The Story of Different Minds  ·  Twentieth century medicine  ·  1930s to 1970s

ECT, Lobotomy and Control

Some treatments were used without dignity, consent or restraint.

Medicine can heal, but it can also become a tool of control.

Simple version

Electroconvulsive therapy and lobotomy became associated with twentieth century psychiatric treatment. ECT is still used today in controlled medical contexts, but its early use could be brutal and sometimes coercive.

Lobotomy, especially transorbital lobotomy, caused irreversible brain damage and was used far too widely.

The brutal part

Some people were treated without meaningful consent. Some were treated because they were inconvenient, distressed, institutionalised or powerless.

Rosemary Kennedy is one of the most famous examples of lobotomy's damage, but many ordinary people were harmed too.

Awareverse lens

This history requires careful language. The point is not to say all medicine is bad. The point is to say power without accountability is dangerous.

Care must never mean silencing a person for the convenience of others.

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