Abstract

This article surveys the development of the use of lobotomy in Scandinavian psychiatry. Scandinavian hospitals lobotomized 2.5 times as many people per capita as hospitals in the United States. The use of lobotomy in Scandinavia is chiefly illustrated by detailed patient records from Gaustad Mental Hospital in Oslo, Norway, where the most lobotomies were performed. Overcrowding and understaffing in mental hospitals cannot explain the extensive use of lobotomy in Scandinavia since the frequency of operations did not correlate with these factors. Neither can ignorance of damaging effects be used as a justification since such effects were discussed very early in the development of the surgery. Finally, the patient’s own suffering did not seem to be a significant factor. Rather, lobotomy seems to have been primarily a way of controlling troublesome patients and minimizing their disruptions of medical, nursing and hospital routines