Lobotomy
Just imagine, "a hole of 2.5 to 5 cm of diameter, drilled by hand into the skull of a living man, without any anesthesia or asepsis, during 30 to 60 long minutes. This is maybe the most ancient form of brain surgery known to man: it is called trepanning (from Greek trupanon, borer) or trephining (Sabbatini, 1997)". This perhaps was the first idea that man can be cured of mental illness by biological exploration. Thousands of years later, psychosurgery was discovered by accident in America in 1847 when a laborer, involved in rock-blasting, had an iron bar driven through the front of his head, by an explosion, damaging the frontal lobes of the brain. Amazingly, he survived but his personality was changed. Doctors realized from this that behavior could be altered by interfering with the frontal lobes and so psychosurgery was born Both examples of the earliest "lobotomies" played roles in developing Dr.Egas Moniz and Walter Freemans procedures in psychosurgery. It was not until 1935 that the neurologist, Egaz Moniz, developed the psychosurgery operations we know today. He performed the first lobotomy (Egaz Moniz was later murdered by
Panelist Considers Value of Psychosurgery as Techniques Become more Refine (June 7, 1996). Psychiatric News. It was not until 1935 that the neurologist, Egaz Moniz, developed the psychosurgery operations we know today. He performed the first lobotomy (Egaz Moniz was later murdered by one of his lobotomy patients - obviously, the patient was not impressed with the benefits of having bits of his brain destroyed.). A lobotomy is brain surgery, Webster's defines it as "surgical severance of correlated activity in other parts of the brain ("Panelist", 1996)"; and their is a strong opinion in the psychological community that "Violent behavior is not associated with brain disease and should not be dealt with surgically. At best, neurosurgery should rightfully concern itself with medical problems, and not the behavior problems of a social etiology ("Panelist", 1996)." From most recorded accounts of lobotomies one can surmise that when considered "successful" the surgery just relieved the symptoms at best; patients most of the time became passive and sluggish, losing their feelings, their ambition, and often developed epilepsy, etc. Side effects of "unsuccessful" surgeries include severe brain damage, becoming a vegetable and death. So were individuals actually being cured or just made indefinitely sedated? It wasn't until the 1950's the scientific community began to doubt whether lobotomies actually achieved the goals that they Mozins theory on the fibers that connected the fixed thoughts and the frontal lobe was vague; years later Freeman and Watt's improved upon this theory suggesting that specific bands of fiber need be cut to make the lobotomy successful(Valenstein, 1986).
Some common words found in the essay are:
Freeman Watt's, Egaz Moniz, Fall Psychosurgery, Walter Freemans, Volume Library, frontal lobes, Kimberly Kelly, Refine June, Renato June, Gorton Ed, Valenstein Elloiot, sabbatini 1997, brain surgery, activity brain, brain damage, panelist 1996, mental illness, scientific community, quality life, mental disorders, means combat symptoms, combat symptoms experienced, symptoms experienced agitated, 50's means combat, drugs thorazine 50's,
Approximate Word count = 4035
Approximate Pages = 16 (250 words per page double spaced)
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