{"id":6357,"date":"2026-07-02T14:18:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T14:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theview.boltonschool.info\/?p=6357"},"modified":"2026-07-02T14:18:56","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T14:18:56","slug":"a-brief-history-of-lobotomies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theview.boltonschool.info\/?p=6357","title":{"rendered":"A Brief History of Lobotomies"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lobotomy is a discredited form of neurosurgical treatment for psychiatric or neurological disorders that involves severing connections in the brain’s prefrontal cortex. It severs most of the connections to and from the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain. Over 20,000 lobotomies have\u00a0been performed\u00a0between the early 1940s and late 1970s, but how were they invented?<\/p>\n

In 1935, the Portuguese neurologist, Egas Moniz, believed that patients with obsessive behaviour were suffering from fixed circuits in the brain.\u00a0This would lead to him trialling new treatment methods that would\u00a0attempt to treat his believed theory, lobotomies.<\/p>\n

\"Article\u00a0The first lobotomy\u00a0was performed\u00a0in December of 1940 by William Sargant at Burden Neurological Institute. While these men thought that they were helping their patients heal, later evidence proved otherwise. The intension of lobotomies was to treat severe neurological conditions such as depression, epilepsy, and bipolar\u00a0disorder,\u00a0however, lobotomies have many dangerous side effects. While a minority of patients were able to heal, the vast majority did suffer some kind of side effect.<\/p>\n

\"ArticleOne famous example of a lobotomy is Rosemary Kennedy, Sister of John F Kennedy. As a child Rosemary exhibit sighs of developmental delays. In her early adult years, Kennedy was reportedly \u201cbecoming increasingly irritable and difficult.\u201d\u00a0Fearing for the family’s reputation, her father, Joseph P Kennedy, forced her to have a lobotomy at the age of 23. Unfortunately, the procedure left Rosemary permanently incapacitated and unable to speak. She would spend the rest of her life in St. Coletta, a hospital for those with severe disabilities, until her death on January 7th,\u00a02005,\u00a0at the age of 86.<\/p>\n

The devastating story of Rosemary Kennedy showed\u00a0us the extreme side effects lobotomies can have\u00a0and raised\u00a0awareness\u00a0to the\u00a0effects caused from her lobotomy,\u00a0as\u00a0she\u00a0was left\u00a0unable unable to\u00a0participate\u00a0in everyday life and\u00a0was left\u00a0institutionalised\u00a0for the rest of her life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After realising that lobotomies cause extreme brain\u00a0damage, they fell out of practice in the mid-1950s, with things such as psychiatric drugs\u00a0being used\u00a0as an alternative.\u00a0It\u00a0was not until the late 1980s that they\u00a0were officially banned\u00a0in the UK. Now many severe\u00a0mental illnesses, like depression,\u00a0are treated\u00a0with medication, therapy, and support.<\/p>\n

As time goes by, it is likely that new ways to treat psychological problems will come about. The treatments that we trust today may\u00a0be ridiculed\u00a0tomorrow. No matter the times, it is always important to research about new treatments and have the\u00a0confidence\u00a0to say no to something that we do not trust for it\u00a0maybe what\u00a0keeps us alive in the end.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Shamailah<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lobotomy is a discredited form of neurosurgical treatment for psychiatric or neurological disorders that involves severing connections in the brain’s prefrontal cortex. It severs most of the connections to and from the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain. Over 20,000 lobotomies have\u00a0been performed\u00a0between the early 1940s and late 1970s, but how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":6363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-voice","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theview.boltonschool.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theview.boltonschool.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theview.boltonschool.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theview.boltonschool.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theview.boltonschool.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6357"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/theview.boltonschool.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6460,"href":"https:\/\/theview.boltonschool.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6357\/revisions\/6460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theview.boltonschool.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theview.boltonschool.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theview.boltonschool.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theview.boltonschool.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}