Lobotomy Cures Psychiatric Disorders
False Assumption: Lobotomy is an effective neurosurgical treatment for psychiatric disorders by severing prefrontal cortex connections.
Summaries Written by FARAgent (AI) on March 20, 2026 · Pending Verification
For a time, lobotomy was sold as modern medicine finally doing something decisive for the insane. In the 1930s, with asylums crowded and psychiatry short on reliable treatments, the idea that mental illness arose from diseased circuits in the frontal lobes had obvious appeal. António Egas Moniz proposed frontal leucotomy in 1935 after animal work and conference talk about chimpanzees that became calmer after frontal lobe lesions. The promise was simple and often repeated: cut the pathological connections, relieve obsession, agitation, depression, and schizophrenia. By the 1940s, Walter Freeman turned that promise into a campaign, presenting lobotomy as a practical answer for institutions, families, and doctors who wanted disturbed patients made manageable.
What followed did not fit the sales pitch. Some patients did become quieter, less anxious, or easier to supervise, but many paid in blunted emotion, apathy, childishness, seizures, incontinence, stupor, and permanent loss of initiative and personality. Mortality was not trivial, and the standard of evidence was loose by modern lights, with crude outcome measures and a habit of counting docility as improvement. Even early reports contained warnings: one-third significantly improved, another third unchanged, another worse was not the triumph the headlines suggested. Yet the procedure spread, won Moniz a Nobel Prize in 1949, and lingered until antipsychotic drugs, public revulsion, and better follow-up made the bargain harder to ignore.
Today, growing evidence suggests the old claim that severing prefrontal connections was an effective treatment for psychiatric disorder was badly overstated. An influential minority of researchers and historians argue that what was called cure often meant sedation, institutional convenience, or the destruction of traits that made patients difficult. Some defenders still note that a few desperate cases seemed to improve in an era with few alternatives. But the current drift of expert judgment is plain enough: the operation’s reputation rested on weak evidence, broad indications, and a willingness to confuse compliance with recovery.
Status: A small but growing and influential group of experts think this was false
People Involved
- António Egas Moniz was the Portuguese neurologist who introduced prefrontal leucotomy in late 1935 after attending the London congress. He performed the first operations on asylum patients, published his initial results the following year claiming the procedure was simple and safe for treating psychoses, and went on to share the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for what he described as its therapeutic value in psychic morbid states such as schizophrenia and depression. His work set the pattern for severing frontal lobe connections to relieve severe symptoms. [1][3][4]
- Walter Freeman was the American neurologist who modified the technique into the transorbital lobotomy and performed the first such operation in the United States in 1936. He traveled the country demonstrating the ice-pick method on thousands of patients, popularizing psychosurgery to the point that roughly 100,000 procedures were eventually carried out worldwide. His advocacy turned a marginal idea into standard practice in American mental hospitals for two decades. [1][2]
- John Fulton was the Yale neuroscientist whose 1935 presentation with Carlyle Jacobsen on chimpanzees showed that frontal lobectomy made the animals more cooperative and less prone to frustration. The data impressed Moniz in the audience and supplied the primate evidence that believers cited for years afterward as proof that cutting frontal connections could calm human psychiatric disorders. Fulton never performed human surgery himself yet his animal work became foundational to the entire enterprise. [2][3]
▶ Supporting Quotes (19)
“The originator of the procedure, Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz, shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine of 1949 for the "discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain psychoses"”— Lobotomy - Wikipedia
“The procedure was modified and championed by Walter Freeman, who performed the first lobotomy at a mental hospital in the United States in 1936.”— Lobotomy - Wikipedia
“Swiss psychiatrist Gottlieb Burckhardt (1836–1907) ... initiated what is commonly considered the first systematic attempt at modern human psychosurgery.”— Lobotomy - Wikipedia
“Frontal leucotomy for psychiatric disease was first proposed by António Egas Moniz (1874–1955) in what is often described as an epiphany that took place at the Second International Neurological Congress of London in 1935”— Editorial. London 1935: the frontal lobe, insanity, and a brain surgery
“after John Fulton, the preeminent Yale neuroscientist, and his colleague Carlyle Jacobsen presented 2 chimpanzees with attenuated frustration behavior after frontal lobotomy.”— Editorial. London 1935: the frontal lobe, insanity, and a brain surgery
“John Fulton, the preeminent Yale neuroscientist, and his colleague Carlyle Jacobsen presented 2 chimpanzees with attenuated frustration behavior after frontal lobotomy.”— Editorial. London 1935: the frontal lobe, insanity, and a brain surgery
“the clinical surgical work of Dandy’s case presented by Brickner appears to have most impressed Moniz. That patient was one of the first to undergo systematic postsurgery neuropsychological testing.”— Editorial. London 1935: the frontal lobe, insanity, and a brain surgery
“As the famed neurosurgeon Penfield once said to Freeman in the early years of lobotomy: “Walter, don’t you realize that you’re doing a very dangerous thing?””— Editorial. London 1935: the frontal lobe, insanity, and a brain surgery
“Moniz put “psychosurgery” on the track where it would reach its zenith and infamous reputation with Walter Freeman, with some 100,000 such surgeries accounted for worldwide”— Editorial. London 1935: the frontal lobe, insanity, and a brain surgery
“Claiming that prefrontal leucotomy was a simple, safe procedure, Moniz accepted the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1949 for discovering and introducing the therapeutic value of this procedure in patients with psychoses.”— The early argument for prefrontal leucotomy: the collision of frontal lobe theory and psychosurgery at the 1935 International Neurological Congress in London
“Moniz was influenced to begin performing leucotomies in part by a presentation by Yale physiologists Carlyle Jacobsen and John Fulton at the Second International Neurological Congress in London in 1935. This report described how a chimpanzee with both frontal lobes surgically removed became more cooperative and willing to accomplish tasks.”— The early argument for prefrontal leucotomy: the collision of frontal lobe theory and psychosurgery at the 1935 International Neurological Congress in London
“neurologist Richard Brickner presented a case of frontal ablation for olfactory meningioma performed by the Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon Walter Dandy.”— The early argument for prefrontal leucotomy: the collision of frontal lobe theory and psychosurgery at the 1935 International Neurological Congress in London
“Swiss psychiatrist Gottlieb Burckhardt performed a series of cortical extirpations in 6 patients presenting primarily with original paranoia and chronic mania.”— The early argument for prefrontal leucotomy: the collision of frontal lobe theory and psychosurgery at the 1935 International Neurological Congress in London
“António Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949... Prize motivation: “for his discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain psychoses” Prize share: 1/2 Work To feel good mentally, nerve impulses in the brain have to function properly. In the mid-1930s Egas Moniz introduced lobotomy... Affiliation at the time of the award: University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal; Neurological Institute, Lisbon, Portugal”— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“It occurred to Moniz that psychic morbid states accompanied by affective tension might be relieved by destroying the frontal lobes or their connections to other parts of the brain. On the basis of this idea Moniz gradually worked out an operative method whose purpose was to interrupt the lines of communication of the frontal lobes to the rest of the brain.”— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“Frontal leucotomy, despite certain limitations of the operative method, must be considered one of the most important discoveries ever made in psychiatric therapy, because through its use a great number of suffering people and total invalids have recovered and have been socially rehabilitated.”— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“British psychiatrist William Sargant met Freeman on a visit to the United States and on his return to England encouraged doctors at the Burden Neurological Institute in Bristol.”— History of psychosurgery in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
“The first leucotomies in the UK were carried out at the Burden Neurological Institute in Bristol and were a collaboration between Frederick Golla, director of the Burden Neurological Institute, Effie Hutton, clinical director of the Burden Neurological Institute, surgeon F. Wilfred Willway”— History of psychosurgery in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
“Follow-up assessments were made by the author in 1952 and again in 1962.”— The Lobotomy Patient—A Decade Later
Organizations Involved
Mental hospitals across the United States and United Kingdom embraced lobotomy as a mainstream procedure from the late 1930s through the 1970s. Administrators welcomed it as a practical way to manage overcrowded wards filled with chronic patients who had failed every other treatment. The operations reduced the need for restraints, ice baths, and constant supervision, allowing staff to handle larger numbers with fewer resources. [1]
The 1935 International Neurological Congress in London organized a special session on the frontal lobe that brought together leading figures and gave the emerging idea an international platform. Presentations there convinced Moniz to begin operating months later. The congress lent scientific respectability to the notion that severing prefrontal connections could treat insanity. [3]
The Nobel Assembly at the Caroline Institute awarded half of the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Moniz for his discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy. The accompanying speech praised it as one of the most important advances in psychiatric therapy. That official endorsement accelerated adoption in hospitals on both sides of the Atlantic. [4][5]
▶ Supporting Quotes (7)
“From the 1930s until the 1970s, the treatment was used for handling psychiatric disorders as a mainstream procedure in some countries.”— Lobotomy - Wikipedia
“the 1935 International Neurological Congress in London hosted a special session on the frontal lobe... the Neurological Congress provided him with a synthesis of the most recent theories of frontal lobe function and neurophysiology.”— The early argument for prefrontal leucotomy: the collision of frontal lobe theory and psychosurgery at the 1935 International Neurological Congress in London
“Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949”— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“The Caroline Institute, through the presentation of this year’s Nobel Prize, desires to reward two important discoveries in the fields of neurophysiology and its clinical application, neurology... the discovery of the prefrontal leucotomy.”— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“The first British psychosurgical operation was performed in Bristol in December 1940, and by the end of 1944 about 1,000 operations had been carried out in the United Kingdom.”— History of psychosurgery in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
“After the results of at the Burden Neurological Institute and Warlingham Park were published, mental hospitals throughout Great Britain began to use psychosurgery. Pioneering hospitals included: Crichton Royal Hospital, Dumfries, Scotland: 142 patients had undergone surgery by the end of 1945.”— History of psychosurgery in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
“Can Med Assoc J. 1967 Apr 15;96(15):1095–1103.”— The Lobotomy Patient—A Decade Later
The Foundation
The core belief held that mental illness arose from abnormal excitations in the association centers of the brain and that creating surgical lesions would disrupt those excitations and restore proper nerve impulse function. Associationist models of brain organization made the idea seem plausible to neurologists of the era. Early clinical reports appeared to confirm that agitated patients became calmer after the cuts. [1][4]
Experiments by John Fulton and Carlyle Jacobsen on chimpanzees demonstrated that frontal lobectomy eliminated experimental neuroses and produced more cooperative animals without obvious sensory or motor loss. The results were presented at the 1935 congress and taken as behavioral evidence that similar surgery could treat human psychiatric disorders. Believers overlooked how poorly the primate model translated to the complexities of human personality. [2][3][5]
Richard Brickner’s presentation of a single human case, a patient of Walter Dandy who had undergone bilateral frontal lobectomy for a meningioma, included systematic neuropsychological testing that showed marked personality changes yet preserved intellect. The case impressed Moniz and reinforced the view that frontal surgery could alter affect without destroying cognition. It became one of the frequently cited pieces of clinical evidence despite being limited to one individual. [2][3]
▶ Supporting Quotes (11)
“Burckhardt's decision to operate was informed by three pervasive views on the nature of mental illness and its relationship to the brain. First, the belief that mental illness was organic in nature, and reflected an underlying brain pathology; next, that the nervous system was organized according to an associationist model ...”— Lobotomy - Wikipedia
“2 chimpanzees with attenuated frustration behavior after frontal lobotomy.”— Editorial. London 1935: the frontal lobe, insanity, and a brain surgery
“the clinical surgical work of Dandy’s case presented by Brickner appears to have most impressed Moniz. That patient was one of the first to undergo systematic postsurgery neuropsychological testing.”— Editorial. London 1935: the frontal lobe, insanity, and a brain surgery
“a chimpanzee with both frontal lobes surgically removed became more cooperative and willing to accomplish tasks.”— The early argument for prefrontal leucotomy: the collision of frontal lobe theory and psychosurgery at the 1935 International Neurological Congress in London
“The injury of a Vermont railroad worker, Phineas Gage, in 1848 was one of the earliest cases to expose frontal lobe associations with decision making, judgment, and personality.”— The early argument for prefrontal leucotomy: the collision of frontal lobe theory and psychosurgery at the 1935 International Neurological Congress in London
“To feel good mentally, nerve impulses in the brain have to function properly. In the mid-1930s Egas Moniz introduced lobotomy, a surgical operation involving an incision into the prefrontal lobe to mitigate severe symptoms of serious mental illnesses.”— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“The American physiologist, Fulton, and his collaborators have proved by experiments on anthropoid apes that neuroses caused experimentally disappeared if the frontal lobes were removed and that it was impossible to cause experimental neuroses in animals deprived of their frontal lobes.”— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“It has long been known that the frontal lobes are of great importance for higher cerebral activity, especially in regard to the emotions, and that the destruction of the frontal lobes, by bullet wounds or brain tumours, lead to certain typical changes of the personality, primarily on the affective plane.”— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“They called their operation, where burr holes are drilled in the side of the skull and the white matter is sliced through in order to sever the connections between the frontal lobes and deeper structures in the brain, lobotomy. In the United Kingdom it became known as the standard Freeman-Watts prefrontal leucotomy.”— History of psychosurgery in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
“Sixty-seven per cent improved sufficiently to live out of hospital, although 26% did have periods of relapse requiring further treatment. The maximum postoperative response usually occurred at six months and was usually maintained subsequently. Most significant complications of lobotomy were epilepsy (12%) and a personality defect (91%).”— The Lobotomy Patient—A Decade Later
“The maximum postoperative response usually occurred at six months and was usually maintained subsequently.”— The Lobotomy Patient—A Decade Later
How It Spread
The 1949 Nobel Prize awarded to Moniz gave the procedure medical prestige and encouraged its rapid spread through institutional channels. Hospitals that had been skeptical now viewed lobotomy as an endorsed treatment rather than an experiment. The prize turned a controversial operation into accepted practice almost overnight. [1][4]
Early results from the Burden Neurological Institute in Bristol and Warlingham Park Hospital were published in The Lancet, prompting mental hospitals across Britain to adopt psychosurgery for chronic and violent patients. The articles framed the operations as a reasonable alternative to therapeutic nihilism. Within a few years more than twenty thousand procedures had been performed in the United Kingdom. [6]
A 1962 follow-up study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported that sixty-seven percent of 116 lobotomized patients had improved enough to live outside hospital. The journal’s peer-reviewed authority helped sustain the belief that the procedure compared favorably with other psychiatric therapies of the time. The same study quietly noted personality defects in ninety-one percent of cases but framed them as acceptable complications. [7]
▶ Supporting Quotes (8)
“António Egas Moniz, shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine of 1949 for the "discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain psychoses" ... Its use increased dramatically from the early 1940s and into the 1950s; by 1951, almost 20,000 lobotomies had been performed in the US”— Lobotomy - Wikipedia
“the 1935 International Neurological Congress in London, which hosted a special session on the frontal lobe... The session brought together luminaries in neurological science, psychiatry, and neurosurgery.”— Editorial. London 1935: the frontal lobe, insanity, and a brain surgery
“Moniz hastened to publish his experience, which he considered successful; he published a monograph regarding it in 1936.”— Editorial. London 1935: the frontal lobe, insanity, and a brain surgery
“Reflecting the intense interest in this region of the brain, the 1935 International Neurological Congress in London hosted a special session on the frontal lobe.”— The early argument for prefrontal leucotomy: the collision of frontal lobe theory and psychosurgery at the 1935 International Neurological Congress in London
“Prize motivation: “for his discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain psychoses””— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“It was soon found that morbid conditions in which emotional tension was a dominating part of the pathological picture reacted very favorably to such operations. To this group of diseases belong, primarily, states of depression accompanied by fear and anxiety, obsessive neuroses, certain forms of persecution mania, and a considerable part of the most important and common of all mental diseases, schizophrenia.”— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“After the results of at the Burden Neurological Institute and Warlingham Park were published, mental hospitals throughout Great Britain began to use psychosurgery.”— History of psychosurgery in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
“The results of this lobotomy study were examined in relationship to current psychiatric therapy, with particular reference to recent clinical experience with lobotomy.”— The Lobotomy Patient—A Decade Later
Resulting Policies
By 1951 nearly twenty thousand lobotomies had been performed in the United States, most of them in state mental hospitals where the operation became standard institutional practice. Administrators justified the surgeries on the grounds that they made patients more manageable and reduced the burden on overcrowded asylums. The procedure was positioned as a pragmatic solution when insulin shock, electroshock, and restraints had all failed. [1]
In the United Kingdom prefrontal leucotomy was offered to asylums as an alternative to therapeutic nihilism for schizophrenia cases with strong affective components, depression, and obsessive neuroses. The first British operations took place in 1940 at the Burden Neurological Institute in collaboration with nearby hospitals. The practice spread quickly to institutions such as Crichton Royal, Graylingwell, Belmont, and Runwell. [6]
The Mental Health Act 1983 later restricted psychosurgery in Britain to consenting patients who received approval from the Mental Health Act Commission. The legislation reflected growing discomfort with the earlier era of widespread, non-consensual operations. By then the assumption that lobotomy cured psychiatric disorders had already lost most of its momentum. [6]
▶ Supporting Quotes (7)
“A preoccupation with the ability to work and personal responsibility over patient well-being were contributing factors to the prevalence of lobotomies in the United States.”— Lobotomy - Wikipedia
“Lobotomy held forth the prospect of curing psychiatric disease—a huge social problem for which no good treatment options were available at the time. It also offered an alternative to the therapeutic nihilism of the century before, and a calmer complement to violent insulin shock, electroshock, straitjackets, ice baths, and restraints”— Editorial. London 1935: the frontal lobe, insanity, and a brain surgery
“Shortly thereafter, Moniz began performing prefrontal leucotomies, a practice subsequently adapted to lobotomy and popularized by George Washington University neurologist Walter Freeman in the US.”— The early argument for prefrontal leucotomy: the collision of frontal lobe theory and psychosurgery at the 1935 International Neurological Congress in London
“The operation was widespread during the 1940s and 1950s”— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“Within the schizophrenic group... quite a few cases can be released from the mental hospitals, some of them after having fully regained the capacity for work. In other less favourable cases, the nursing problem will be much simplified by the fact that the patient, after operation, can be kept in a «quiet» ward.”— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“The Mental Health Act 1983 specified that psychosurgery could only be carried out on consenting patients, and then only with the approval of the Mental Health Act Commission.”— History of psychosurgery in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
“It was concluded that if prefrontal lobotomy is used for selected cases of intractable mental disorder only, it has probably found its proper place in psychiatric treatment.”— The Lobotomy Patient—A Decade Later
Harm Caused
Patients who underwent the procedure frequently suffered stupor, incontinence, enormous appetite, seizures, and outright personality erasure. Roughly five percent died during or shortly after surgery. Many survivors were left emotionally blunted, intellectually restricted, and described by their own surgeons as having the personality of an oyster. [1]
In the United Kingdom more than twenty thousand psychosurgical operations were carried out, with early surveys showing a six percent death rate. Epilepsy, incontinence, and intellectual deterioration were common. The procedure was sometimes performed on young adults and even children. [6]
The 1962 Canadian follow-up study found that twelve percent of patients developed epilepsy and ninety-one percent showed personality defects. Twenty-six percent of those who had initially improved later relapsed and required re-institutionalization. The study’s author still concluded that lobotomy had a proper place in selected intractable cases. [7]
▶ Supporting Quotes (10)
“Historically, patients of frontal lobotomy were, immediately following surgery, often stuporous and incontinent. Some developed an enormous appetite and gained considerable weight. Seizures were another common complication of surgery. ... On average, there was a mortality rate of approximately 5% during the 1940s.”— Lobotomy - Wikipedia
“Walter Freeman coined the term "surgically induced childhood" ... He described one 29-year-old woman as being, following lobotomy, a "smiling, lazy and satisfactory patient with the personality of an oyster"”— Lobotomy - Wikipedia
“Postoperative complications as well as cognitive changes were reported for each patient. One-third were reported significantly improved, one-third somewhat improved, and one-third unchanged.”— Editorial. London 1935: the frontal lobe, insanity, and a brain surgery
“with some 100,000 such surgeries accounted for worldwide by an editorial in the British Medical Journal in 1971.”— Editorial. London 1935: the frontal lobe, insanity, and a brain surgery
“Although the unrefined and brutal nature of the leucotomy... Moniz was later shot by one of his patients who was experiencing psychoses and who had not yet undergone the leucotomy procedure.”— The early argument for prefrontal leucotomy: the collision of frontal lobe theory and psychosurgery at the 1935 International Neurological Congress in London
“but it became apparent that it could lead to serious personality changes.”— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“Without doubt there are, after double-sided leucotomy, changes of personality of the same type as observed after the destruction of the frontal lobes through other causes. When it becomes a question of persons who are complete invalids because of sickness, this may be of small importance.”— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“In total, over 20,000 people have undergone psychosurgical operations in the United Kingdom. Overall in the Board of Control survey six per cent of patients had died (half of them directly as a result of the operation); 36 per cent”— History of psychosurgery in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
“Most significant complications of lobotomy were epilepsy (12%) and a personality defect (91%).”— The Lobotomy Patient—A Decade Later
“Of the 3,500 lobotomies he performed or supervised during his career, an estimated 490 individuals died”— Psychosurgery, ethics, and media: a history of Walter Freeman and the lobotomy
Downfall
The introduction of antipsychotic medications in the mid-1950s, beginning with chlorpromazine, provided symptom relief without destroying frontal lobe function and caused a rapid decline in lobotomies. Hospitals that had once performed hundreds of operations per year largely abandoned the procedure within a few years. Growing evidence suggested the surgical approach had been a costly mistake. [1][3][4]
By the late 1950s the operation was increasingly viewed with skepticism and outright horror in both medical circles and the wider public. The Soviet Union banned psychosurgery in 1950 on ideological grounds, and European countries followed suit as safer pharmacological options became available. The assumption that severing prefrontal connections cured psychiatric disorders lost its institutional support. [1][6]
Although a small number of neurosurgeons continued to defend highly selective use of psychosurgery into the 1960s and beyond, the broad consensus that had once embraced lobotomy as a major therapeutic advance had evaporated. The recognition that the procedure caused serious and lasting harm is now growing, yet the debate over its place in medical history is not entirely settled. [2][5]
▶ Supporting Quotes (6)
“From the 1950s onward, lobotomy began to be abandoned, first in the Soviet Union, where the procedure immediately garnered extensive criticism and was not widely employed, before being banned in December 1950, and then Europe. ... the development of antipsychotic medications led to a rapid decline in lobotomy's popularity”— Lobotomy - Wikipedia
“Moniz’s initial reports were greeted with some hostility. He was accused of creating a “cerebral mythology”... adoption in Europe was relatively slow. Only 6 had been performed in Great Britain before 1942... becoming viewed in the 1950s and 1960s with increasing skepticism and doubt, and even as horrific by some.”— Editorial. London 1935: the frontal lobe, insanity, and a brain surgery
“as well as the introduction of antipsychotic drugs such as chlorpromazine, led to the procedure falling out of favor in the mid-1950s”— The early argument for prefrontal leucotomy: the collision of frontal lobe theory and psychosurgery at the 1935 International Neurological Congress in London
“The use of lobotomies declined drastically when medications for mental illness were developed during the 1950s.”— Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949
“Reasons for this decline included increasing concern about the deaths and damage caused by the operation, the introduction of neuroleptic drugs, and changing ideas about the nature and treatment of mental illness.”— History of psychosurgery in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia
“Torsten Wiesel remarked that Moniz's 1949 prize 'was a terrible mistake that caused permanent damage to thousands of patients'”— The Legacy of Egas Moniz: Triumphs and Controversies in Medical Innovation
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