Cumbrian woman remembers lobotomy hospital fear

BBC News

21-05-2025

From a dispute with her parents over her choice of boyfriend, a woman found herself in a mental health hospital and undergoing a "ruthless" psychiatric sleep treatment without her consent. Decades later, and having spent 50 years with that same partner, she revealed how the fear of a lobotomy gave her the strength to bring her ordeal to an end.
Mary Thornton was 21 when she was admitted to The Royal Waterloo Hospital in London in 1970, under the care of Dr William Sargant.It was there that Mrs Thornton was kept asleep for months at a time and was given electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) - also known as shock therapy."ECT is horrible - it destroys your memory temporarily and can do so permanently," she said.
Mrs Thornton, who now lives in Brampton near Carlisle, was working as a nurse when she met her boyfriend John, but her parents "completely disapproved" of the relationship and tried to stop them.She had a nervous breakdown at that time and her parents took her to the psychiatric ward at the NHS hospital.
Barbaric procedures
The facility treated almost exclusively female patients who were kept in an induced slumber for months at a time.Dr Sargant did not believe in talking therapy and mocked people who believed in it, Mrs Thornton said.He used a mixture of drugs and ECT, moving on to lobotomy "if nothing else worked".She described the way in which the procedure was performed, with the aim to destroy the part of the brain that affects emotions and memory."You're lying in bed all the time, you don't get exercise. I leave it to your imagination to what happens to your insides."Although Dr Sargent's methods were not illegal at the time, they have now been discredited and victims, including Mrs Thornton, have since received an apology from the hospital.She said while ECT is still used today in some circumstances, the way it was performed and the amount people were given was "ruthless", and was known for it."We used to talk about the possibility of lobotomies and I now know that's because William Sargant was famous for them," she said."I got quite scared and worried and thought 'this might happen to me, I need to get out of here'."
'Utterly obsessed'
Prof Linda Gask, a consultant psychiatrist from Manchester University, said ECT was still used today for patients with very severe depression, particularly in older people and in post-natal psychosis.But she said: "It's not used in the way Sargant was using it, it's not used with the frequency he used it."The professor was a medical student in the 1970s, at the time when Dr Sargant was operating, but she did not see the types of treatment he used."I think he was at the extreme end of a particular approach to care," she said."He was utterly obsessed with physical treatments."He took absolutely no interest in women's psycho-social wellbeing and what was going on in their lives."For Mrs Thornton, the treatment made her temporarily forget John."[My boyfriend] was really upset, thought that that was it, that he would never see me again," she said.But when her memories returned, she contacted him and the couple continued where they had left off.She left her nursing job to work at Harrods, later becoming a teacher working with children with special needs.Meanwhile, she and John got married and moved to Cumbria where they had four children.The couple were together for 50 years until John died a couple of years ago.
'Emotional mountain'
Life was good and she put the ordeal of the Waterloo clinic out of her mind, until she saw Dr Sargant on TV in the late 80s or early 90s.She said she "cracked up", as though she had had a flashback.She then read a book with the testimony of a woman working as a doctor in the Caribbean who had had the same treatment and set out to find her."That was another big move towards getting over it," said Mrs Thornton of her meeting and friendship with a fellow soul.The effects of that treatment affected her friend throughout her life, including needing many operations to her back."I've had an unusual amount of bad health, I think it affected my health generally," Mrs Thornton said.Continuing her rehabilitation, she revisited the hospital as part of a documentary a number of years ago."That was a really emotional mountain that I climbed," she said."Even my husband cried."Now, Mrs Thornton features in a new book called Sleep Room: A Very British Scandal, by author and journalist Jon Stock.She is one of six women offering her testimony of what it was like to be a patient at the facility."This whole thing has been the real drawing the line under it - it's been wonderful."It's completed the circle, is how I see it."
'Reset troubled minds'
Mr Stock spent two and a half years researching what happened at the Royal Waterloo Hospital.He said Dr Sargant was the first "to flick a switch" on an ECT machine and "championed lobotomies". The psychiatrist had discovered that by keeping people asleep for months, patients could be given treatments they would not be otherwise able to tolerate, Mr Stock said.He would carry out ECT three times a week, to "reset troubled minds" and "reprogram" them with more positive thoughts.Mr Stock said: "He believed in a very physical approach to problems of the mind."He said if you've broken your leg it should be splinted, if there's a problem with the brain it should be splinted too."Since Dr Sargant's practices came to light, Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, which was responsible for the clinic, has issued an apology to his patients. A spokesman said: "Due to the historic nature of this service we unfortunately do not hold any records from this time, but we fully acknowledge the impact these treatments may have had on patients and families."
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