Lobotomy Nation: The History of Psychosurgery and Psychiatry in Denmark

This book tells the story of one of medicine’s most (in)famous treatments: the neurosurgical operation commonly known as lobotomy. Invented by Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz in 1935, lobotomy or psychosurgery became widely used in a number of countries, including Denmark, where the treatment had a major breakthrough.
In fact, evidence suggests that more lobotomies were performed in Denmark than any other country. However, the reason behind this unofficial world record has not yet been fully understood. Lobotomy Nation traces the history of psychosurgery and its ties to other psychiatric treatments such as malaria fever therapy, Cardiazol shock and insulin coma therapy, but it also situates lobotomy within a broader context. The book argues that the rise and fall of lobotomy is not just a story about psychiatry, it is also about society, culture and interventions towards vulnerable groups in the 20th century.

Jesper Vaczy Kragh is Senior Researcher in the Copenhagen Centre for Health Research in the Humanities (CoRe) at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He has worked on research projects on the history of forensic psychiatry, Nordic psychology, drug abuse in the 19th and early 20th century and the history of vulnerable groups, 1945–1980. He is Co-Editor of the book, Social Class and Mental Illness in Northern Europe (2020).