You get to vote!

If anyone is in London on Tuesday 18th July why not got along to the Royal Institution where an event called "From Bad to worst: the worst ideas on the mind" is being held.

"From bad to worse: the worst ideas on the mind

Prof Edgar Jones , Dr Joanna Moncrieff , Richard Webster , Prof Simon Wessely

The human mind is complex, mysterious and vital to who we are, so it's probably no surprise that over the years some treatments for mental conditions have turned out to be complicated, ridiculous and damaging to patients. In this fun and interactive event four experts will each name and shame an idea from psychiatric history and try to get the audience to name it ‘worst idea on the mind’.

As ideas on the mind go, it’s tough to get much bigger than psychotherapy. Invented by the psychological legend Sigmund Freud in the 1890s, it’s been one of the most common mental therapies ever since. But has it led to more sagging therapist’s couches than actual good? Leucotomy is better known as a prefrontal lobotomy, and is a famously radical surgical therapy that can dramatically change a patient’s behaviour. It hasn’t been practised widely since the 1950s – could it be the worst-ever idea on the mind?

It might be surprising to see post-trauma counselling nominated as the worst idea – or even a bad idea – on the mind. But some studies have shown that forcing people to talk to therapists soon after a traumatic event may actually hinder their natural coping mechanisms and make them more likely to develop psychological problems in the future. Finally, drug company advertising may be a new idea, but it’s also been nominated as the worst. If you’ve ever been exhorted to ‘ask your doctor’ about a new medication you might want to come along and see what our panel has to say.

So which of these ideas on the mind should never have entered our heads? In the end it will be the audience who decides as it all goes to a vote and one idea takes the most dubious honour in psychiatry."

Judging from the brief biographies of the participants, it is diffult to see who will be presenting the case against leucotomy. Joanna Moncrieff will presumably be paired up with drug advertising; and Richard Webster with Freud. But that leaves Simon Wessely and Edgar Jones, both of whom have a particular interest in military psychiatry and neither of whom, as far as I know, have ever written anything about psychosurgery.