Search Results for: lobotomy

Two Solitudes: Wilder Penfield, Ewen Cameron, and the Search for a Better Lobotomy

General

AHP readers will be interested in a forthcoming article in the Canadian Bulletin of Medical History/Bulletin canadien d’histoire de la médecine: “Two Solitudes: Wilder Penfield, Ewen Cameron, and the Search for a Better Lobotomy,” by Yvan Prkachin. English and French language abstracts: In the 1940s, Wilder Penfield carried out a series of experimental psychosurgeries with … Continue reading Two Solitudes: Wilder Penfield, Ewen Cameron, and the Search for a Better Lobotomy →

Lobotomy on Retro Report: First, Do No Harm

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The New York Times‘s Retro Report has produced a new video on the history of lobotomy, First, Do No Harm. As Retro Report describes, For centuries scientists have studied the brain and still our understanding, particularly when it comes to the treatment for those suffering with severe, often untreatable mental illness, remains elusive. As scientists around … Continue reading Lobotomy on Retro Report: First, Do No Harm →

Mical Raz in The Psychologist: Looking Back: Interpreting Lobotomy – The Patients’ Stories

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The January 2014 issue of The Psychologist, the flagship publication of the British Psychological Society (BPS), is now online and includes an article on patient experiences of lobotomy. In “Looking Back: Interpreting Lobotomy – The Patients’ Stories” historian of medicine Mical Raz describes how patients and their families experienced the lobotomies preformed by Walter Freeman in … Continue reading Mical Raz in The Psychologist: Looking Back: Interpreting Lobotomy – The Patients’ Stories →

New Book: Mical Raz’s The Lobotomy Letters

Books, ,

Physician and historian of medicine Mical Raz‘s new book on the history of American psychosurgery is now in print. Raz’s book, The Lobotomy Letters: The Making of American Psychosurgery, explores the history of this controversial procedure through the letters of patients, physicians, and families. The volume is described as follows: The rise and widespread acceptance … Continue reading New Book: Mical Raz’s The Lobotomy Letters →

Psychiatry, Photography & Lobotomy Bibliography

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As a followup to our recent post about Miriam Posner‘s work on the lobotomy photographs of Walter Freeman, I would like to draw AHP‘s readers attention to a recent posting on Posner’s blog, Academitron. For anyone interested in learning more about the role of photography in the history of psychiatry/psychology, Posner has posted “Psychiatry, Photography, … Continue reading Psychiatry, Photography & Lobotomy Bibliography →

Lobotomy Photography as Medical Evidence

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Science and the Arts, a project of NPR’s Science Friday, has posted a slideshow of Dr. Walter Freeman‘s before and after photographs of lobotomy patients. The slideshow is based on the work of Miriam Posner, Mellon Postdoctoral Research Associate at Emory University, who also narrates the slideshow. Prosner recently completed her Yale University dissertation on … Continue reading Lobotomy Photography as Medical Evidence →

How the Brain Lost Its Mind: Sex, Hysteria, and the Riddle of Mental Illness

Books, General

AHP readers may be interested in a new book, How the Brain Lost Its Mind: Sex, Hysteria, and the Riddle of Mental Illness, written by neurologist Allan H. Ropper and mathematician Brian David Burrell. As the publisher describes: How the Brain Lost Its Mind tells the rich and compelling story of two confounding ailments, syphilis … Continue reading How the Brain Lost Its Mind: Sex, Hysteria, and the Riddle of Mental Illness →