December
9, 1950
No more Prefrontal Lobotomy
in the USSR
Use of the Prefrontal Lobotomy for psychiatric treatment was ordered prohibited in the Soviet Union
by decree of the Ministry of Health. Thousands of such psyhosurgical operations
on the brain would be performed in the United States and other western nations
into the 1970s, and it remains legal, though no longer commonly used.
Lobotomy (also referred to
as leucotomy) consists of cutting or scraping away most of the connections to
and from the prefrontal cortex, the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the
brain. The originator of the procedure, the Portuguese neurologist António Egas
Moniz, shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine of 1949 for the
"discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain
psychoses", although the awarding of the prize has been subject to
controversy.
Lobotomies have been
featured in several literary and cinematic presentations that both reflected
society's attitude towards the procedure and, at times, changed it. Writers and
film-makers have played a pivotal role in forming a negative public sentiment
towards the procedure. In Ken Kesey's 1962 novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest and its 1975 film adaptation, lobotomy is described as "frontal-lobe
castration", a form of punishment and control after which, "There's
nothin' in the face. Just like one of those store dummies." In one
patient, "You can see by his eyes how they burned him out over there; his
eyes are all smoked up and gray and deserted inside.
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