One of the links from

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lobotomist/

leads eventually to a discussion of mental illness and John Nash (A Brilliant Madness) at

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/nash/sf.../sf_forum.html

by an "expert" panel. The "experts" include Laurie Flynn and E. Fuller Torrey, both of NAMI in the old days, and a short perusal of the answers to the questions posed indicates to me that the points of view expressed in the answers are pretty standard psychiatric talking points.

Oh yes: the Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz was awarded the Nobel prize in 1949 for his "invention" of the prefrontal lobotomy. So much for the wisdom of the "authorities" in matters of mental illness.