after a unilateral sympathectomy customary sensation of shivering while listening to a stirring passage of music occurred in only one side

The surprising fact is that the unpleasant sensation of fear was felt in one side of the body, contralateral to the brain stimulation, Sweet (221) has reported the case of a very intelligent patient, the dean of a graduate school, who after a unilateral sympathectomy to treat his upper limb hyperhydrosis, found that his previous and customary sensation of shivering while listening to a stirring passage of music occurred in only one side and he could not be thrilled in the sympathectomized half of his body. These cases were interesting because emotions are usually experienced in a rather diffuse and bilateral fashion unless innervation has been specifically interrupted.

Physical Control of the Mind, Jose DELGADO

Mindcontrol not just science fiction

"We need a program of psychosurgery and political control of our society. The purpose is physical control of the mind. Everyone who deviates from the given norm can be surgically mutilated.

"The individual may think that the most important reality is his own existence, but this is only his personal point of view. This lacks historical perspective.

"Man does not have the right to develop his own mind. This kind of liberal orientation has great appeal. We must electrically control the brain. Some day armies and generals will be controlled by electrical stimulation of the brain."

Dr. Jose Delgado (MKULTRA experimenter who demonstrated a radio- controlled bull on CNN in 1985)
Director of Neuropsychiatry, Yale University Medical School
Congressional Record No. 26, Vol. 118, February 24, 1974

Biochemical theories - of mental disorders - are an entirely "unproven hypothesis"

In his 1988 book, Blaming the Brain: The Truth about Drugs and Mental Health, Valenstein
argues that while psychotropic drugs sometimes do work, they do not even begin to address the
real cause of mental disorders, since in his view biochemical theories are an entirely "unproven
hypothesis" used to excuse what he sees as often unconscionable marketing practices of the
drug industry. Valenstein acknowledges a combination of medications and psychotherapy often
offers the best chance of success at treating common disorders, but stresses no one knows
exactly why.

Economic factors distorting the practice of medicine

"The influence of the pharmaceutical companies is so great these days because of the resources
they have at their disposal. There are tremendous economic factors distorting the practice of
medicine, just as there were in the lobotomy period. It is hard to find any clinicians or
researchers who don’t have vested interests in the development of procedures or drugs. I mean
that. Of course, they will deny that funding from drug companies has an influence, but it is so
subtle that they’re unaware of it themselves."
Elliott Valenstein (Stay Free! interview, Fall 2003).

Even a surgeon who was convinced that he was not obtaining good results seldom gave up lobotomy

There are many parallels between Lobotomy and Sympathectomy. One of them is that they are performed by surgeons who know very little about the part of anatomy they choose to burn, cut, clamp, disable. The other parallel is that the surgeons refuse to acknowledge the validity of the complaints of many people who have been often disabled by the procedure - and are declared 'screamers' or simply 'mentally unstable'. Those who complain are 'militant'.
The next similarity can be witnessed in the literature, as surgeons struggle to come up with milder, cuter names for their procedure, in order to differentiate themselves, competing with a horde of doctors willing to try their hand, and trying to undermine those who - they believe - are less qualified to perform it. Thus neurosurgeons are attacking thoracic surgeons, who attack vascular surgeons, and they all have a really good go at the cosmetic surgeons... Besides all these pressures, the doctors have to come up with results that match those that were already published in the literature.

"Even a surgeon who was convinced that he was not obtaining good results seldom gave up lobotomy. It was difficult to admit that the effort had been completely wasted, especially when other surgeons were reporting success. Rather than abandoning psychosurgery, neurosurgeons
much more commonly introduced some change in the operation in the hope of increasing the success rate."
Elliott Valenstein, in Great and Desperate Cures (1986).