Exposés Can Spur Harmful Medicine

Life magazine’s 1946 “Bedlam” photo essay shocked the U.S. with images of abuse in state mental hospitals and, per PBS, helped motivate Walter Freeman to simplify lobotomy for mass use. The public demand to 'do something' channeled reform into a drastic, low‑resource procedure that produced widespread harm. — It warns that outrage‑driven reform can fast‑track irreversible medical interventions, a pattern relevant to current debates over crisis‑framed health policies.