We’ve all heard the sinister stories of mental healthcare’s terrifying past. The Snake Pits, the cages, the overmedication, but nothing is cloaked in more mystery and dread than the ice pick lobotomy. Whether it’s that terrifying scene in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest or the heartbreaking story of Rosemary Kennedy, we all can conjure up a horrifying image of this barbaric procedure with little effort. The Man in the white lab coat and cap, his sunglasses gleaming, ice pick in hand. The patients with black eyes and blood mottled tears. That’s gold standard nightmare fuel, and it’s hard to believe any of it was real, but it was.

So how did the mental health care industry end up taking a dip in the darkest of places? Well, hang on because we’re going to tell you. In this week’s episode we explore the history of the lobotomy, begininning with mankind’s earliest attempts to sooth a savage brain, and culminating in the story of the ice pick lobotomist himself, Walter Freeman Jr. 

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