In this episode, Katie is bewitched by lobotomies.
The U.S. has a long and tragic history of barbaric and inhumane treatment of people living with mental illnesses. From overcrowded institutions to painful experimental treatments, patients were subjected to the unthinkable. Admittance to a state hospital was tantamount to a death sentence served in inhumane conditions. Then, a promising young neurologist introduced a new procedure inspired by the work of a Portuguese physician. Walter Freeman and the prefrontal lobotomy offered the promise of returning a patient home in a year or less. To many, this psychosurgery was seen as a miracle. But as thousands of unconsenting patients had the connections in their prefrontal cortexes severed by leucotomes and orbitoclasts, the true costs of the procedure were slowly revealed.
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If you are interested in any of the books we talk about in this episode, please consider purchasing them through our affiliate link with Bookshop.org!
Sources:
The Strange and Curious History of the Lobotomy
My Lobotomy: Howard Dully's Journey
Psychosurgery, Ethics, and Media: A History of Walter Freeman and the Lobotomy
A Hole in the Head: A History of Trepanation
America's Long-Suffering Mental Health System
The Secret Lobotomy of Rosemary Kennedy
Mental Illness in Black Community, 1700-2019: A Short History
The Village at Grand Traverse Common: History
