[edmcnulty101]

Labomotomies won the Nobel prize.

They were supported by the mainstream medical and science establishments. Rosemary Kennedy, JFKs relative got one.

People were giving labotomies to their kids to calm them down, advised by their doctor.

Great article on Howard Dulley one of the kids whose parents gave him a lobotomy advised by a doctor.

https://www.npr.org/2005/11/16/5014080/my-lobotomy-howard-du...

[enriquto]

What a disturbingly scary article!

> He objects to going to bed but then sleeps well. He does a good deal of daydreaming and when asked about it he says 'I don't know.'

Doesn't this description fit most kids in the world? It was used to justify the lobotomy of a poor boy.

[retrac]

Unfortunately, especially historically, psychiatry intersects with "managing bothersome people". Children who wouldn't sit still. Elders who wouldn't stay quiet. Wives with independent personalities. Lobotomies fixed those "problems".

It hasn't really fully separated itself from that today. Some cynical types describe the extremely high rates of psychotropic drugs used in American schools and retirement homes as "chemical lobotomies". In many cases, the drugs are being used to make someone "manageable" (i.e., quiet and compliant) rather than improving their health or quality of life.

(Of course, a mentally sick person who's truly unmanageable, is in fairness, unlikely to have much health or quality of life. But that's the linchpin of justification both historically for actual lobotomies, and today for the widespread use of these drugs. Much caution in medical treatments to make it more convenient to "manage" people is warranted.)

[edmcnulty101]

Yeah. It seems like alot of things within the practice of medicine are brutal and crazy looking back.

I wonder what things from present time future humans will look back on and marvel at how insane they were.

[enriquto]

I guess that when an appropriate treatment for dental cavities is found, the current practice will be seen as barbaric.

[edmcnulty101]

When genetic engineering to give humans regeneration happens all modern medicine will probably look barbaric.

[edmcnulty101]

Yep. Doctor recommended! They would give their wife a lobotomy if she talked too much.

[LocalH]

One in a long history of barbarism-as-medicine. Some would say we're still in that era.

[edmcnulty101]

I can think of some recent experimental treatments recommended by the medical establishment that appear less effective than advertised and the long term effects unclear.

Shock therapy for one.

[svnpenn]

> Labomotomies

[edmcnulty101]

Fat fingered! Great catch!