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During the 1940s and 1950s, tens of thousands of Americans underwent some form of psychosurgery; that is, their brains were operated upon for the putative purpose of treating mental illness. From today's perspective, such medical practices appear foolhardy at best, perhaps even barbaric; most commentators thus have seen in the story of lobotomy an important warning about the kinds of hazards that society will face whenever incompetent or malicious physicians are allowed to overstep the boundaries of valid medical science. Last Resort, first published in 1998, challenges the previously accepted psychosurgery story and raises new questions about what we should consider its important lessons.

This book, first published in 1998, revisits the period in the 1940s and 1950s when many Americans were operated on for mental illness.

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CONTENTS
List of Figures and Tables = ⅷ
Acknowledgments = xi
Jack D. Pressman : An Appreciation / by Gerald N. Grob = xiii
Introduction : A Stab in the Dark = 1
1 Psychiatry's Renaissance : The Problem of Mental Disorder, 1921-1935 = 18
2 Sufficient Promise : John F. Fulton and the Origins of Lobotomy = 47
3 Certain Benefit : Initial Impressions of the Operation = 102
4 Active Treatment : Somatic Therapy and State Hospital Reform = 147
5 Human Salvage : Why Psychosurgery Worked in 1949(and Not Now) = 194
6 Localizing Decisions : Psychosurgery and the Art of Medicine = 236
7 The Politics of Precision : The Quest for a Better Lobotomy = 318
8 Medicine Controlled : Psychiatry's Evolution as a Science and a Profession
Epilogue : The New Synthesis = 362
Appendix
 Statistical Portrait of Psychosurgery at McLean Hospital, 1938-1954 = 401
 Codes of Patients and Physicians Cited in Chapters 3 and 6 = 443
Notes = 448
Sources = 453
 Collections Cited = 533
 Annual Reports Examined = 535
Index = 537