Effects
Freeman continued on to preform between 3,500 and 5,000 lobotomies. In the United States alone, a total of about 50,000 lobotomies were practiced. Of these 50,000, there was a small percentage of patients who supposedly got better or stayed the same. Conversely, there was a great percentage of patients who suffered and were worse off because of the lobotomy... too large of a percentage for lobotomy to be considered a very consistent and effective practice. These patients had all-around negative effects on their personality, initiative, inhibitions, empathy and ability to function on their own. The main long-term side effect was mental dullness. The patients could no longer live independently, and they lost their personalities. This could be a positive, of sorts, for criminals. This way, the criminals would have lost their unlawful personalities. However, in most cases, it would make a human almost life-less. After all, isn't taking away part of a human brain taking away part of a human? This is what led most distraught lobotomized patients to suicide.
Controversy
The scientific literature at the time seems to suggest that the procedure was relatively safe, with low death rates. But there were numerous non-lethal side effects, including apathy and blunting of the personality. Even in the 1940s, frontal lobotomies were the subject of growing controversy, and ethical issues began to arise.
Against Reason: To irreversibly alter another person’s personality was thought by many to overstep the bounds of good medical practice, and disrespect that person’s autonomy and individuality. In 1950, the Soviet Union banned the practice, saying it was “contrary to the principles of humanity.”
Agree Reason: People who performed lobotomies could justify their actions as being in the best interest of the patient: they were motivated by an act of kindness that, by today’s standards, may seem misguided and misplaced. Also, back in that time, lobotomy was one of the only treatments for mental illnesses and "people weren't thinking of anything better," said Dr. Elliot Valenstein, author of Great and Desperate Cures.
Against Reason: To irreversibly alter another person’s personality was thought by many to overstep the bounds of good medical practice, and disrespect that person’s autonomy and individuality. In 1950, the Soviet Union banned the practice, saying it was “contrary to the principles of humanity.”
Agree Reason: People who performed lobotomies could justify their actions as being in the best interest of the patient: they were motivated by an act of kindness that, by today’s standards, may seem misguided and misplaced. Also, back in that time, lobotomy was one of the only treatments for mental illnesses and "people weren't thinking of anything better," said Dr. Elliot Valenstein, author of Great and Desperate Cures.
The End for Lobotomy
The practice started subsiding in the mid 1950s when doctors were creating medications that had more effective outcomes. Nowadays, mental illness is primarily treated with drugs. Protests also began around this time, and serious research supported them. The general statistics showed roughly a third of lobotomized patients improved, a third stayed the same, and the last third actually got worse!
Three protesters of lobotomy
Dr. Barron Lerner, a medical historian and professor at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York says lobotomy is rarely, if ever, preformed today. If it is, "it’s a much more elegant procedure. You're not going in with an ice pick and monkeying around." The removal of specific brain areas is only used to treat patients for whom all other treatments have failed.
