Incredible interference with the brain: The most gruesome practice in medical history!

First introduced in 1935, lobotomy was performed on patients who were thought to be incurable. The procedure involved cutting the brain nerves causing the disease; in the following years, the practice was interpreted in different ways and eventually the brain was intervened with an ice pick.

One of the biggest blots on medical history, the lobotomy was first performed in 1935 by Portuguese neurologist Antonia Moniz. The doctor drilled holes in a patient's skull, poured alcohol into the prefrontal cortex to cut nerves and then pierced parts of the brain with hollow needles. Previously called "leukotomy", the procedure was performed on patients who were believed to be incurable, particularly those with depression and schizophrenia. We know how barbaric this practice is in the modern era, but things weren't like that then, and Dr. Moniz even won a Nobel Prize for his 'medical breakthrough'. There were calls from many quarters to revoke the prize, but no one did anything about it and the procedure became more and more widespread.

Lobotomy was introduced this time by Swiss neurologist Gottlieb Burckhardt. Although his colleagues criticized him, Burckhardt claimed that patients became calm after the surgery. This calmness was attributed to the patients' zombie-like movements and inability to speak or think on their own. But things were going off the rails; the then-popular practice was attracting the interest of many doctors. Walter Freeman, a US neuropsychiatrist, was impressed by Moniz's work and decided to experiment himself. Freeman believed that mental illness was caused by overactive emotions and that if the brain was cut, it would effectively cut off these emotions.

After working on cadavers for several weeks, Freeman performed the first frontal lobotomy in the US on 63-year-old Alice Hood Hammatt, a Kansas housewife believed to suffer from anxiety and depression. Freeman drilled holes in the left and right frontal lobes of Hammatt's skull. He then inserted a leukotome (a narrow shaft) into the exposed part of the brain through the hole on the left side. Freeman explained that the operation was a success, although Hammatt suffered convulsions in the weeks following the surgery. Hammatt died five years after the operation, although he managed to spend the last years of his life away from mental institutions.

This so-called success prompted Freeman to come up with a new plan. He wanted to design a lobotomy that was faster and less complicated than drilling a hole in a person's skull. So he went back to experimenting on cadavers, looking for an easy way to access the brain. He used a tool he found in his kitchen: an ice pick. Freeman realized that he could easily access the brain using the ice pick, which entered the brain through the eye sockets; he called this radically invasive form of brain surgery "transorbital lobotomy", but it became more commonly known as "ice pick lobotomy". The ice pick lobotomy was as follows: first, the patient was rendered unconscious by electroshock, or simply given local anesthesia. An ice pick-like instrument was then placed over the patient's eyeball. Using a hammer, the ice pick was hammered into the thin bone above the eye and the instrument was moved back and forth to cut the connections to the prefrontal cortex in the frontal lobes of the brain.

The operation was completed in about 10 minutes, and in at least a third of the cases, patients exhibited childlike behavior, becoming compliant and mute. This barbaric procedure has killed at least 490 people and left thousands in a vegetative state. This barbaric procedure has killed at least 490 people and left thousands in a vegetative state. Sadly, when many people believed to be mentally ill became more 'compliant' after the operation, it was considered a success. There was so much demand for Freeman's ice pick and lobotomies that he took the "show" on the road, touring with his ice pick and hammer. He visited hundreds of hospitals and mental institutions.

Eventually the horrors of lobotomy were attacked by the medical community. By the 1970s, many countries, including Russia, banned the procedure altogether, calling lobotomies "inhumane". Lobotomy was a much better option than the nightmare of being locked up in a mental institution, and for many years it remained popular for this reason. As a result, many people were irreversibly harmed until the procedure was recognized as horrific. Between 1936 and 1951, some 50,000 lobotomies are believed to have been performed worldwide.