None of these was fringe. They were published in the leading medical journals, prized, and taught. And nearly every time, the first person to say publicly that they did not hold up came from inside.
REGULATORYNOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE 1949 KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET
The prize was never withdrawn — and cannot be
In 1949 the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute awarded half the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to the Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz "for his discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain psychoses". The other half went to Walter Rudolf Hess for unrelated work.
Moniz did not operate: the leucotomies were performed by the neurosurgeon Almeida Lima.
The prize has never been withdrawn — and no Nobel Prize in any category ever has been. The Nobel Foundation's published position is that neither Alfred Nobel's will nor the statutes provide any mechanism for revocation; § 10 states that "no appeals may be made against the decision". Patients' families campaigned for revocation; this was the answer.
Category: Moniz was a neurologist and so was Freeman — the lobotomy was not a psychiatric invention. It was neurological and neurosurgical, applied to psychiatric patients.
[35] Nobel Prize Outreach, 1949 Prize in Physiology or Medicine · Statutes of the Nobel Foundation, § 10 · FAQ: "Is it possible to revoke a Nobel Prize? No."
PEER-REVIEWEDMANFRED SAKEL · 1933–34 INSULIN COMA THERAPYHE EXPOSED ITHarold Bourne, junior psychiatrist — "The insulin myth", the Lancet, November 1953
Bourne demolished nothing. The real story is more interesting.
Manfred Sakel announced insulin coma therapy to the Vienna Medical Society in 1933 and published it in 1934. Patients were held in induced hypoglycaemic coma.
In November 1953 Harold Bourne, then a junior psychiatrist, published "The insulin myth" in the Lancet, arguing that there was no proof of any specific therapeutic effect.
And the profession rejected him. Of fourteen published responses, nine defended insulin and five supported Bourne; William Sargant accused him of selecting his evidence. The treatment continued. It was abandoned only after the randomised comparison by Ackner, Harris and Oldham in 1957 — four years later, and at a point when use was already declining because chlorpromazine had arrived.
We put it this way because this is how it happened. "Demolished" would be a verb stronger than the source. Bourne wrote a critique the profession rejected — and he was right four years before everyone else.
[38] Sakel M, Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift, 1934 · [39] Bourne H. "The insulin myth", Lancet 1953;265(6793):964-968 · [40] Ackner B, Harris A, Oldham AJ, 1957
PEER-REVIEWEDMACCULLOCH & FELDMAN BMJ · 3 JUNE 1967 2(5552):594-597
Published in the British Medical Journal, not on the fringe
Electrical aversion therapy for homosexuality was not fringe practice. Between 1964 and 1970 the psychiatrist M. J. MacCulloch and the clinical psychologist M. P. Feldman published at least nine papers on it in the British Medical Journal, the American Journal of Psychiatry, the British Journal of Psychiatry, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica and Behaviour Research and Therapy.
Among them: "Aversion therapy in management of 43 homosexuals", BMJ, 3 June 1967.
The method derived from behaviourist learning theory and was delivered jointly by medicine and clinical psychology. The journals that published it are the flagship titles of British and American medicine.
The legal context, without which the picture is incomplete: homosexual acts between men remained a criminal offence in England and Wales until the Sexual Offences Act 1967. Patients arrived at these clinics under threat of prosecution.
[41] MacCulloch MJ, Feldman MP. Br Med J 1967;2(5552):594-597, DOI 10.1136/bmj.2.5552.594, PMID 6025594 · [42] Sexual Offences Act 1967
OPEN DISPUTEWALTER FREEMAN NEUROLOGIST FROM 1936
Why we do not print "3,439"
Walter Freeman — a neurologist, never board-certified in surgery — performed or participated in more than 3,000 prefrontal and transorbital lobotomies from 1936 onward.
A more precise figure, 3,439, is widely quoted. We do not publish it as data. It derives from Freeman's own records via a 2005 trade biography — that is, it originates with a documented self-promoter counting himself — and has never been independently audited against the archive. The only peer-reviewed source we located says "more than 3,000".
Freeman operated on children. The best-documented case is Howard Dully, lobotomised at the age of 12 on 16 December 1960, who has published both his own account and Freeman's case notes, obtained from the archive. We do not repeat the "four years old" that circulates: we found no primary source for it.
[36] Caruso JP, Sheehan JP, Neurosurgical Focus 2017 · [37] El-Hai J, The Lobotomist, 2005 — secondary, a trade biography
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Sources for this section
[35]Nobel Prize Outreach, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1949; Statutes of the Nobel Foundation, § 10
[37]El-Hai J. The Lobotomist, 2005 — secondary, a trade biography; source of the figure 3,439, never independently audited
[38]Sakel M, Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift, 1934 (announced to the Vienna Medical Society, 1933)
[39]Bourne H. "The insulin myth", Lancet 1953;265(6793):964-968
[40]Ackner B, Harris A, Oldham AJ — randomised comparison, 1957
[41]MacCulloch MJ, Feldman MP. "Aversion therapy in management of 43 homosexuals", Br Med J 1967;2(5552):594-597, DOI 10.1136/bmj.2.5552.594, PMID 6025594
[42]Sexual Offences Act 1967 (England and Wales)
Written byPetros Chatzianastasiou I am not a doctor. Every claim cites its primary source. No page here tells anyone to stop treatment or avoid care. Any step you take with your own treatment, always in consultation with your treating doctor and under their monitoring and guidance.