The history of lobotomy shows the risks for limited evidence and oversight, while modern approaches emphasize targeted treatment, informed consent, and rigorous evaluation.

In the early 20th century we had very little understanding of mental illness and how to treat it. Into this knowledge vacuum stepped Walter Freeman, a charismatic American neurologist with a bold ...

In the U.S., lobotomies are no longer used as surgery to treat psychiatric problems. Some other types of psychosurgery are still performed when other treatments have failed. Few medical procedures in ...

Lobotomy is a surgical procedure performed on the brain. The brain has several lobes, each with different functions. The frontal lobe was the part of the brain targeted in the standard lobotomy ...

Under the bright lights of Alton State Hospital, a surgeon’s hands carefully work on the fragile structure of the human mind during a frontal lobe lobotomy. This rare, chilling report from the ...

As I explained in a recent post, the imprinted brain theory proposes that different parts of the brain are built to the specification of conflicting sets of genes. Specifically, the cortex—and the ...