I HAVE ALWAYS DISLIKED the use which the medi- c4
profession has made of leucotomy, not simply because the idea of altering people's personalities (even, in theory, for the better) by cutting up their brains is repellent; but because it is often per- formed on a patient who is not in a condition to refuse, with the permission of relatives who may be more concerned that he should in future be well-behaved (one of the advantages claimed for the operation) than that he should be well. Now, I see that the operation does not, in fact, make patients better behaved: according to a de- tailed study described in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry it does not benefit them at all. Of course, there are exceptions, just as there are wireless sets which respond better to a smart crack with a hammer than to the atten- tions of the most skilled mechanic; but the report's statistics suggest that there is no significant im- provement in the patients who have the opera- tion compared with those who do not. How many unfortunate people, I wonder, have suffered this operation? And how many more will have it, before it becomes unfashionable?
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