Prefrontal Lobotomy Analysis

Imagine a football player is tackled and hits the back of his head. As a result, his brain has hit the back of the cranium, then the front.

Lobotomy is a surgical operation involving an incision into the lobe of the brain for mental illness. Many patients died from these procedures. About 5% have died during or finishing the surgery. The main long term effect was mental dullness. The side effects were worse because there are so many.

After watching the documentary The Lobotomist, I was astounded by how Dr. Walter J. Freeman descending from wanting to help patients with transorbital lobotomies, what he believed to be a miracle cure, to insisting that a lobotomy was the way to go when a child became unruly and disrespectful. Given the treatment available during the 1930’s and 40’s, I don’t believe a lobotomy would ever be justified. From a moral standpoint, it’s difficult to justify using an icepick, the same that were taken from Freeman’s own kitchen, into a person’s brain. From a medical standpoint, no treatment should be widespread until the consequences or side effects of the procedure has been observed. People who were subjected to lobotomies were incapable of returning to normal life as they became demobilized and had to be taught how to walk and

Prefrontal and transorbital lobotomy was a commonly used treatment to cure madness during the mid 1900’s. This invasive procedure was tested on as many as 50,000 institutionalized mad patients. This was a desperate procedure, and was only used when all other forms of treatment failed. There’s a lot of controversy surrounding this horrific procedure. Where the cure rates after this procedure were not as high as everyone thought, and the terrible risks that can come from getting a lobotomy. When evaluating patient their employment status played a key factor in whether or not they should have a lobotomy. In order to determine the success of the operation the patient’s ability to work played a key role. Both prefrontal and transorbital lobotomy

Lobotomy is an invasive treatment as it involves drilling a hole into the brain or inserting a orbitoclast into the eye sockets. Lobotomy causes permanent effects to patients because it can change somebodys mood. It can have positive

The two psychological interventions that were administered to McMurphy while in the mental institution were a lobotomy and shock therapy. A lobotomy is the removal of the portion from the frontal lobe of the brain. This procedure’s main goal is to eliminate aggressive or violent behavior. This invention took place in 1935 by Dr. Antonio Egas Moniz. However, by the late 1940s the realization those individuals undergoing lobotomy procedures took place without initiative became apparent. Although the methods of a lobotomy have changed the basic underlying idea of neurosurgery exists today in the form of “psychosurgery” (Encarta 2000). Shock Therapy uses electric current or drugs to control psychotic disorders. In 1933, Dr. Manfred Sakel used drugs and instituted insulin shock to control mainly Schizophrenia. In 1938, Drs. U. Cerletti and L. Bini used electroshock therapy to treat severe depression (i.e. manic depressive psychoses). Alternating current through the brain using parallel

2. Although Moniz lobotomies cured some people they also worsend others. There were also times when Moniz performed a lobotomy and nothing happened. When people are being

The main reason is that people were desperate for treatments for serious mental illness“ (The only reason why lobotomy was done was because of the need to treat the mentally ill in the past. Although, if lobotomy wasn't done psycho surgeons would not have the knowledge on the brain that they have now. In the “Oxford Companion to the Body” it states that “In addition, it also became evident that it [lobotomy] altered the behaviour and personality of patients, and this gradually limited its use, which further declined in the 1960s because of the development of pharmacological means of treating mental illness.” This just helps states that it was only used just because of the primitive knowledge of medicines and procedures. It also helps show that in history, doctors were just throwing ideas and experiments around to cure different diseases or illnesses. The “Oxford Companion to the Body” also states that “Psychosurgery, has been criticized because it has developed empirically more than on rational grounds, and because of a lack of ‘scientific’ evidence supporting its purported therapeutic efficacy.” This quote shows that there was no real proof to show that frontal lobotomy even worked. To put it put into perspective, it was like they took a wild, crazy person, did the procedure, and saw that

Psychosurgery is a combination of psychiatry and neurosurgery. Psychiatry is a study that is focused on the treatment of emotional disturbance, mental illness, and abnormal behavior of human beings. Psychosurgery is brain surgery that usually is used to treat mental illness (Gallea, 2017). During this procedure, a hole is drilled or cut into the skull using surgical tools when the skull is opened the surgeon disables parts of the brain in order to attempt to treat behavior disorders, personality disorders, or other mental illnesses (Norris, 2005). We are able to trace psychosurgery back to the Stone Age times starting with craniotomies. A craniotomy is a surgical procedure where the skull is opened (Gallea,2017).

This procedure was described by Tacie Dejanikus in her article, Psychosurgery: Lobotomies Again as “swishing an ice pick around behind the eyeballs to destroy portions of the brain 's frontal lobe” (3). This may not be a very scientific description, but if it perfectly sums up the procedure, emphasizing how imprecise the operation was at the time. It occasionally appeared to help the illness, however they had a down side. In another article, written by Maddy Simpson, she states that “Lobotomies often left the patient with a low brain capacity and unable to live independently” (1). Although their popularity had faded over the years, they are still practiced today as a last resort option. In Shutter Island the lighthouse is depicted as a haunting, mysterious place and is suspected of containing a secret, which is partially true. Teddy’s conspiracy, which is part of his delusion, is centered on the lighthouse being the location of the Nazi like experiments performed by the staff. Just like the names of Teddy’s made up characters being anagrams for who they represent, each aspect of the delusion is based off partial truths from reality. Andrew Laeddis did kill Teddy’s wife, however Andrew Laeddis is just the anagram for Edward Daniels. Rachel Solando represents Teddy’s wife, both of whom drown their three kids. Also, the lighthouse, which is believed to host cruel experiments, is where the lobotomies are

Through the course of time, mental illnesses have always been in existence due to varying factors and causes. However, as time has passed, the perceptions and available treatments for mental illnesses have also changed as new technology was developed. By looking at the treatments and perceptions of mental illnesses in the early 20th century, we can learn how to properly treat and diagnose not only mental disorders but also other conditions as well as show us the importance of review boards and controlled clinical trials.

The hind brain is a spot of the brain located towards the bottom of the brain were the pons, medul-la, cerebellum, and reticular formation are placed. The hind brain extends from the spinal cord and is composed of the metencephalon and myelencephalon. This is also a part of the brain where sensory in-formation about equilibrium processed and balance. According to about education “The metencephalon contains structures such as the pons and cerebellum”(Bailey,2016). This parts of the hid brain helps with maintaining balance and equilibrium (Bailey,2016). Hearing not only aids in equilibrium sensation and processing sight also helps as well. When one Closes both eyes and standing for a long period of time they eventually lose their balance. Research says the vision plays a significantly important role in the calibrating the vestibular system located in the inner ear where there is bone and soft tissue to aid in optimizing physical balance (Timothy C.Hain,MD, 2012).

There are two types of therapy shown for the psychological treatment for Laeddis, which is experimental and humanistic psychology. Experimental psychology is the use of conducting experiments to address research questions (Feist and Rosenberg, 9). Dr. Sheehan is seen to perform experimental psychology through the use of psychosurgery and the procedure of a lobotomy. A lobotomy is a surgery in which the nerves in the prefrontal lobes are cut to calm down and ease violent and emotional episodes (Feist and Rosenberg, 620). However, Dr. Cawley on the contrary has a humanistic approach to psychology. Humanistic psychology is the theoretical view of human nature, which stresses a positive view of human nature (Feist and Rosenberg, 9). Dr. Cawley

Conversely, this last ditch effort was being overseen by government appointed psychiatrists who believed the only way to treat Laeddis and remove the threat he presented of harming other people, was to lobotomize him. Subsequent developments in psychiatric treatment have proven that the destruction of brain tissue does not remediate this kind of mental illness or justify this barbaric and maiming procedure (Raz 2008; Johnson 2011).

Since there are no reliable genetic screenings for mental disorders at the present date, let us also imagine that science has evolved to the point that scientists can accurately identify psychiatric disorders in people and that medicine has evolved to the point that doctors can effectively treat these patients. Since we are dealing with genes, we are left with two possible solutions to this problem. The first solution is to treat those who are mentally ill in a similar manner to how they are treated now, that is, with medication. Of course, these future medications would be more advanced, better understood and, therefore, more effective than their modern equivalents at repairing disturbed cognitive processes. The alternative to medication is the option of neurosurgery, or, more accurately, psychosurgery. Although psychosurgery is sometimes used today (mainly newer techniques like deep brain stimulation), the field is still in its infancy. Many forms of psychosurgery have been deemed too dangerous to routinely perform, especially ablative operations such as lobotomies, except for in the most dire of cases. But in the future, psychosurgery could become a viable, if not the preferable, means of tackling mental