Episode Details

In this episode, the hosts delve into the controversial topic of medical gender transitions and puberty blockers for children, comparing them to past medical fads like lobotomies. They discuss the historical context, patient outcomes, and the cultural and ethical implications of these practices. The conversation highlights the issues surrounding informed consent, the pressure on doctors and patients, and the potential long-term effects. The hosts draw parallels with other societal phenomena and express concerns about the role of therapists and the medical industry. The episode concludes with predictions on how societal trends may evolve and the potential for future scandals in the psychiatric field.

Speaker: [00:00:00] The lobotomite returns! What insidious plan can it have brewing in its horrid mind? What commie, anti American propaganda will it spew?

Malcolm Collins: Hello, Simone. Today, we're going to be discussing an interesting topic that's been nagging at the back of my brain for a while now. Say that. I think we are at a point in history now where basically everyone who is like super cute into the data, everyone who's super cute into the most modern studies, the most modern statistics where culture is flowing knows that the.

medical gender transition phenomenon and the child puberty blocking phenomenon are both going to be seen as well mistakes in the way a lot of fads historically in medicine were seen as mistakes.

Is the holy guide to living pure, this will help [00:01:00] explain. First, Laughter. Oh. You're not

An oppressed minority. you're a cult!

Malcolm Collins: There was a phenomenon of hypnosis and bringing back old memories. Oh, this is great. This is so cool for a while.

Then everyone was like, Oh, we got a bunch of people to accuse their parents of grapes that definitely didn't happen. And now those parents have spent their lives in jail and people have been permanently broken from their families. And this was a horrible thing. How, why did nobody call attention to this earlier?

This is, this is recent. This is like the eighties, you know, we, we,

Simone Collins: you

Malcolm Collins: know, we, this sort of stuff happens all the time, but I think the most famous instance of it happening is lobotomies. Right. Lobotomies were very popular. Even the Kennedys did it.

If that iteration of the Kennedy family were around today, would they not be the first in line to transition their daughter?

And [00:02:00] then we came to realize, Oh, this is actually horrifying and does not help the people who we're doing it to.

And just so people understand 20, 000 people went through lobotomies at some point.

Simone Collins: It wasn't one big proponent of it who would even

Malcolm Collins: lobotomize

Simone Collins: people

Malcolm Collins: on stage. Well, yeah, the guy who invented it, the neurologist, Ergos Monod, got the Nobel Prize for inventing it. No way! He got the Nobel Prize? People don't understand when they're like, no, lobotomies were never as celebrated as gender transitions today.

Oh, no, they definitely, definitely were as celebrated as gender transitions. This

Simone Collins: undermines my trust in the Nobel Prize right

Malcolm Collins: now. Well, here's the other interesting thing. A lot of people will be like, well, Yeah, but they're hugely different. Lobotomies weren't done with consent. Actually, lobotomies were almost never done without consent.

Lobotomies were done with informed consent. Really? The problem is, is they were just very [00:03:00] bad at informing the people. The

Simone Collins: information was bad, or the delivery of the informed consent was bad?