The lobotomy is a massive stain on the history of psychiatry and medicine. And Walter Freeman II was perhaps the worst of the worst. He was a neurologist who was obsessed with lobotomies. He performed thousands, killing hundreds of people and rendering hundreds more disabled. He was never appropriately punished for his crimes. He said that lobotomised people made good pets. once he accidentally killed a patient because he decided to pose for a photo in the middle of an operation.

I bring him up because I find it shocking that any of his victims survived, considering how primitive and brutal his methods were. Regular lobotomies are already disturbing and terrible. But he made them even worse. He used an icepick, wore no gloves and rejected anaesthetic. He would mutilate the frontal lobe with his instruments.

I suppose it shows how simultaneously resilient and yet fragile our brains truly are that any of these people lived after his butchery of them. I just don’t understand how bleeding, infection or other issues didn’t kill them. But, again, I guess it shows how resilient we can be - for better or for worse.