For several decades during the last century, the surgical procedure known as lobotomy was widely practiced in mental institutions and doctors offices across the nation as a cure for severe mental illnesses, including depression, aggressive and erratic behavior. The surgery, which was essentially the insertion of a long needle into the patients eye sockets and then into their brain's frontal lobes, took just a few minutes, but forever altered their lives. They were calmer, sure--but they also lost physical and mental function. Many became childlike, some later revered to their symptomatic behavior. Several died.
Healer or Monster?
The surgical procedure was invented by Dr. Walter Freeman, an ambitious physician who was researching ways of relieving severe depression, aggressively and other mental disorders which were putting patients into long-term institutionalization, the horrors of which had been notoriously exposed in a Life Magazine(May 6, 1946) article entitled Bedlam 1946. The article's shocking photos of patients in state mental hospitals, specifically Pennsylvania's Byberry and Ohio's Cleveland State, called to mind images of emaciated and disoriented victims who, at the end of World War II, were released from Nazi concentration camps. The world was ready to see an end to inhumane institutionalization. These were the days before the availability of mood-altering pharmaceuticals, and Dr. Freeman's little surgical procedure--first performed with an ice pick--seemed to be what would do the trick. Even after tranquilizers and antidepressants were introduced, Dr. Freeman traveled across the nation lobotomizing mental patients. Teaching others to perform the fifteen minute operation, he set up assembly line-like surgeries, doing up to two dozen lobotomies in a day, often on patients who hadn't been consulted nor had they consented to the procedure that, basically, put an end to mental and physical functions controlled in their brains' frontal lobes. The record number of lobotomies done by one doctor in one day was, according to this film, 75. Line them up, stick an ice pick through their eye sockets and stab them in the brain. It was barbaric. We see it in the film in archival footage.
Lest We Forget
The film profiles Dr. Freeman as a brilliant and very ambitious physician who sought and enjoyed medical celebrity status. Although the results of his work ranged from making patients happier to turning them into vegetables, Freeman's reign as the world's chief lobotomizer came to an abrupt end when one of his patients died of a brain hemorrhage.
Lobotomy is still performed today, but only rarely. One of its effects is that patients lose their memories. And, long term, we see that many people who were treated with lobotomies, actually became victims of the procedure. It's important that the negative effects of the surgery and its unquestioned widespread practice are not forgotten. The long-term suffering of lobotomy patients is unconscionable, and this fascinating film will keep us from forgetting about them.
Why wasn't Freeman stopped or censured? He was providing a simple solution to an ongoing and pressing problem, as we see in the film, which serves as a timely and compelling cautionary tale about medicine gone amuck. It's a film that at times is hard to watch, but it's a must see.
]
If you like this film, you may also like:
Film Details:
- Release Date: January, 2008 (broadcast)
- Running Time: 60 mins.
- Parental Guidance: Some disturbing images
- Locations: United States
- Language: English
- Directors: Barak Goodman and John Maggio
- Distribution: Public Broadcasting System/The American Experience
