Editing Lobotomy (section)

==Outline==
Historically, patients of frontal lobotomy were, immediately following surgery, often [[stuporous]] and [[Fecal incontinence|incontinent]]. Some developed an enormous appetite and gained considerable weight. [[Seizures]] were another common complication of surgery. Emphasis was put on the training of patients in the weeks and months following surgery.{{sfn|Noyes|Kolb|1962|pp=550–55|ps=}}

The purpose of the operation was to reduce the symptoms of [[mental disorders]], and it was recognized that this was accomplished at the expense of a person's personality and intellect. British psychiatrist Maurice Partridge, who conducted a follow-up study of 300 patients, said the treatment achieved its effects by "reducing the complexity of psychic life". Following the operation, spontaneity, responsiveness, self-awareness, and self-control were reduced. The activity was replaced by inertia, and people were mostly left [[Emotional blunting|emotionally blunted]] and restricted in their intellectual range.{{sfn|Partridge|1950|pp=470–71|ps=}}

The consequences of the operation have been described as "mixed".{{sfn|Cooper|2014|pp=143–54}} However, many lobotomy patients suffered devastating postoperative complications, including intracranial hemorrhage, epilepsy, alterations in affect and personality, brain abscess, dementia, and death. Ominous portrayals of lobotomized patients in novels, plays, and films further diminished public opinion, and the development of antipsychotic medications led to a rapid decline in lobotomy's popularity and [[Walter Jackson Freeman II|Freeman's]] reputation. Others could leave the hospital or become more manageable within the hospital.{{sfn|Cooper|2014|pp=143–54}} 
A precarious number of people managed to return to responsible work, while at the other extreme, people were left with severe and disabling impairments.{{sfn|Valenstein|1997|pp=499–516|ps=}} Most people fell into an intermediate group, left with some improvement of their symptoms but also with emotional and intellectual deficits to which they made a better or worse adjustment.{{sfn|Valenstein|1997|pp=499–516|ps=}} On average, there was a mortality rate of approximately 5% during the 1940s.{{sfn|Valenstein|1997|pp=499–516|ps=}} A survey of British lobotomy patients lobotomised between 1942 and 1954 found that 13% of patients were deemed to have made a full recovery and a further 28% were deemed to have made a significant recovery; for 25% lobotomy was deemed to have made no change and 4% died as a result of the surgery.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Tooth |first1=G. C. |last2=Newton |first2=Mary P. |title=Leucotomy in England and Wales, 1942-1954 |date=1961 |publisher=HM Stationery Office |location=London |page=13 |url=https://archive.org/details/op1266945-1001/page/n15/mode/2up?view=theater |access-date=31 December 2024}}</ref>

The frontal lobotomy procedure could have severe negative effects on a patient's personality and ability to function independently.{{sfn|Szasz|2007|pp=151–72|ps=}} Lobotomy patients often show a marked reduction in initiative and inhibition.{{sfn|Freberg|2010|pp=416–17|ps=}} They may also exhibit difficulty imagining themselves in the position of others because of decreased cognition and detachment from society.{{sfn|Shutts|1982|ps=}}

Walter Freeman coined the term "surgically induced childhood" and used it constantly to refer to the results of lobotomy. The operation left people with an "infantile personality"; a period of maturation would then, according to Freeman, lead to recovery. In an unpublished memoir, he described how the "personality of the patient was changed in some way in the hope of rendering him more amenable to the social pressures under which he is supposed to exist." He described one 29-year-old woman as being, following lobotomy, a "smiling, lazy and satisfactory patient with the personality of an oyster" who could not remember Freeman's name and endlessly poured coffee from an empty pot. When her parents had difficulty dealing with her behavior, Freeman advised a system of rewards (ice cream) and punishment (smacks).{{sfn|Raz|2013|pp=101–13|ps=}}