The Horror Of Lobotomy – The Ice Pick Cure

Stumble across this today whilst surfing the web. Lobotomy I remember asking my Dad about the Kennedys and first hearing about Rosemary Kennedy"s story. Didn't realize it was performed as late as 1967 either. Makes you think, sometimes medical science isn't infallible. Yet the public usually follows along willingly, so much so that new procedures are almost used as much because of the salesmanship of the inventor or discoverer than the actual merit or medical science behind it.

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Psychiatric medicine has come a long way in the 21st century. While the mind still holds many mysteries, at the very least we now have many non-invasive treatments, typically drug therapies but also talk therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy, that bring relief to millions suffering from mental illnesses every year.

Fifty or sixty years ago, however, many of the treatments taken for granted today were not available. Families, caretakers, and patients alike were desperate to find a cure for mysterious mental ailments that seemed to defy all treatment.

This desperation, in many cases, led them to turn to a controversial treatment that today is viewed as barbarous: lobotomy.

a reply to: putnam6
Have you seen the film 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest'?
And the series called 'Ratched' that was recently on Netfilx?

If not then I highly recommend both.

originally posted by: Itisnowagain
a reply to: putnam6
Have you seen the film 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest'?
And the series called 'Ratched' that was recently on Netfilx?

If not then I highly recommend both.

One flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is an all-time favorite. In fact, speaking of my Dad he loved that movie I can remember him describing it to us kids after He and Mom got back from seeing it, he always did that with movies he liked. But yea he brought up the lobotomy both when he faked it and where chief smothered him to death and tore out the fountain and escaped.

I didn't hear about Ratched though will check it out. Just read the synopsis though I'm putting it on the top of my watch list.

originally posted by: putnam6
Didn't realize it was performed as late as 1967 either.

Just a hundred years before people still thought 'miasmas' caused cholera and not tainted drinking water.

Medical treatment and the understanding of the underlying issue has come a very long way in a very short time, we're only a half a decade or so removed from barbarity when it comes to treatment of others.

a reply to: putnam6

Ice pick cure. That was how Stalin's men 'cured' Trotsky.

Cheers

Just from your title I couldn't help but remember the extraordinary incident that happened to a railway worker, Phineas Gage.

Phineas Gage is often referred to as one of the most famous patients in neuroscience. He experienced a traumatic brain injury when an iron rod was driven through his entire skull, destroying much of his frontal lobe.

Source: VeryWellMind

And here's a neat YT video, too:

Warning: A bit gruesome

It's still in use. AFAIK to cut out part of the brain producing wake state delta waves in epilepsy.
Maybe in other cases. (IMO it's a sleep disorder, bacteria or a parasite in many cases)
Treating brain as any other physical organ is not completely bad thing.
It used to be abused tho. Pretty much any nut could be subject to a "treatment" of doctor's choice.
Is it really so much better today? You have fluoride in tap water doing absolutely nothing good for your teeth and brain. People are still caged like prisoners without a trial and forced to use unknown drugs destroying their personality. Antipsychotics are pretty close to lobotomy. I know a guy...Well, they did their job - he doesnt yell on government from window anymore but he's a zombie. You could smell the suffering.
Lobotomy vaccines could be next. Mass, slow sterilization.
At least they dont force-castrate homosexuals anymore. It's a caste. They have too much power.

originally posted by: PapagiorgioCZ
It's still in use. AFAIK to cut out part of the brain producing wake state delta waves in epilepsy.
Maybe in other cases. (IMO it's a sleep disorder, bacteria or a parasite in many cases)
Treating brain as any other physical organ is not completely bad thing.
It used to be abused tho. Pretty much any nut could be subject to a "treatment" of doctor's choice.
Is it really so much better today? You have fluoride in tap water doing absolutely nothing good for your teeth and brain. People are still caged like prisoners without a trial and forced to use unknown drugs destroying their personality. Antipsychotics are pretty close to lobotomy. I know a guy...Well, they did their job - he doesnt yell on government from window anymore but he's a zombie. You could smell the suffering.
Lobotomy vaccines could be next. Mass, slow sterilization.
At least they dont force-castrate homosexuals anymore. It's a caste. They have too much power.

While I do find the subject interesting this is the subtle point I was trying to make, cause I agree completely. Medical science like all sciences is incomplete and still learning especially when it comes to the human brain and other normal bodily processes.