Lobotomy Medical Horror
How did lobotomy cross ethical lines?
4.4 (21)
63 mins
Explore the history of lobotomy as a once-common medical procedure used to treat severe mental illness in the early to mid-20th century. Discover how surgeons believed altering brain connections could calm patients, despite limited understanding of long-term effects. Learn about how the procedure later became widely criticized due to its severe and often irreversible consequences.
Ep 1:
The Ice Pick That Started It All
From ancient trepanation to Phineas Gage's shattered skull, discover how a Kennedy daughter's ruined mind and a 1935 London lecture set medicine on a horrifying course.
Ep 2:
The Doctor, the Knife, and the Van
Egas Moniz drills into a woman's skull in Lisbon, and across the ocean showman Walter Freeman transforms his crude leucotomy into a terrifying ten-minute ice pick procedure.
Discussions (10)
Howard
Level 8 · 2 mo agoNobel Prize for ice pick crimes
Ora
Level 7 · 2 mo agoNobel Prize for literally stabbing people in the brain through their eye socket. Science was really out here doing its best work.
Robert
Level 3 · 2 mo agoThe part about families being so desperate they'd try anything hits hard. When you watch someone suffer for years with no options, 'drastic' starts to sound like 'merciful.'
