{"podcast":{"title":"BRAINLAND","slug":"brainland-6744859","podcast_index_feed_id":6744859,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6452b6516dd22500113dc7ca","website_url":"https://shows.acast.com/brainland","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/6452b6516dd22500113dc7ca/1683142831630-6485c986c1518411e134acc7a157bc98.jpeg","author":"Ken Barrett","episode_count":93,"summary":"Brainland the podcast navigates the boundary between neuroscience, the arts and humanities with the occasional wander off piste. It began as a neuro-historical exploration of the background to the Brainland the opera but quickly spread its wings. A Brainland Collective production. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-26T20:17:13.397969+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/brainland-6744859"},"episode":{"title":"MANHANDLING THE BRAIN: How did damaging the brains of the mentally ill ever  seem a good idea?","slug":"manhandling-the-brain-how-did-damaging-the-brains-of-the-mentally-ill-ever-seem-a-good-idea","published_at":"2025-12-28T17:12:17+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/brainland-6744859/manhandling-the-brain-how-did-damaging-the-brains-of-the-mentally-ill-ever-seem-a-good-idea","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/brainland-6744859","url":"https://shows.acast.com/brainland/episodes/manhandling-the-brain-how-damaging-the-brains-of-psychiatric","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6452b6516dd22500113dc7ca/e/694d4ff744fae3e8025eab61/media.mp3","summary":"In this festive episode Ken reads 'Manhandling the Brain', his essay on the origins of mid-20th century psychosurgery, an attempt to understand how, for over 20 years, so many people thought it such a good idea to damage the brains of the severely mentally ill and the lessons that can be learned. Participants: Ken Barrett, visual artist, writer and retired neuropsychiatrist: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk Full text of the essay with bibliography and references are here, preceded by an essay on the early days of the EEG and more: http://www.kenbarrettstudio.co.uk/writing/ Bibliography top picks in bold) Moniz E (1935), Tentatives operatoires dans le traitement de certaines psychoses, Masson, Paris. Freeman W, Watts JW & Hunt T (1942) Psychosurgery: Intelligence, emotion and social behavior following prefrontal lobotomy for mental disorders. Springfield, Thomas. Board of Control (1947), Pre-frontal Leucotomy in 1000 Cases , HMSO. Shutts D (1982), Lobotomy: Resort to the Knife , Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York. Rylander G ( 1948), Personality Analysis Before and After Frontal Lobotomy, in The Frontal Lobes , John F Fulton et al Eds., pp691-705. Williams and Wilkins, Baltimore. Vallenstein ES (1986), Great and Desperate Cures: The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other Radical treatments for Mental Illnes s , Basic Books Inc.. Pressman JD, Last Resort: Psychosurgery and the Limits of Medicine, Cambridge University Press, 1998. El-Hai J (2005), The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness, John Wiley & Sons. Howard Dully and Charles Fleming, Messing with my Head: The shocking true story of my lobotomy, Vermilion, 2007. Kotowicz Z (2012), Psychosurgery: the Birth of a New Scientific Para…","meta_description":"In this festive episode Ken reads 'Manhandling the Brain', his essay on the origins of mid-20th century psychosurgery, an attempt to understand how, for o…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2309,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/brainland-6744859/episodes/manhandling-the-brain-how-did-damaging-the-brains-of-the-mentally-ill-ever-seem-a-good-idea/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/brainland-6744859/manhandling-the-brain-how-did-damaging-the-brains-of-the-mentally-ill-ever-seem-a-good-idea.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}