American psychiatry: a tortured history
HistoryExtra podcast
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Do Patients Consent on Lobotomy Treatments?
Walter Freeman and Jim Watts who were the duo who first promoted lobotomy in America they decided that when a patient started to get confused that was the time to stop cutting so they talked the patient through the operation. Sometimes families would be consulted sometimes patients volunteered after all they were told this was the best possible treatment it was going to take away their worry newspapers the New York Times the Saturday evening post ran stories about this miracle cure journalists very sus you know even today I read medical journalism with a very suspicious eye because we're always after the latest breakthrough it's very uncritical very often.
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