Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine

doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7502.1276

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D B Double (dbdouble@dbdouble.co.uk), consultant psychiatrist1

¹Norfolk and Waveney Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, Hellesdon Hospital, Norwich

Surgery may not be the most obvious treatment for mental illness. Surgeons are people who find it extremely rewarding to act and see the impact of their actions on their patients. However, operating on the body may not have very specific effects on a disordered mind. This fact has not hindered enthusiasts intervening surgically believing their outcomes to be positive. Such excesses have been tragic, as is well known in the history of lobotomy (see review of The Lobotomist in this week's BMJ).