Last Resort: Psychosurgery and the Limits of Medicine

by Jack D. Pressman

During the 1940s and 1950s, tens of thousands of Americans underwent some form of psychosurgery; that is, their brains were operated upon for the putative purpose of treating mental illness. From today's perspective, such medical practices appear foolhardy at best, perhaps even barbaric; most commentators thus have seen in the story of lobotomy an important warning about the kinds of hazards that society will face whenever incompetent or malicious physicians are allowed to overstep the boundaries of valid medical science. Last Resort challenges the previously accepted psychosurgery story and raises new questions about what we should consider its important lessons.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Medicine, Psychology

576 pages, Paperback

First published February 13, 1998

Reviews

[Rahul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely compelling. A bifold narrative that is at once a history of lobotomy but also a cautionary tale against our ahistorical notions of progress, and who we decide to retroactively crown as the victors and losers in science. Pressman masterfully uses the history of psychosurgery, starting from Alfred Meyer and ending at Thorazine, to describe how scientific progress is seldom the linear accumulation of knowledge we often ascribe to it. Lobotomy might be thought of as an archaic, evil act; one relegated to the Hall of "Things in Medicine to Never Do Again," but this only belies the immense clinical value this must have afforded its practitioners. Rather than simply following the traditional narrative of "the doctors back then were evil," Pressman uses an ultra-comprehensive analysis of the medical archives to delineate exactly why lobotomy back then 'worked,' and why it doesn't today, reframing our notion of a 'cure' as an applied science to a biosocial construction.

[kienn · Rating 5 out of 5]

in depth and nuanced expose on how lobotomies came to be, with a historical perspective relevant to the continuing development of modern medicine. excellent first hand accounts

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best books I have ever read that deals with twentieth-century psychiatry...crucial reading if you are interested in somatic therapies (and how therapies like ECT, insulin coma therapy, or lobotomy were used and why).

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disturbing and fascinating. Informative in that I did not know partial lobotomies and other psychosurgery are still done, and apparently on the rise in developing nations. Scary.