Walter Freeman was one of the biggest proponents of the "ice pick" lobotomy, performing more than 3,000 during his lifetime. He's one of the ten most dangerous doctors to have ever lived and you can read more about him and the rest of these men in this great Ty.rannosaur.us article.
Link
That looks interesting, somewhat reminds me of Erich Fromm's work (See: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness). I've heard of Becker but not studies his work, I'll have a closer look at this soon. Thanks.
Regarding your talk of thinking of your mortality, perhaps you would be interested in terror management theory:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terror_management_theory
It has implications in the research of religious beliefs, tradition, and interestingly, disgust.
A) All suffering is the result of ignorance.
B) Ignorance is the result of ignoring truth.
C) Truth is ignored because it is harmful to one's sense of self-worth.
D) Self-worth is clung to because we fear our own mortality.
These four principals, and maybe there is more, are a constant reinforcement of my psychological well-being. Whenever I feel suffering in the form of depression, anxiety or what-not, I look to my own mortality, try to see in what ways my suffering is bound-up in clinging to existence and self-worth. Pretty soon, I find the answers I'm looking for and I'm lifted out of the abyss. Drugs will never help with this, they can only provide a temporary relief with the consequence of becoming dependent and more depressed. The mind seeks a balance, drugs may aim to rebalance a mind gone haywire, but they are generally global effects that throw the mind into greater disequilibrium.
They didn't think the brain could adjust, they thought it was like a car engine, it contains well-defined parts that once broken are no longer useful. Neuroplasticity meant that even after a brain region became damaged, it had the potential to regain function through Cognitive Behavior Therapy or Constraint-Induced Therapy. But up until the 1980s the prevailing belief was in the removal of faulty mechanisms.
I spoke to my mother last night, a rather dismal conversation as my brother has been diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disease known as vasculitis, that has the potential to require amputation. Our conversation seemed to revolve around illnesses and I had the opportunity to ask her about her experiences with SSRIs. She wasn't familiar with the term, but she was familiar with Prozac.
As a young mother of three, one of which she almost lost in a near-fatal motorvehicle accident (me), and a cheating husband, she found herself quite depressed and upon seeking medical treatment, found herself taking Prozac. It made her feel suicidal and unable to function at even normal levels, but her physicians refused to discontinue administering the drug to her. She insisted on quiting with or without their help and they warned her "You will not be able to go off Prozac without medical care." She said "I know it is messing with my head, making me want to do things." and she quit cold-turkey. I remember the way she was, Prozac wasn't the only drug she was taking, she was taking drugs to counter-act other drugs and her whole life was a depressive mess. She became bipolar while taking prescription drugs, and said she felt like a Guinea Pig much of the time. I remember the amount she used to cry and contemplate suicide, it was very unsettling for her children. To speak to her now, she is nothing like she was, I don't have to worry about saying the wrong thing or upsetting her, she is incredibly strong, way stronger than she was. When she talks about recovering from depression, the things she mentions are not drugs, not therapy and not even family and friends, the things she talks about is her own psyche, how she dropped anxieties and false beliefs, matured and "woke up" to reality.