“…how science could go off the rails.”

We’re going to depart from the normal topics usually found in these pages because of a most compelling article we found in yesterday’s Washington Post’s Health section highlighting an upcoming documentary on PBS.  Fair warning – this is an emotionally compelling article and content.   The documentary, titled, "The Lobotomist" is a look at how, as the Post’s writer puts it:

One of the most horrifying medical treatments of the 20th century was carried out not clandestinely, but with the approval of the medical establishment, the media and the public. Known as the transorbital or "ice pick" lobotomy, the crude and destructive brain-scrambling operation performed on thousands of psychiatric patients between the 1930s and 1960s was touted as a cure for mental illness.

Its prosaic name comes from the instrument initially used to perform it: an ice pick plucked from the kitchen drawer of the procedure’s tireless proselytizer, Walter J. Freeman, who pioneered the operation in 1936 while at George Washington University Hospital.

The story of how Freeman sold his procedure to credulous colleagues, assiduously courted the press and convinced desperate families that sticking an ice pick through a patient’s upper eye sockets and twirling it like a swizzle stick through brain matter would cure psychosis, depression or troublesome behavior is the ultimate in cautionary medical tales.

It is, as one writer interviewed in the film later remarks, not,  "how a man could go off the rails, but how science could go off the rails."  We encourage you to read the full article here (registration may be required) as well as the sidebar story of a 12 year old hyperactive child who was lobotomized in an operation of convenience because, according to his step-mom, he was "difficult" to handle, and after doctor shopping, finally found a neurosurgeon who agreed with her diagnoses. 

This is an extremely tough story on so many levels – whether it is the unquestioned manner with which the proceedure was received by the practicing community for so many years in te face of questionable results to the intensely personal tragedy of those victimized by having their minds and personality permanently altered by this supremely inhumane procedure.  To those who chafe, scorn and heap ridicule on bureacratic processes – this serves as a cautionary story as to the environment that existed prior to some of those procedures being put into place.  Mind you, we’re not talking blood-letting to cure fevers in the 16th Century – this was happening as late as a mere fifty years ago in our nation’s capitol.  It also should serve as a cautionary tale to any combination of zealotry and medicine and make one think twice as we are bombarded daily by the likes of direct to consumer advertising from the drug manufacturers.  It should also make parents think long and hard about medication for children – parenting is tough and sometimes assistance after careful and thoughtful consultation is indicated – other times, not. 

The documenary airs 21 January on PBS – even if the writer’s strike wasn’t underway, we’d still strongly recommend watching this program.  Be ready, however, to be challenged.