Banning the Soviet Lobotomy: Psychiatry, Ethics, and Professional Politics during Late Stalinism

@article{Zajicek2017BanningTS,
  title={Banning the Soviet Lobotomy: Psychiatry, Ethics, and Professional Politics during Late Stalinism},
  author={Benjamin Zajicek},
  journal={Bulletin of the History of Medicine},
  year={2017},
  volume={91},
  pages={33 - 61}
}
  • B. Zajicek
  • Published 29 March 2017
  • Psychology, Medicine
  • Bulletin of the History of Medicine
summary:This article examines how lobotomy came to be banned in the Soviet Union in 1950. The author finds that Soviet psychiatrists viewed lobotomy as a treatment of “last resort,” and justified its use on the grounds that it helped make patients more manageable in hospitals and allowed some to return to work. Lobotomy was challenged by psychiatrists who saw mental illness as a “whole body” process and believed that injuries caused by lobotomy were therefore more significant than changes to… 
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