Hellerup north of Copenhagen - the whiskey belt as it was called since so many rich people lived there. Her handshake was firm and strong. It almost hurt my fingers.
She showed me into her office and sat behind a huge mahogany desk. I sat in a chair in front of her quite intimidating desk.
"Can I get you anything?" she asked. "Coffee?" She pointed at a tray next to us with two cups and a silver pot.
"That would be nice. It was a long drive."
"Help yourself," she said.
I poured a cup and put in some milk. I sipped it while finding my notes. I looked up. Behind Irene were framed pictures of her and people she had worked with in front of different buildings. She noticed I was looking at the pictures.
"Yes after more than thirty years in psychiatry I have been around," she stated. "I began my career at Montebello in Elsinore."
"The psychiatric hospital that was later made into an asylum camp for refugees from the war in ex-Yugoslavia, right?"
"Yes and now I believe it is a nursing home for the elderly among other things. Back in the old days it was called a Sanatorium. Where people with bad nerves were admitted. In 1969 a youth section was created at Montebello. That was where I started my career as a psychiatrist."
"When was that?"
"1975. I worked with young people for many years. It wasn't until 2001 when I was headhunted to the position at Rigshospitalet that I stopped working with the youngsters."
"Did they do lobotomies at Montebello?"
She nodded. "They did. But only in very rare and difficult cases where there was no other treatment that would work. It stopped shortly after I had started working there. In 1977 they did the last one."
"Have you ever done any?"
"I actually performed the last one in Montebello. After that the politicians decided to stop it. It was my first and my last."
I nodded and noted it. So she did really know what she was talking about. She hadn't only read about it in textbooks in med-school. That was good. Scary, but good.
"So what can you tell me about lobotomy? How did you feel about having to do that procedure on someone?"
"The patient was no more than eighteen years old. She had severe manic-depression and paranoia and there was nothing more we could do for her. We had given her electro-shock, held her down in a straitjacket; we had strapped her down, everything you did back then to help a young woman in her situation. But she kept hurting herself. She tried to kill herself and even others who came near her at times. She was just dangerous to her surroundings and in the end, once you've tried all there is to try; you go for the last resort. I recommended the lobotomy after consulting the other doctors at the facility and we all agreed on doing this. It really was the best for everybody."
"So what happened to her afterwards?"
"She lived the rest of her life in a nursing home, died ten years ago, I believe. The point is that it actually worked for her. I know it's controversial but the fact remains that it did help some patients back in those days."
"But didn't you ever think that it was a little excessive to open a person's brain and cut the nerve paths?"
Irene Hoeg shook her head. "We didn't back then. The idea was to cut off the connection in the brain so to speak, it was believed that thoughts and ideas and patterns were stored in the nerves of the brain. Insanity was a thought process that was kept in the nerve paths and if you cut those you could remove bad or abnormal thinking and behavior. It was a clinical procedure along with so many others. All I ever saw was that it worked."
"But it also killed a lot of patients by damaging their brains and others became apathetic vegetables for the rest of their lives. Like your patient who ended up in a nursing home," I said.
"Correct. But wasn't that better than her killing someone? That was what she was going to do. She was a wild beast. I do believe we saved her from doing something really bad either to herself or to
She showed me into her office and sat behind a huge mahogany desk. I sat in a chair in front of her quite intimidating desk.
"Can I get you anything?" she asked. "Coffee?" She pointed at a tray next to us with two cups and a silver pot.
"That would be nice. It was a long drive."
"Help yourself," she said.
I poured a cup and put in some milk. I sipped it while finding my notes. I looked up. Behind Irene were framed pictures of her and people she had worked with in front of different buildings. She noticed I was looking at the pictures.
"Yes after more than thirty years in psychiatry I have been around," she stated. "I began my career at Montebello in Elsinore."
"The psychiatric hospital that was later made into an asylum camp for refugees from the war in ex-Yugoslavia, right?"
"Yes and now I believe it is a nursing home for the elderly among other things. Back in the old days it was called a Sanatorium. Where people with bad nerves were admitted. In 1969 a youth section was created at Montebello. That was where I started my career as a psychiatrist."
"When was that?"
"1975. I worked with young people for many years. It wasn't until 2001 when I was headhunted to the position at Rigshospitalet that I stopped working with the youngsters."
"Did they do lobotomies at Montebello?"
She nodded. "They did. But only in very rare and difficult cases where there was no other treatment that would work. It stopped shortly after I had started working there. In 1977 they did the last one."
"Have you ever done any?"
"I actually performed the last one in Montebello. After that the politicians decided to stop it. It was my first and my last."
I nodded and noted it. So she did really know what she was talking about. She hadn't only read about it in textbooks in med-school. That was good. Scary, but good.
"So what can you tell me about lobotomy? How did you feel about having to do that procedure on someone?"
"The patient was no more than eighteen years old. She had severe manic-depression and paranoia and there was nothing more we could do for her. We had given her electro-shock, held her down in a straitjacket; we had strapped her down, everything you did back then to help a young woman in her situation. But she kept hurting herself. She tried to kill herself and even others who came near her at times. She was just dangerous to her surroundings and in the end, once you've tried all there is to try; you go for the last resort. I recommended the lobotomy after consulting the other doctors at the facility and we all agreed on doing this. It really was the best for everybody."
"So what happened to her afterwards?"
"She lived the rest of her life in a nursing home, died ten years ago, I believe. The point is that it actually worked for her. I know it's controversial but the fact remains that it did help some patients back in those days."
"But didn't you ever think that it was a little excessive to open a person's brain and cut the nerve paths?"
Irene Hoeg shook her head. "We didn't back then. The idea was to cut off the connection in the brain so to speak, it was believed that thoughts and ideas and patterns were stored in the nerves of the brain. Insanity was a thought process that was kept in the nerve paths and if you cut those you could remove bad or abnormal thinking and behavior. It was a clinical procedure along with so many others. All I ever saw was that it worked."
"But it also killed a lot of patients by damaging their brains and others became apathetic vegetables for the rest of their lives. Like your patient who ended up in a nursing home," I said.
"Correct. But wasn't that better than her killing someone? That was what she was going to do. She was a wild beast. I do believe we saved her from doing something really bad either to herself or to
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