Last Resort
Psychosurgery and the Limits of Medicine

"To cut into a person's brain on rather dubious scientific grounds seems like the ultimate in medical imperialism. But as the late Jack Pressman shows in this impressive but flawed work, the story is much more complex...Pressman's main point is that much of the condemnation of leuctotomy has taken no account of its history, in that it ignores the clinical and administrative problems faced by those who used it and has an unreal view of the actual process of mediccal advance...Regrettably, Pressman died shortly after finishing this work. Had he lived, he would undoubtedly have made further important contributions to medical history." Hugh Freeman, Nature

"...first-rate...." Donald W. Goodwin MD, JAMA

"Last Resort is medical history at its best....it illuminates the meaning of a misguided therapeutic innovation so as to shed light on the dilemmas medicine continues to face in assessing therapeutic options. Pressman has conducted a close, careful, and thoroughly documented examination of original sources. This book is much more than an important contribution to medical history....Every student and practitioner in psychiatry, psychology, and social work--in short, any student who wants to understand contemporary psychiatry and medicine--will find Last Resort extremely rewarding. It should become required reading for all psychiatric house officers. We owe Jack Pressman an enormous debt for Last Resort." Leon Eisenberg, MD; The New England Journal of Medicine

"Jack Pressman has written a truly important book that addresses fundamental questions about the nature of medical progress and therapeutic effectiveness. This book is all the more remarkable for exploring these questions by way of one of the most discredited medical interventions of the twentieth century, namely, lobotomy." Joel Braslow, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences

"Pressman's project is so vast that any single chapter could stand on its own as an independent, well-written monograph. The originality of Pressman's topic, his staggering amount of research, and the cogency of his theme are impressive, but it is the depth of his analysis and the subtlety of his synthesis that set his work apart. Historians of medicine and neuroscience in particular will welcome this book, but any historian will read it profitably." Thomas P. Gariepy, Isis

"...a well-written, thorough understanding of psychosurgery and the surrounding feelings, pro and con, at the height of its popularity." George B. Murray, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"...long, detailed, and engaging book..." Elizabeth Lunbeck, Journal of the History of Medicine

"...well-documented, definitive study of the rise and fall of psychosurgery...hist owrk inspires friends and admirers to write their own social histories of American medicine and psychology." Westwick