From the magazine

The psychiatrist obsessed with ‘reprogramming’ minds

William Sargant’s controversial treatments of troubled young women in the 1960s included prolonged induced comas, ECT and, in extreme cases, lobotomies

Leyla Sanai
William Sargant at home in St John’s Wood, London, in 1975. Alamy
EXPLORE THE ISSUE 12 April 2025
issue 12 April 2025
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  • The Sleep Room: A Very British Medical Scandal

    Jon Stock

    The Bridge Street Press, pp. 432, £25

Leyla Sanai has narrated this article for you to listen to.

When the actress Celia Imrie was 14, she was admitted to an NHS hospital where she was given medication intended for delusional, hallucinating, agitated schizophrenics. Though not diabetic, she was regularly injected with insulin, which lowered her blood sugar so that she became shaky, anxious, ravenously hungry and so confused she couldn’t recognise her own family.

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