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A lobotomy is a surgical technique that involves making an incision in the brain's frontal lobe, severing several nerve tracts. Today lobotomies are usually just the subject of a grim joke, but this crude procedure used to be a relatively common way to pacify aggressive mental patients. Between 1939 and 1951, over 18,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States. Egas Moniz, the physician who pioneered the practice, won a Nobel Prize for his efforts. An American physician named Walter Freeman was the procedure's
biggest proponent, performing dozens of lobotomies in a single session. He used an ice pick-like instrument that was inserted through a patient's eye socket, then whisked back and forth. Horrifying, but true. Contrary to popular belief, a lobotomy did not necessarily turn the subject into a vegetable, but the results were decidedly mixed. Famous recipients of lobotomies include actress Frances Farmer, Rosemary Kennedy, and the fictional hero of Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
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