All those against
Lobotomies, raise your
hand…
Alex Covert
10/20/1965
Pendleton Mental Health Conference
What is a lobotomy?
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Its Greek. Lobe or
brain and tome or cut is
what a lobotomy is.
It’s a neurosurgical
(brain) procedure.
It consists of cutting the
connections to and from
the front part of the
brain, called the frontal
lobes.
Lobotomy for whom?
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Lobotomies were used to
treat a wide range of severe
disorders.
If you had schizophrenia,
clinical depression, and
various anxiety disorders, a
lobotomy for you.
If you are a nuisance or if
you demonstrate bad
behavior like “moodiness"
or "youthful defiance", a
lobotomy for you.
Where did it come from?
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It started in 1890, when Dr.
Gottlieb Burckhardt from
Switzerland removed pieces
of the frontal lobes of six
patients in a hospital.
Burckhardt claimed a 50%
success rate, by that three of
them felt better and more
happy
No one knows what the
other three felt like
More History
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Burckhardt said in 1891 "Doctors are different by
nature. One kind adheres to the old principle: first,
do no harm; the other one says: it is better to do
something than do nothing. Burckhardt belong to
the second part”. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
More History from Latin America
to America
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In 1935, Portuguese Dr.
António Egas Moniz stated
a new lobotomy procedure
by drilling holes in the
patient's head and
destroying tissue in the
frontal lobes by injecting
alcohol in it. In 1949, He
was actually given the
Nobel Prize for medicine for
this work.
America’s way to deal
with the sick
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It didn’t hit the US until 1936 when Dr. Walter
Freeman and Dr. James W. Watts, performed the first
lobotomy.
Walter Freeman believed this surgery would be
unavailable to those he saw as needing it most:
patients in state mental hospitals having no operating
rooms, surgeons, or anesthesia, and limited budgets.
Freeman wanted to simplify the procedure so that it
could be carried out by psychiatrists in mental
asylums, which housed roughly 600,000 American
inpatients at the time. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
The How-To
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The new and improved
procedure from Freeman
involved lifting the upper
eyelid and placing the point
of a thin surgical instrument
under the eyelid and against
the top of the eyesocket.
Then the doctor would used
a hammer to break the bone
into the brain.
Once in the brain, a knife
would cut the nerve fibers
connecting the frontal lobes
to the rest of the brain.
Wait, the USSR Stopped
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With the side effects growing
many grew concerned about the
practice of lobotomy. The USSR
banned the procedure in 1950.
Doctors in the Soviet Union
concluded that the procedure was
"contrary to the principles of
humanity" and that it turned "an
insane person into an idiot."
Lobotomy continued to be legally
practiced and regulated the U.S.,
Finland, Sweden, Norway and the
United Kingdom.
Yet the Procedure Continues
Country/ Region
Number of Procedures Done
United States
40,000
Great Britain (England, Wales, and 17,000
Scotland)
Scandinavian (Sweden, Finland, and 9,300
Norway)
(Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Famous Victims of
the Lobotomies
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Rosemary Kennedy, the sister of
President John F. Kennedy, was
given a lobotomy when her father
complained to doctors about the
23-year-old's moodiness.
Dr. Walter Freeman did the
procedure himself, as he was the
expect in the field. Rather than
any improvement, the lobotomy
reduced Rosemary to an infantile
mentality including incontinence.
Her verbal skills were reduced to
unintelligible babble. (Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia)
More Famous Victims of
the Lobotomies
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The older sister of
playwright Tennessee
Williams, Rose, received a
lobotomy which left her
incapacitated for life and
provided inspiration for his
plays Suddenly, Last
Summer, The Glass
Menagerie and the character
Blanche in his play A
Streetcar Named Desire.
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
Vivien Leigh as Blanche
(Rose) in “A Streetcar
Named Desire”
One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest
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Lobotomies have been featured in several novel that
has allowed much change to happen is society and
medical world. One such feature was found in Ken
Kesey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
and its 1975 movie adaptation.
One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest
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In the novel, many of the patients in the ward receive
lobotomies in order to discipline or to calm them. The
operation is described as brutal and abusive, a
"frontal-lobe castration." The book's narrator, Chief
Bromden, is shocked: "There's nothin' in the face. Just
like one of those store dummies." He also said "You
can see by his eyes how they burned him out over
there; his eyes are all smoked up and gray and
deserted inside.“ (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)
One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest
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The main character, McMurphy, also receives a
lobotomy and at the end of the novel is in a vegetative
state, no longer himself. Chief does not want any of
the other patients see McMurphy in this condition
because then Nurse Ratched would have won in
breaking him and the ward at her own will. As a
result, Chief covers his face with a pillow during the
night, so that he can die as he would have wanted.
The End
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Thank you for your
attention and I hope one day
that these unnecessary
procedures will become
apart of the distance past of
this country and the world
and with your help this
could happen.
Please contact your
Congressman for the needed
change! You never know
you could end up on the
table…
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A table that would have
been used in the procedure.