This 11-minute video chronicles the rise and fall of the prefrontal lobotomy as a form of treatment for a range of mental health disorders. It shows students how Dr. Walter Freeman became a medical celebrity by championing the use of lobotomy, and how the lobotomy’s growth as a treatment option was stanched by Freeman’s ethical lapses and the arrival of the first generation of antipsychotic drugs. After explaining the decline of psychosurgery and Freeman’s eventual disgrace, the video discusses cutting-edge research that is fueling a renewed interest in physical manipulation of the brain as a form of treatment. Useful for lessons on biological approaches in clinical psychology or on the biological bases of human behavior, the video can spark a discussion about medical ethics, and how mistakes of the past can help scientists make better decisions in the rapidly unfolding future of psychiatric neurosurgery.
Lobotomy: A Dangerous Fad’s Lingering Effect on Mental Illness Treatment
From the 1930s to the 1950s a radical surgery – the Lobotomy – would forever change our understanding and treatment of the mentally ill.
For centuries scientists have studied the brain and still our understanding, particularly when it comes to the treatment for those suffering with severe, often untreatable mental illness, remains elusive. As scientists around the world are beginning ambitious programs to study the human brain in unprecedented ways, Retro Report explores the evolution of the surgical and biological treatments over the decades. From the brutal, but once considered mainstream treatment of lobotomy to biological cocktails, to the beginnings of what many hope will be a more elegant understanding of the brain through technology.
Related: The Quest for a Psychiatric Cure by Clyde Haberman
- Lesson plan 1: Psychology: The Lobotomy and Understanding the Brain
- Read transcript
- Producer: Barbara Dury
- Producer: Margaret M. Ebrahim
- Editor: Sandrine Isambert
- Associate Producer: Olivia Katrandjian