Archives of the New York Times

Thank you very much to a good friend of Psychosurgery.org who pointed out that the New York Times online archives now go back to 1851. Here is a list of articles they have in their database regarding lobotomy. Because of copyright restrictions I can only provide the abstract and a link to the archive where you can purchase the articles. The titles and abstracts alone speak volumes. We start from the oldest article which appeared in 1937.

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Surgery Used on the Soul-Sick Relief of Obsessions Is Reported:New Brain Technique Is Said to Have Aided 65% of the Mentally Ill Persons on Whom It Was Tried as Last Resort, but Some Leading Neur

ologists Are Highly Skeptical of It

By WILLIAM L. LAURENCE, Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.. New York Times June 7, 1937. pg. 1, 2 pgs

A new surgical technique, known as “psycho-surgery,” which, it is claimed, cuts away sick parts of the human personality, and transforms wild animals into gentle creatures in the course of a few hours, will be demonstrated here tomorrow at the Comprehensive Scientific Exhibit of the American Medical Association, which is holding its eighty-eighth annual assembly here this week.

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NOTES ON SCIENCE:Operations on the Brain for Insanity — ‘Cat Cracker’ New York Times Dec 5, 1943. pg. E9, 1 pgs

Some hope is held out in The Journal of the American Medical Association by Drs. A.E. Bennet, J.J. Keegan and C.B. Wilbur that cases of schizophrenia, otherwise known as dementia praecox, may be restored to something like social sanity by removing a lobe of the brain with a tube inserted through a hole drilled in the skull.

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OPERATE ON BRAIN TO REFORM WOMAN:Detroit Doctors Report Unusual Surgery Which May End Her Criminal Tendencies

By WALTER W. RUCH New York Times New York, N.Y.: Dec 7, 1946. pg. 23, 1 pgs

DETROIT, Dec. 6–A delicate brain operation, performed in the hope of turning a morally degenerate woman into a useful member of society, was reported today by staff physicians of the Wayne County General Hospital.

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KNIFE AIDS MENTALLY ILL:Committee Praises Pre-frontal Lobotomies in Connecticut Mar 22, 1947. pg. 11, 1 pgs

Article types: article Section: BOOKS

ISSN/ISBN: 03624331 Text Word Count 181

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PERSONALITY SHIFT IS LAID TO SURGERY:Stockholm Psychiatrist Warns Against a Wide Use of Pain- Easing Brain Operation

Dec 14, 1947. pg. 51, 1 pgs

A warning that personality changes might result from frontal obotomy, the comparatively new brain operation that relieves pain, was voiced yesterday before 700 doctors here by Dr. Gosta Rylander of the Royal Caroline Institute, Stockholm.

Medical, Economic Gains Reported For the United States During 1947:ADVANCES IN U.S. DURING ‘47 NOTED

By The Associated Press. Dec 26, 1947. pg. 1, 2 pgs

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25 — Missing a collision with a comet is not the only pleasant thing that happened to the earth in 1947, at least to the United States.

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SURGERY RESTORES ‘INCURABLY’ INSANE:Revolutionary Brain Operation Called Topectomy Removes Tissues in Certain Areas Mar 19, 1948. pg. 25, 2 pgs

A revolutionary discovery about mental illness, which has already resulted in surgical cures with no apparent ill effects for a group of asylum inmates who had been considered hopelessly insane, was revealed to a specially called meeting at the New York Society of Neuro-surgery yesterday.

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SURGERY FOR THE MIND Apr 3, 1948. pg. 14, 1 pgs

The new brain operation known as topectomy, on which a report has recently been made to the New York Society of Neurosurgery, may prove to be a boon in many cases of mental illness which were formerly regarded as incurable. The Columbia-Greystone Associates in Problems of the Human Frontal Lobe, who conducted the preliminary study of the new operative technique at Columbia University and observed …

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ILL YOUTHS’ PLIGHT CALLED ‘EXTREME’:Psychiatrists Hear U.S.Termed ‘Morally Derelict’ in Lack of Care for Mentally Sick

BY LUCY FREEMAN May 21, 1948. pg. 26, 1 pgs

WASHINGTON, May 20 — This nation is “morally derelict” as well as “economically foolhardy” in not providing adequate hospital care for its mentally ill adolescents, it was charged today by Dr. Herbert A. Perry and Dr. Sol Levy of Eastern Slate Hospital, Medical Lake, Washington.

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DR. KNIGHT ASSAILS ‘STRONG-ARM CURE’:Psychiatrist Scores ‘Beating Illness Out’ — Urges ‘Gentle’ Approach to Patients By LUCY FREEMAN. Jun 6, 1948. pg. 48, 1 pgs

The indiscriminate use of “strong-arm” methods of psychotherapy such as electro-shock, injections of sodium amytol and lobotomy were attacked yesterday by Dr. Robert P. Knight, one of the nation’s leading psychiatrists.

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BODY PAIN IS ENDED BY BRAIN SURGERY:Dr. Scarff of Columbia Reports on ‘Isolation’ of Prefrontal Lobes of Ten Patients ‘NERVOUS PATHWAYS’ CUT Relief Complete in 7 Cases, Considerable in 2, Surgeon Tells Neurological Group

Jun 17, 1948. pg. 27, 1 pgs

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J., June 16 — A new type of brain surgery has been successful in relieving body pain of an intolerable and incurable nature, it was reported today to the seventy-third annual meeting of the American Neurological Association.

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NOTES ON SCIENCE:Conference on Psychosurgery — Petroleum Running Out Jul 11, 1948. pg. E11, 1 pgs

Energetic Dr. Walter Freeman of Washington, D.C., has organized a committee of surgeons and neurologists who have in turn made arrangements for an International Conference on Psychosurgery to be held in Lisbon from Aug. 3 to Aug. 7. Representatives of the more important European and South American countries will be on hand to discuss prefrontal lobotomy, an operation on the frontal lobes of the brain, …

Medical, Economic Gains Reported For the United States During 1947:ADVANCES IN U.S. DURING ‘47 NOTED

By The Associated Press. Dec 26, 1947. pg. 1, 2 pgs

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25 — Missing a collision with a comet is not the only pleasant thing that happened to the earth in 1947, at least to the United States.

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SURGERY RESTORES ‘INCURABLY’ INSANE:Revolutionary Brain Operation Called Topectomy Removes Tissues in Certain Areas Mar 19, 1948. pg. 25, 2 pgs

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SURGERY FOR THE MIND Apr 3, 1948. pg. 14, 1 pgs

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ILL YOUTHS’ PLIGHT CALLED ‘EXTREME’:Psychiatrists Hear U.S.Termed ‘Morally Derelict’ in Lack of Care for Mentally Sick

BY LUCY FREEMAN May 21, 1948. pg. 26, 1 pgs

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DR. KNIGHT ASSAILS ‘STRONG-ARM CURE’:Psychiatrist Scores ‘Beating Illness Out’ — Urges ‘Gentle’ Approach to Patients By LUCY FREEMAN. Jun 6, 1948. pg. 48, 1 pgs

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Jun 17, 1948. pg. 27, 1 pgs

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NOTES ON SCIENCE:Conference on Psychosurgery — Petroleum Running Out Jul 11, 1948. pg. E11, 1 pgs

Medical, Economic Gains Reported For the United States During 1947:ADVANCES IN U.S. DURING ‘47 NOTED

By The Associated Press. Dec 26, 1947. pg. 1, 2 pgs

WASHINGTON, Dec. 25 — Missing a collision with a comet is not the only pleasant thing that happened to the earth in 1947, at least to the United States.

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SURGERY RESTORES ‘INCURABLY’ INSANE:Revolutionary Brain Operation Called Topectomy Removes Tissues in Certain Areas Mar 19, 1948. pg. 25, 2 pgs

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SURGERY FOR THE MIND Apr 3, 1948. pg. 14, 1 pgs

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ILL YOUTHS’ PLIGHT CALLED ‘EXTREME’:Psychiatrists Hear U.S.Termed ‘Morally Derelict’ in Lack of Care for Mentally Sick

BY LUCY FREEMAN May 21, 1948. pg. 26, 1 pgs

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DR. KNIGHT ASSAILS ‘STRONG-ARM CURE’:Psychiatrist Scores ‘Beating Illness Out’ — Urges ‘Gentle’ Approach to Patients By LUCY FREEMAN. Jun 6, 1948. pg. 48, 1 pgs

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Jun 17, 1948. pg. 27, 1 pgs

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NOTES ON SCIENCE:Conference on Psychosurgery — Petroleum Running Out Jul 11, 1948. pg. E11, 1 pgs

STATE MENTAL CARE ENTERING NEW ERA:More Treatment and Research Are Replacing Mere Custody Survey of Hospitals Shows MANY CRITICISMS OFFERED But System’s Head says Those Who Find Fault Do Not Grasp the Difficulties Involved STATE MENTAL CARE ENTERING NEW ERA

By LUCY FREEMAN. Sep 14, 1948. pg. 31, 2 pgs

Institutions for the mentally ill in New York State are slowly shifting their programs from mere custodial care to treatment and research, a survey by THE NEW YORK TIMES disclosed yesterday.

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New Tests Devised to Gauge Results of Brain Operation for Emotional Disorders By WALDEMAR KAEMPFFERT. Sep 26, 1948. pg. E9, 1 pgs

An operation on the brain called “prefrontal lobotomy” has been performed for the last ten years on persons suffering from worries, persecution complexes, suicidal impulses, obsessions and nervous tensions. The operation was suggested by the Portuguese neurologist, Dr. Egaz Moniz, about thirteen years ago and first carried out under his direction by the Portuguese surgeon, Dr. Almeida Lima.

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MENTAL AID FOUND IN BRAIN SURGERY:But Dr. Strecker Asserts It Is Last Resort and Only Few Patients Require It By LUCY FREEMAN Apr 15, 1949. pg. 26, 1 pgs

PHILADELPHIA, April 14 — Taking a stand on one of psychiatry’s most controversial issues, the value of brain operations in mental illness, Dr. Edward A. Strecker, noted psychiatrist, reported today that in examining thousands of patients he had found only eighteen for whom he recommended psycho-surgery.

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WIDER DATA URGED IN BRAIN SURGERY:’ Hopeless’ Patients Still Pose an Operational Challenge, State AMA Delegates Told By ROBERT PLUMB May 7, 1949. pg. 9, 1 pgs

BUFFALO, May 6 — Medical experience with brain surgery in the treatment of persons “hopelessly” insane is not broad enough yet to provide any definite conclusions about operational techniques or the selection of patients. This was brought out today in the scientific program of the New York State Medical Society’s meeting here.

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GAINS MADE IN HELP TO SCHIZOPHRENICS May 11, 1949. pg. 8, 1 pgs

WHITE PLAINS, N. Y., May 10 — Use of electric shock therapy as part of the treatment of 100 schizophrenic patients at the Westchester Division here of the New York Hospital produced results twice as successful as under earlier systems of treatment, the hospital said today in its annual report for 1948.

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SURGERY OF BRAIN STUDIED IN REPORT:Psychologists in Denver Hear Mental Ills Are Curbed but ‘Self-Continuity’ Suffers

By LUCY FREEMAN Sep 9, 1949. pg. 23, 1 pgs

DENVER, Sept, 8 — Persons who undergo brain surgery for mental illness lose their emotional tensions but also lose a feeling of “self-continuity” and do not seem to care very much what happens to themselves or to other people, it was revealed today by Dr. Walter Freeman and Dr. James W. Watts, the two surgeons who have pioneered in America in psychosurgery.

FREUD’S DAUGHTER MAPS CHILD STUDY:She Sees Aid for Youngsters Through Psychoanalysis– To Continue Research Loss of Mother “Greatest Harm” Superficial Knowledge Hit

By DOROTHY BARCLAY Apr 21, 1950. pg. 26, 1 pgs

WORCESTER, Mass., April 20 –Miss Anna Freud of London, psychoanalyst daughter of Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, held her first press conference in the United States today and for an hour answered or parried questions on psychiatric matter …

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PIONEER SEES PERIL IN BRAIN OPERATION:Neurologist to Limit His Use of Pre-Frontal Lobotomies Because of Harsh Effect Operation Less Effective Cure” Questioned By LUCY FREEMAN May 5, 1950. pg. 19, 1 pgs

DETROIT, May 4–Dr. Walter Freeman, the neurologist who introduced brain surgery for the mentally ill to this country, announced today that he was giving …

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‘CONFESSIONS’ TO REDS ARE LAID TO SURGERY Sep 2, 1950. pg. 13, 1 pgs

(Psychosurgery.org note: This article is about Cardinal Mindszenty’s show trial in Hungary. It postulates that he may have been lobotomized to achieve a confession. Describes lobotomy as an operation “usually used to quiet hopelessly insane people”.)

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SCHOLAR IS SEIZED AS YALE MURDERER:VICTIMS OF SHOOTING IN NEW HAVEN Oct 10, 1950. pg. 26, 1 pgs

NEW HAVEN, Conn., Oct. 9 (AP) –Theodore A. Trent-Lyon, 27year-old Yale-Harvard graduate, was held today as the man who had shot and killed Dr. Lewis Thorne, 42, a Yale psychiatrist, and clubbed and shot his wife last night.

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PAIN RELIEF CITED IN BRAIN SURGERY:ELECTED By SURGEONS By WILLIAM L. LAURENCE Oct 27, 1950. pg. 37, 1 pgs

BOSTON, Oct. 26–Two surgical procedures for the relief of intractable pain in hopeless cancer patients and other conditions, one of them described as “alegal substitute for euthanasia,” were discussed here tonight at the annual clinical congress of the American College of Surgeons.

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BIG ADVANCE SEEN IN BRAIN SURGERY:Prof. Fulton Cites Techniques Developed From Recently Acquired Knowledge WINDS UP LECTURE SERIES New Means Relieve Hopeless Mental Ills and Victims of Intractable Pain Links Knowledge and Surgery Would Restrict Lesion By WILLIAM L. LAURENCE. Jan 12, 1951. pg. 29, 1 pgs

Prof. John F. Fulton of the Yale University School of Medicine, a leading authority on the brain and the nervous system, reported last

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WARNER BAXTER, 59, FILM STAR, IS DEAD:Winner of ‘Oscar’ in 1929– Best Known for Cisco Kid and ‘Crime Doctor’ Portrayals May 8, 1951. pg. 31, 1 pgs

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., May 7 (AP)–Warner Baxter, veteran motion-picture actor, died at his home tonight after a long illness. His age was 59. He had suffered from arthritis for years and a lobotomy was performed three weeks ago to alleviate his pain. Bronchial pneumonia set in recently.

PAROLE IS DENIED:Convict Who Underwent Brain Surgery Loses Plea in Ohio Jan 16, 1952

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A BRAIN OPERATION FAILS TO CURE THIEF:Prefrontal Lobotomy to End Urge to Steal Proves Vain — ‘Patient’ Back in Jail Jun 20, 1952. pg. 33, 1 pgs

PITTSBURGH, June 19 (UP) — A surgeon admitted today that a brain operation had failed to cure a thief of his urge to steal.

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SURGERY ENDS IN SUICIDE:Thief Relapses After Lobotomy ‘Cure’ and Takes His Life Jun 30, 1952. pg. 11, 1 pgs

BUTLER, Pa., June 29 (UP) — A habitual burglar who underwent a rare brain operation to cure an uncontrollable urge to steal only to resume his life of crime five years later, imposed his own final sentence today — death by suicide.

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‘ ICE-PICK SURGERY’ TRIED:238 of West Virginia’s Mentally Ill Submit to Operation Aug 13, 1952. pg. 18, 1 pgs

CHARLESTON, W. Va., Aug. 12 (AP) — West Virginia’s “ice-pick surgery” project was marked concluded today.

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‘ICE PICK’ SURGERY IS TRIED EN MASSE:West Virginia Conducts Tests of Brain Operation to Bar Impulses to Misbehave Aug 24, 1952. pg. 61, 1 pgs

SPENCER, W. Va., Aug. 23 — This state has officially made a large-scale test of mass surgery in an effort to help the insane.

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LOBOTOMIES STIR CONFLICTING VIEWS:Psychiatric Association Hears Results of Studies of Brain Operation on Psychotics By MURRY ILLSON May 6, 1953. pg. 45, 1 pgs

LOS ANGELES, May 5 — Conflicting views concerning the personality effects of brain surgery to relieve the emotional tensions of psychotic patients were expressed here today at the 109th annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association.

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LOBOTOMY BANNED IN SOVIET AS CRUEL:Brain Operation on the Insane Is Inhumane, Russian Tells Vienna Health Session By WILLIAM L. LAURENCE New York, N.Y.: Aug 22, 1953. pg. 13, 1 pgs

VIENNA, Aug. 21 — The brain operation known as lobotomy that is widely performed on the insane in the United States has been outlawed in the Soviet Union as inhumane, Prof. Nikolai I. Oserezki, director of the psychiatric clinic of the Pavlov Institute of Medicine of Leningrad, reported here today at the closing sessions of the annual meeting of the World Federation for Mental Health.

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Shock Therapy W. G. ELLASBERG. New York Times (1857-Current File). New York, N.Y.: Aug 27, 1953. pg. 24, 1 pgs

Dr. Manfred Sakel, according to an article in THE NEW YORK TIMES of Aug. 21, hits the misuse of shock therapy in psychiatry. He is right if he states that what we need in psychiatry, as in any other medical branch, is differentiation of the cases and differential diagnoses.

STATE FINDS DRUGS AID MENTAL CASES:Will Extend Use of Two New Products, Hailed as Step in Psychiatric Therapy By WARREN WEAVER Jr.Jan 9, 1955. pg. 79, 1 pgs

ALBANY, Jan. 8 — The State Mental Hygiene Department reported today that patients in state institutions had shown “significant improvement” after treatment with two new drugs.

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Egas Moniz, Nobel Prize Winner, Dies; Developed Surgery for the Mentally 111 Dec 14, 1955. pg. 39, 1 pgs obituary

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PSYCHIATRY AIDS HELD INADEQUATE:Neurologist Assails Freud’s Errors–Expects Chemist to Solve Schizophrenia Sees Errors in Freud By EMMA HARRISON May 2, 1956. pg. 25, 1 pgs

CHICAGO, May 1–A neurologist criticized today several important techniques for treating mental illness.

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PSYCHIATRY’S TIE TO SCIENCE NOTED:Association, Ending Parley, Cites Strong Trend to Base Theory on Experiments By EMMA HARRISON May 6, 1956. pg. 47, 1 pgs

CHICAGO, May 5–The 112th annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association has strengthened the trend to put a foundation of pure science under the clinical and theoretical aspects of psychiatry, This was the concensus of those who took part in the meeting which ended here yesterday.

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Exploring the Cerebral ‘Jungle’:MYSTERIES OF THE MIND By JOHN PFEIFFER, Drawing by Sol Ehrilch. May 13, 1956. pg. 212, 4 pgs

THE past few years have seen a significant upsurge of interest in the nature of the mind. Some of the interest can be traced to books such as “The Search for Bridey Murphy,” which emphasizes the mysterious effect of hypnosis on our powers of recollection. In other fields the mystery is just as deep, but the results are of more immediate benefit.

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LOBOTOMY SCORED IN SCHIZOPHRENIA:British Psychiatrist Tells of 15-Year Tests in Which It Showed No Advantage Sep 4, 1957. pg. 18, 1 pgs

ZURICH, Switzerland, Sept. 3–A British psychiatrist said today that brain surgery offered “no therapeutic advantage in schizophrenia.”

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Dr. Harry J. Worthing, Physician, Dies; Director of Pilgrim State’ Hospital, 70 Jul 24, 1958. pg. 25, 1 pgs obituary

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INSULIN SHOCK USE DEBATED AS ‘CURE’:Viennese Cites 70% Record on Schizophrenics — Briton and American Cautious By EMMA HARRISON. Oct 25, 1958. pg. 15, 1 pgs

A leading Viennese psychiatrist said yesterday that insulin shock treatments had “cured” approximately 70 per cent of the schizophrenic patients treated in his clinic in the last ten years.

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BRAIN NERVES CUT BY ‘ATOMIC KNIFE’:Swedes Report First Such Lobotomy — Work Inspired by That Done in U. S.By WERNER WISKARI Jan 19, 1959. pg. 3, 1 pgs

UPPSALA, Sweden, Jan. 18 — The first brain operation with an atomic “knife” — a powerful beam of protons from a synchrocyclotron — has been performed at the University of Uppsala.

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Electricity Is Found To Reduce the Pain Of Cancer Victims Oct 20, 1961. pg. 35, 1 pgs

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (AP) — A team of Harvard brain surgeons reported today development of a kind of electrical lobotomy technique for relieving the overwhelming pain of incurable cancer without causing major psychological damage.

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SOUND WAVES AID THE MENTALLY ILL:Surgeon Tells Psychiatrists of Successful Treatments on Seriously Disturbed ULTRASONIC BEAM USED Method Is Said to Achieve Aim of Lobotomy Without Permanent Impairment By EMMA HARRISON May 11, 1963. pg. 27, 1 pgs

ST. LOUIS, May 10–A neurosurgeon from Utah reported today that he had successfully treated patients with serious mental illnesses by using an ultrasonic beam to perform brain “surgery.”

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Punishing Treatment:LAW, LIBERTY AND PSYCHIATRY: An Inquiry Into the Social Uses of Mental Health Practices. By Thomas S. Szasz, M.D. 281 pp. New York: The Macmillan Company. $7.50. Treatment By EDWARD de GRAZIA. Jan 26, 1964. pg. BR6, 2 pgs

ARISTOTLE noticed how punishment was a sort of medicine. Dr. Thomas S. Szasz shows how the medicine administered in psychiatric institutions is a sort of punishment, and punishment of the worst sort.

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SURGERY CURBS MONKEY’S PULSE:Brain Operation Controls the Impact of Emotions By HAROLD M. SCHMECK Jr. Jan 4, 1968. pg. 16, 1 pgs

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 — Scientists have learned how to prevent a monkey’s emotions from affecting his heart rate and blood flow.

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Allen Ginsberg Remembers Mama:Poet Allen Ginsberg Remembers Mama By ELENORE LESTER. Feb 6, 1972. pg. D1, 2 pgs

THERE was once a little girl named Naomi Levy.. She was brought by her family from Russia to America in 1905, following a pogrom. She learned English on Orchard and Rivington Streets. She grew into a beautiful young woman who loved art, nature and justice. She tried to paint, played the mandolin, went to the opera, to poetry readings, to lectures, became a communist-bohemian of …

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The Patients Can Walk Out At Any Time at Bronx State Mental Hospital:Bronx State Hospital By ROBERT CLURMAN. Apr 2, 1972. pg. SM14, 7 pgs

THE cluster of buildings that constitute the 1,000-bed Bronx State Hospital, one of the 29 New York State public hospitals for the mentally ill, occupies a spacious tract along the lower reaches of the Hutchinson River Parkway in the South Bronx, hard by some of the worst slums in the metropolitan area.

Law Gives Mental Patients Rights, but Worries Others:The Other Side By DAVID A. ANDELMAN. Jan 16, 1973. pg. 41, 2 pgs By DAVID A. ANDELMAN

Psychiatrists, judicial offiials and community leaders are watching the state’s conroversial new mental-hygiene aw to see how well it does what its supporters claim for t: strike a balance between he civil rights and needs of patientss and the rights of he community.

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Psychosurgery Will Face Key Test in Court Today:Psychosurgery to Face Key Test Today in a Michigan Courtroom By JANE E: BRODY, Mar 12, 1973. pg. 1, 2 pgs

For the last 18 of his 36 years, Mr. L. has lived the life of a forgotten man. An alleged murderer and rapist who is reported to have a life-long history of uncontrollable rages, he has spent all his adult years behind the locked doors of a state institution for the criminally insane.

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Myriad Tough Questions:Psychosurgery JANE E. BRODY. Mar 18, 1973. pg. 14, 1 pgs

A surgeon can take out tonsils and tumors or transplant kidneys and hearts, and rarely is the appropriateness of his actions challenged. But one kind of surgeon - with a special practice called psychosurgery - has found himself in the middle of an international controversy.

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The psyche and the surgeon:For the mentally ill, a court of last resort Brain surgery Push-button therapy for the brain By Lee Edson. Sep 30, 1973. pg. 246, 8 pgs

At 18, Julia stabbed an unknown girl who jostled her arm in a movie theater. Months later, she nearly killed a nurse in a mental hospital in a fit of rage over a minor incident. By the time she was referred by a psychiatrist to Dr. Vernon Mark, head of neurosurgery at Boston City Hospital, Julia was 21-a comely, musically inclined woman with a record …

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LOBOTOMY BY DRUG CHARGED TO SOVIET Mar 3, 1975. pg. 14, 1 pgs

WASHINGTON, March 2 (Reuters) A physician who has made a study of the Soviet Union has testified to Senate staff members that secret police psychiatrists perform what he called “chemical lobotomy” on dissidents.

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CURB ON THERAPY STIRS A DISPUTE:Coast Measure Protecting Mental Patients Fought By EVERETT R. HOLLES Apr 6, 1975. pg. 18, 1 pgs

SAN DIEGO, April 5 A court action brought on behalf of two schizophrenic young women, identified only as Jane and Betty Doe, has touched off a legal and legislative battle over a three-month-old California law intended to protect mental patients against “radical medical experiments.”

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The Nurse Who Rules The ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ By ALJEAN HARMETZ. Nov 30, 1975. pg. 159, 1 pgs

LOS ANGELES Smiling a tight little smile, in a toneless voice, Louise Fletcher forces Jack Nicholson to take his tranquilizing medication. With the same smooth, bland expression, she will later order his lobotomy.

2 Black Neurosurgeons Defend Behavior-Altering Operations

By NANCY HICKS Jan 8, 1976. pg. 34, 1 pgs

RESTON, Va., Jan. 7 Two black neurosurgeons said today that although the controversial behavior-altering brain surgery called psychosurgery should not be banned, its continued practice should be placed under strict government controls.

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C.I.A. Mind Probes Now More Benign By JOSEPH B. TREASTER. Aug 7, 1977. pg. E3, 1 pgs

WASHINGTON–There seemed to be nothing the Central Intelligence Agency had not considered: Lobotomies, powerful drugs, hypnosis, mental telepathy, deprivation of sleep and food, subliminal suggestion, isolation, ultra-sonic sound, flashing stroboscopic lights. The agency even consulted magicians and interviewed prostitutes.

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Asylum From Asylums:Asylum By FITZHUGH MULLAN. Feb 5, 1978. pg. BR4, 2 pgs

IN medical school we were taught that the modern physician practices the art of medicine, that our labors would be part science and pan humanism. That much is so, but it is not the whole story. In practice today’s physician quietly becomes an arbiter and certifies of the human condition–a kind of Hippocratic notary public.

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Bid to Ban Shock Therapy Put on Berkeley Ballot Aug 8, 1982. pg. 23, 1 pgs

BERKELEY, Calif., Aug. 7 — To the astonishment of local psychiatrists, a proposal has been placed on this city’s November ballot that would ban the psychiatric procedure commonly known as electroshock therapy.

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Strong Opinions Jun 4, 1985. pg. A28, 1 pgs

Double Reverse Some judges live long enough to see their dissents become law. That has happened again and again to Judge David Bazelon of the Federal Court of Appeals in Washington, now retiring after 35 years. But there’s yet another twist in the case for which he’ll be best remembered.

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Surgery to Let the Demons Out Apr 6, 1986. pg. BR31, 1 pgs

Between 1948 and 1952, tens of thousands of mutilating brain operations were performed on mentally ill men and women in countries around the world, from Portugal, where prefrontal leucotomy was introduced in 1935, to the United States, where under the name of “lobotomy” the procedure was widely used on patients from all walks of life.

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Cruel and Unusual Medicine:GREAT AND DESPERATE CURES The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other Radical Treatments for Mental Illness. By Elliot S. Valenstein. 1986

TO acquire “a name and a fame,” and to acquire them quickly, a physician must do “some great and desperate cures.” So said John Bunyan in 1668. Certainly there are other ways. But a goodly number of the protagonists in Elliot S. Valenstein’s historical study took this short cut. Although ambition, quite naked at times, is not the only theme, it does figure prominently in …

A Day in a Mental Hospital, a Dream of Life Outside:Hour to Hour Inside Mental Hospital, One Hope — Life Outside — Prevails/ Many have been in and out of the hospital their entire lives. By DENA KLEIMAN Nov 7, 1988. pg. B1, 2 pgs

WEST BRENTWOOD, L.I. — It is 6 A.M., and behind the barred windows at Pilgrim State Psychiatric Hospital a young woman blinks awake. Outside, it is chilly, but inside the locked hospital doors, steam heat rushes through metal pipes as shouts of “Time to get up” echo through the halls.

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Lingering Effects of Lobotomies of 40’s and 50’s:Now elderly, schizophrenics are in a Pilgrim study. By CATHY SINGER. Nov 3, 1991. pg. LI1, 2 pgs

WHEN Frances Kichinski was admitted to the Pilgrim State Psychiatric Center in August 1949, she thought that her mother was poisoning her food and that people were after her. She was paranoid, withdrawn and seclusive. She was incoherent and “extremely delusional,” hospital records state.

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‘I Was Awake, but I Felt No Pain’ by CATHY SINGER.Nov 3, 1991. pg. LI10, 2 pgs

ADELE GOODSTEIN’S file shows that she grew up as a smart, lively and sociable girl in Brooklyn, who was also very pretty and liked to tap dance. It appears from the records that she began experiencing auditory hallucinations while a teen-ager.

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Lobotomy as Ancestor Of Psychosurgery GRACEANN V. INYARD. Dec 8, 1991. pg. LI27, 1 pgs

I am writing to express my outrage at “Lingering Effects of Lobotomies of 40’s and 50’s” [Nov. 3]. The article gives the impression that lobotomies were not performed in this country after the advent of neuroleptic drugs. This is not true. They were just given different names under the umbrella term “psychosurgery,” stereotaxis and cingulotomies among them, which use electrode needles to destroy the nerve …

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Brain Surgery For Protest Movement SAMUEL CHAVKIN. Dec 8, 1991. pg. LI27, 1 pgs

My compliments on the tragic lobotomy feature “Lingering Effects of Lobotomies of 40’s and 50’s” [Nov. 3]. It’s a story that for too long a time has been relegated to the dustbin of history. Especially deplorable was the use of lobotomies to tranquilize thousands of battle-fatigued emotionally broken veterans of World War II who crowded the psychiatric wards of Army hospitals.

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Writer Distorts Modern Psychiatry MARC WALDMAN. Jan 5, 1992. pg. LI11, 1 pgs

I am disturbed by the publication of Ms. Inyard’s letter, “Lobotomy as Ancestor of Psychosurgery” [Letters, Dec. 8]. As a self-proclaimed “psychiatric survivor” who “seeks alternatives to traditional psychiatric services,” she clearly presents a biased and unsubstantiated viewpoint of modern psychiatry.

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Recognizing Some Of Psychiatry’s Errors NATHANIEL S. LEHRMAN. Jan 26, 1992. pg. LI13, 1 pgs

Dr. Marc Waldman, a resident in psychiatric training, claims that psychiatry is as much a science as any medical specialty [Jan. 5], but his letter criticizing Grace Ann Inyard’s earlier comments [Dec. 8] demonstrates that sometimes it is not. Science demands recognition and correction of past errors.

Let’s Not ‘Treat’ the Problem of Homelessness With Drugs PETER R. BREGGIN. Jun 28, 1994. pg. A16, 1 pgs

Your June 17 article reporting growing support in New York State for involuntary commitment to mental hospitals describes “a bill that would place those released from mental hospitals under court order to take medication and get counseling.”

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Dr. James Watts, U.S. Pioneer In Use of Lobotomy, Dies at 90 By TIM HILCHEY. Nov 10, 1994. pg. B36, 1 pgs

Dr. James W. Watts, a neurosurgeon who performed the first frontal lobotomy in the United States, died on Monday at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington. He was 90 and lived in Washington.

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Man Charged in Store Inferno Had Lobotomy as a Teen-Ager July 6, 1996

As Todd Hall was arraigned today on charges of involuntary manslaughter for a fire on Wednesday that killed eight people at a fireworks store, he giggled like a delighted child and mugged for the cameras. … Mr. Hall’s behavior today and on Wednesday — when investigators said he ignited a…

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Hospital Urged for Suspect July 20, 1996

IRONTON, Ohio, July 19 — A brain-damaged man accused of setting a fatal fire in a fireworks store belongs in a medical institution, his lawyer has argued after the man fought deputies in jail. The man, Todd Hall, who had a lobotomy after a skateboarding accident nine years ago, would not fight extradition if he were allowed to leave jail for a hospital in Ashland, Ky., the lawyer, Richard Wolfson, said in a motion on Wednesday. Mr. Hall, 24, of Proctorville, Ohio, is charged with eight counts of involuntary manslaughter in the fire on July 3 at Ohio River Fireworks in Scottown. Eight people died immediately; a ninth died on Tuesday and prosecutors are considering an additional charge.

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The Prize and the Fury; Nobels That Some Felt Weren’t So Dynamite October 17, 1999 By THOMAS VINCIGUERRA

ALFRED NOBEL stipulated that the recipients of his namesake prizes ‘’shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.” But often the annual prize announcements provoke second-guessing. Detractors have long pointed out, for example, that Freud never won the Nobel for medicine, and that Chekhov, Proust and Conrad are among the…

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For Mentally Ill, Death and Misery April 28, 2002 By CLIFFORD J. LEVY

First article in series, Broken Homes, on year-long investigation of adult homes for mentally ill in New York City which found neglect, malfeasance and death; many homes have devolved into places of misery and neglect, just like psychiatric institutions before them and state has not kept track of what could be greatest indicator of how broken homes are, namely, how many residents are dying, under what circumstances and at what ages; between 1995 and 2001 there were 946 deaths at 26 of largest and most troubled homes in city, which collectively shelter approximately 5,000 mentally ill people; 326 were people under age of 60, including 126 in 20’s, 30’s and 40’s; conditioins at Leben Home in Queens and Seaport Manor in Brooklyn, where quarter of 145 residents who died were under 50 discussed; conditions elsewhere described; mental health officials comment; photos

A Filmmaker Inspired By Lobotomy April 29, 2004 By RANDY KENNEDY

ABSTRACT - Article on first-time film director Richard Ledes, whose movie, A Hole in One, starring Meat Loaf; movie was inspired by story of Dr Walter Friedman, neurologist who pioneered outpatient lobotomies in late 1940’s, lost his surgical privileges in late 1960’s and drove around country promoting operation in camper van he called lobotomobile; photo

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