by faulty nerve fibers in the brain. Lobotomy was intended to destroy these connections and allow new, healthy fibers to emerge.
Definition of lobotomy
In general, lobotomy was intended to cut the nerve fibers that connect the frontal lobe to the rest of the brain. To do this, a thin metal rod was inserted into the brain through a hole in the skull or through the eye socket and pushed back and forth. Lobotomy was originally developed to treat depression, but was later used for many mental illnesses.
History of lobotomy
From today’s perspective, lobotomy appears to be a crude, unscientific and dangerous method. However, for the treatment of severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia, lobotomy was considered useful by many. Psychiatric hospitals were overcrowded and poorly run, and effective drugs had not yet been found. Anything that promised to improve symptoms was welcome.
Lobotomy was performed when the consequences of lobotomy were considered the lesser of two evils compared to the disease. Lobotomy was performed on a large scale by American neurologist Walter J. Freeman, who practiced lobotomy (lobotomy in English) from the 1930s and touted it as an effective treatment method until his death in 1972.
In fact, Freeman published many success stories of patients who were able to live independently again after lobotomy. He seems to have neglected the negative consequences of lobotomy in his belief in its usefulness.
Freeman has been particularly criticized for procedures he is alleged to have performed against patients’ will and those in which careful consideration of the benefits and negative consequences of lobotomy did not take place.
Lobotomy: consequences
Long-term systematic studies of the consequences of lobotomy did indeed find improvements in psychiatric symptoms: agitation and disruptive behavior were reduced. However, the studies were also the first to systematically report the serious negative consequences of lobotomy. Symptoms regularly described include:
- Epileptic seizures
- Movement restrictions
- Emotional problems
- Limitations of the ability to think
- Personality changes
- Apathy
- Incontinence
These lobotomy consequences even coined the disease name “post-lobotomy syndrome”. Many relatives of lobotomy victims today demand the withdrawal of the Nobel Prize, which Egas Moniz received in 1949 for the introduction of lobotomy.
Psychosurgery: lobotomy today
Lobotomy has become increasingly rare since the introduction of the first highly effective psychotropic drugs in the 1950s. It has not been performed in Germany since the 1970s. However, brain surgery as a treatment method for neurological and mental disorders is by no means a thing of the past. In severe cases of epilepsy, the targeted removal of brain tissue is a recognized treatment method, and patients with Parkinson’s disease are now recommended deep brain stimulation.
This involves inserting an electrode into the brain to stimulate a specific region, which can alleviate symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Deep brain stimulation is also being researched today to treat mental illnesses such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression.
Lobotomy: film and celebrity victims
The public image of lobotomy is primarily shaped by the blank stares of Jack Nicholson in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” as well as more recent films such as “Sucker Punch” and “Shutter Island,” in which protagonists are threatened with lobotomy.
The case of John F. Kennedy’s sister Rosemary Kennedy also made headlines. She underwent a lobotomy at the age of 23 at the request of her father; as a result of this lobotomy, her mental and physical health was severely damaged.