‘A matter for conjecture’

Leucotomy in Western Australia, 1947–70

Datos Bibliográficos

ID19445238
AutoresPhilippa Martyr (0000-0003-1545-9968, University of Western Australia, and Graylands Hospital, Mount Claremeont, autor de correspondencia), Aleksandar Janca (The University of Western Australia)
Año2018
Volumen29
Número2
Páginas199-215
Fecha de publicación2018-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaHistory of Psychiatry (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0957-154X • E-ISSN: 1740-2360
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0957154x18757363
PMID29480023
OpenAlexW2791102516
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas24

Very little has been published on the rise and fall of psychosurgery in Australia. In the mid-twentieth century, Western Australia was the largest but most sparsely-populated of the six Australian States, and its local psychiatry practice was, as one commentator put it, ‘backward’. Nonetheless, electroconvulsive therapy was introduced in 1945, and leucotomy in 1947. This paper will explore the introduction of leucotomy to Western Australia in the context of wider national and international trends in psychiatry, and posit some reasons for its decline and abandonment in the 1970s. It will present a narrative reconstruction of the local introduction and practice of leucotomy, using retrieved, reconstructed and previously unpublished data

Archaeology · Art · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Psychiatry · Psychoanalysis · Psychosurgery · Historical Psychiatry and Medical Practices · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · History · Law · Neurology and Historical Studies · Psychology