The Lobotomists

This fascinating BBC Radio 4 documentary tells the story of three key figures in the strange history of lobotomy, and for the first time explores the popularity of the operation in the UK.

The story starts in 1935 with a Portuguese doctor called Egas Moniz, who pioneered a radical surgical procedure on the brain which he asserted would relieve the symptoms of mental disorder. His results were seized on the following year by Walter Freeman in the US, an enthusiastic neurosurgeon who eventual...