Hey, we’re mentioned in the New England Journal of Medicine. You’ll need a subscription to see the full-text article.

Last-Ditch Medical Therapy — Revisiting Lobotomy

Desperate times call for desperate measures. So thought Walter J. Freeman, a neurologist who became the United States’s staunchest advocate of the lobotomy between the 1930s and the 1970s. A new book, The Lobotomist, by journalist Jack El-Hai,1 chronicles Freeman’s advocacy of a procedure that was viewed by many, and continues to be viewed, as barbaric. In exploring the ways in which lobotomy became part of common medical practice, El-Hai raises questions not only about how we should judge the procedure in retrospect, but also about what lobotomy teaches us about last-ditch medical interventions.

Psychosurgery.org is deeply gratified by the overwhelming positive response to the Associated Press article. If you are as shocked as we are by the Nobel Foundation’s snarky attitude, and as upset by the way they are dodging responsibility in this matter, please write them at comments@nobel.se and tell them that the only decent thing to do is REVOKE Egas Moniz’s Nobel Prize.

To any Nobel Laureates that are reading this - please contact Christine at christine@psychosurgery.org and tell us what you think of this situation. We think that the Nobel Prize for lobotomy sullies all of the other Prizes. You should not have to be associated with a human rights violation like psychosurgery. We hope that you will support us in our struggle for justice. We need your help.

Thank you to all the kind people out there …

I’m posting this because the man in the story was a lobotomy victim:

A HUMAN skeleton found in the field in Holywell had to be identified by scars on the bones on the remains.

Mystery will forever surround the death of Ronald Shaw, 71, who disappeared from his home in Ellesmere Port on July 28 last year.

Mr Shaw (pictured), an ex-serviceman, was a diagnosed schizophrenic and was commonly known as a wanderer.

…

Mr Raymond Shaw described his brother as very fastidious and had a particular peculiarity in that he would keep a running diary of his daily events. A vital piece of evidence in identifying the body was the scarring on the skull from a lucotomy (lobotomy) operation Mr Shaw had undergone as a child.

read the rest

Thank you Tom Cruise - I have thoroughly enjoyed watching all the hoopla surrounding your stand against psychiatry. People are talking. They are thinking. It’s very exciting.

I take back saying that I wish you’d be quiet about it. I hope you never shut up about it.

Salon went all twitchy in today’s edition. It is quite a hatchet job that is heavy on invective (the scientology anti-drug program is described as having “infiltrated” the area schools) and short on actual discussion. For example, they claim that scientology has opportunistically jumped on the anti-Ritalin bandwagon, but they don’t address the fact that many people who would never dream of joining an alternate religion legitimately feel that Ritalin is seriously over prescribed. In other words, you don’t have to be a scientologist to be deeply suspicious of psychiatry.

Brooke Shields came out with a response in the New York Times today too. She wrote:

In a strange way, it was comforting to me when my obstetrician told me that my feelings of extreme despair and my suicidal thoughts were directly tied to a biochemical shift in my body.

Brooke - the cause of post partum depression and psychosis has not been proved no matter what your shrink told you. Under the heading “Causes, incidence, and risk factors” of postpartum depression the National Library of Medicine lists the following:

You have a higher chance of post-partum depression if:

• You had mood or anxiety disorders prior to pregnancy, including depression with a previous pregnancy
• You have a close family member who has had depression or anxiety
• Anything particularly stressful happened to you during the pregnancy, including illness, death or illness of a loved one, a difficult or emergency delivery, premature delivery, or illness or abnormality in the baby
• You are in your teens or over age 30
• The pregnancy is unwanted or unplanned
• You currently abuse alcohol, take illegal substances, or smoke — these are also serious medical health risks for the baby

Nary a word about serotonin. In fact, most of the listings are emotional factors. Interesting.