Uncharted Territory: Psychosurgery in Western Canada, 1935-1970

Collins, Brianne M.

Uncharted Territory: Psychosurgery in Western Canada, 1935-1970

dc.contributor.advisor	Stam, Henderikus J.
dc.contributor.author	Collins, Brianne M.
dc.contributor.committeemember	Bulloch, Andrew G. M.
dc.contributor.committeemember	Stahnisch, Frank W.
dc.contributor.committeemember	McCoy, Ted
dc.contributor.committeemember	Green, Christopher
dc.date	2020-06
dc.date.accessioned	2020-01-31T22:30:31Z
dc.date.available	2020-01-31T22:30:31Z
dc.date.issued	2020-01-29
dc.description.abstract	This dissertation provides the first scholarly account of the use of psychosurgery in western Canada in the mid-20th-century. In particular, the adoption, organization, and purpose of the treatment within provincial mental hospitals in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba are explored. I argue that while psychosurgery’s adoption in these provinces mirrored its deployment elsewhere in North America, the cumulative impact of decades of overcrowding, inadequate funding, the privations of war, and the devastation of the Great Depression only amplified psychosurgery’s appeal by the early 1940s. Although it was touted as a therapeutic advancement, the treatment—along with three other somatic therapies—enabled psychiatrists in western Canada to bolster their image in the medical community by demonstrating they were capable of actively treating mental illness. From a more critical perspective, I also explore the notion that psychosurgery was employed in service of a larger social agenda ascribed to mental hospitals—namely, the systemic management, control, and correction of a segment of the population that had been deemed a burden to society. Once the treatment was introduced, each province needed to negotiate who would perform the surgeries and how, when, and where they would take place. The expansion of psychosurgery in most of the provinces was ultimately made possible by federal mental health grants that became available in 1948. By 1954, all of the provincial mental hospitals were performing psychosurgery—either on site or in partnership with a nearby general hospital. Based on available data from each province, there were at least 1,240 operations conducted in western Canada between 1943 and 1973. Of the western provinces, however, Manitoba and British Columbia maintained the most robust psychosurgical programs.	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Collins, B. M. (2020). Uncharted Territory: Psychosurgery in Western Canada, 1935-1970 (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.	en_US
dc.identifier.doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/37543
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1880/111599
dc.language.iso	eng	en_US
dc.publisher.faculty	Arts	en_US
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary	en
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.	en_US
dc.subject	Psychosurgery	en_US
dc.subject	Leucotomy	en_US
dc.subject	Lobotomy	en_US
dc.subject	Western Canada	en_US
dc.subject	British Columbia	en_US
dc.subject	Alberta	en_US
dc.subject	Saskatchewan	en_US
dc.subject	Manitoba	en_US
dc.subject.classification	History	en_US
dc.subject.classification	History--Canadian	en_US
dc.subject.classification	History of Science	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Health Sciences	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Medicine and Surgery	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Mental Health	en_US
dc.title	Uncharted Territory: Psychosurgery in Western Canada, 1935-1970	en_US
dc.type	doctoral thesis	en_US
thesis.degree.discipline	Psychology	en_US
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary	en_US
thesis.degree.name	Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)	en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopy	true	en_US