It’s fascinating to think that the lobotomy used to be a reputable mental health treatment.
In 1848 a railroad foreman named Phineas Gage survived the accidental explosion that shot a rudimentary crowbar out of the back of head through the front of his face, and 100 years later upwards of 5,000 people had their brains surgically altered in the course of a single year.
That Gage lived for another 12 years after the event is difficult to conceive. That his survival initially prompted more conversation about how the brain might be surgically altered than the largely negative effects on his mental and physical health even more so.