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22nd December, 1945
Sir,
It is now two years ago that you published two letters from me and many letters from others, on the subject of the new physical methods of treatment of mental disorder, especially electrically induced fits. In these two years a very large number of people have been treated by induced fits; to some harm has been done and some have been “cured.” The fact remains, in my opinion, that these forms of therapy have disadvantages, the most serious of
which is that false theories of mental disorder are built up round wrong interpretations of the mechanism of these “cures.” The medical profession should be reminded from time to time that these treatments are pure “shot-in-the-dark” affairs, and no theory of their action, even when they seem to work, is accepted even by the psychiatrists.
The great example of this bad result of building on other than scientific foundations is provided by the treatment of mind disorder by operation on the brain. In good faith members of our profession are cutting brains about, dividing the associating fibres between the frontal lobes, devising other ways of using their brilliant team work and surgical technique. Yet enough is already known of mental disorder for it to be said that no mentally ill person can ever be made well by operation on a normal brain. In fact, it must be an important part of every leucotomy treatment to see that if the patient gets well enough to go out and do his shopping and go to the cinema he does not also regain the right to vote, or take an active part in the arrangement of our affairs. He is permanently maimed.
I realize that the correct procedure is for us to speed up research into the psychology of insanity and so to provide a scientific basis for mental hospital work, but in the meantime are we to see our countryside littered with “cured” mental hospital patients with permanently deformed brains? And what happens if these physical therapy methods spread to the treatment of criminals? What gua