Lobotomies were once used to treat this gut disease, part of a shameful medical history

https://www.statnews.com/2018/06/12/lobotomy-ulcerative-colitis-shameful-medical-history/

Horrible.

The mind boggles at the sheer numbers of people who have been told they are to blame for their illness because of character deficiency and/or mental weakness.

 

Victorian thinking and probably older .you know the kind of thing the poor are workshy/profligate .while of course those who inherited wealth/privilege got everything through share hard work and merit .we are still in an I am alright society so everyone else is to blame for any hardship they face.

 

Apropos.

 

I think this statement is interesting. I wonder if perhaps the UC was really the only problem and she was the victim of diagnostic overloading. So because the UC was believed to be psychogenic, that would make her worries and anxieties about it disproportionate, so that could get her the labels of anxious and obsessive too

This is very telling too. Her worries, etc. were previously 'inappropriate". I expect one of these was losing weight due to UC. A very appropriate thing to worry about, I would say.

 

I just want to say that if the consequence of admitting any "worries, phobias, obsessions, compulsions" could quite plausibly be another round of lobotomy, I would swear to God that I was cured.

Anyway this story is totally implausible. Lobotomy doesn't cure autoimmune disease.

 

Well, I guess I wouldn't try to read into the specifics because the case report is totally unreliable and surely bore little resemblance to the patient's reality, and we probably won't find her. It makes me think I'd like to see independent followup on people pronounced 'cured' by cfs treatments - while we can still get the whole story.

 

On twitter, Anton Mayer shared this article about Freud's patients. I know, its not about UC or about lobotomies but it is about spinning neat stories about the causes of illness that are unlikely to be true. And in Freud's case, people did actually manage to track down his more famous patients, and discovered that quite a few were by no means cured by their "treatment".

https://www.nytimes.com/1990/03/06/science/as-a-therapist-freud-fell-short-scholars-find.html

warning: the article is OLD (1990) and badly formatted.

 

That's excellent. I don't know what psychoanalysis is like today but on that evidence it's hard not to conclude that the psychoanalysis of that time was pretty likely to damage the patient.

 

Interesting that even an opponent of psychosomatic theory bought into the type A personality thing. I really wish that instead of aguing about which personality type is / is not most affected, more people would question whether talking in terms of personality traits of of any use whatsoever, not only in relation to illness, but in relation to anything. Just as a in some ways a certain kind of psychology is the new religion, I'm pretty sure that personality traits is the new astrology. There, I've said it. Sorry if that sounds a bit bullish, but I'm a taurus.

 

I’m a Taurus too ...what a coincidence! but I think comparing personality profiling to horoscopes is possibly just your generous side showing?

I prefer the simple explanation that it’s more like fortune telling ....is there a man that has a birthday or anniversary in the room? Etc.

Obviously the below describes me perfectly .... so there may be something in it.

“Male Taurus Positive Traits:

• Generous.
• Extremely Focused.
• Loyal.
• Patient.
• Determined.
• Kind Heart.
• Prefers Simplicity.
• Stable.”

 

OMG I can't believe it that describes me perfectly too!

 

Strangely all personality types die of something in the end. Not enough CBT and lobotomies.

 

Yea, I can think of way more fun ways to die.

An apt time to declare "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy"