Dr. Henry Cotton · When Obedience Was Called a Cure

At one hospital, patients began improving after their teeth were removed.This was recorded as success.Henry Cotton was a respected psychiatrist and superintendent of a state hospital. His methods were not fringe medicine — they were endorsed, documented, and defended as effective treatment.Cotton believed mental illness was caused by hidden infections. When patients became quieter and more compliant after procedures, the institution called it recovery.Many patients died. Others were permanently harmed. But the practice continued because the metric was obedience, not health.This short case file examines how authority, consensus, and misread outcomes allowed harm to persist inside mainstream medicine.