"Although the intention was simply to disconnect emotion from thought, the effect was often more drastic; it produced a permanently lethargic, immature personality" (Myers 485). At the beginning of the lobotomy craze, results seemed all constructive when in reality there were mostly negative. "Unfortunately, lobotomies can work with one person and fail completely with another-possibly producing permanent undesirable side effects, such as an inability to inhibit impulses or a virtually total absence of feeling" (Morris 585). Soon after lobotomies began, people started to understand the horrifying affects of lobotomies, many ending in death. In conclusion, this "psychic mercy killing" put the treatment of mental illness at one of its lowest points. .
Almost as brutal as the lobotomy, electroshock therapy was used to treat depression and Schizophrenia but was known to cause severe memory loss, put patients in cardiac arrest, and cause many deaths. "When first introduced the wide-awake patient would be strapped to a table and jolted with roughly 100 volts of electricity to the brain, producing bone-rattling convulsions and momentary unconsciousness" (Myers 485). But shock therapy was usually repeated a few times a day for about a month. "Critics say that it can result in permanent brain damage, including a loss of long term memory" (Berger 71). This procedure was very risky and the results were not good in a whole. Another harmful treatment procedure, Electroshock is still used today but "mostly on patients with extreme depressive illness or those in danger of committing suicide and on acute schizophrenics suffering from disturbing delusions or hallucinations" (Berger 70). Sometimes effective, electroshock was primarily a very dangerous procedure used, and killed or brain damaged many patients.
The discovery of Thorazine, and other psychotropic drugs in the later 1950s, reduced cruel treatments on patients, as well as patient numbers in institutions.