Imagine sitting at home all day, showing no emotion to the outside world. That is what happens to people who have lobotomies. Mental disorders are a major health concern all around the world. They can affect people starting at birth, or they can develop with age. Cures for these disorders were not very effective until the development of different types of drugs in the twentieth century. Before these drugs were invented, procedures like lobotomies were considered an acceptable treatment for certain types of mental disorders. The invention of the lobotomy was considered to be a medical miracle because it helped cure some psychiatric illnesses, but it had adverse effects on many of the patients who received this procedure.
Nobody denies that in discovering psychosurgery, a temporary cure for a few mental illnesses was thought to have been discovered. Prefrontal lobotomy is a surgical procedure in which the prefrontal cortex is detached from other areas of the brain (Kalat 103). During this procedure, the prefrontal cortex is either impaired, or the link connecting it to the rest of the brain is severed (Kalat 103). This means that lobotomies are performed by surgeons who destroy the connection from the frontal lobe to the rest of the brain, and this can render the frontal lobe useless. Originally, physicians proposed lobotomies because physicians thought that intense emotional and cognitive disruption happened because of atypical neural pathways in the brain (Piotrowski 1119). Psychosurgery could possibly help with finding new cures for some important psychiatric diseases because doctors conjectured that destroying this anomalous brain tissue would help in curing those diseases (Piotrowski 1119). Doctors initially thought that destr...
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"Antonio Egas Moniz." Gale: n. pag. Science in Context. Web. 4 May 2014. .
Kalat, James W. Biological Psychology. 10th ed. Belmont: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2008. Print.
Kochhar, Piya, and Dave Isay. "'My Lobotomy': Howard Dully's Journey." NPR. NPR, 16 Nov. 2005. Web. 7 May 2014. .
Piotrowski, Nancy A., ed. Hearing - Parental alienation syndrome. Pasadena: Salem, 2010. Print. Vol. 3 of Psychology & Mental Health. 5 vols.
The early history of mental illness is bleak. The belief that anyone with a mental illness was possessed by a demon or the family was being given a spiritual was the reason behind the horrific treatment of those with mental illness. These individuals were placed into institutions that were unhygienic and typically were kept in dark, cave like rooms away from people in the outside world. The institutions were not only dark and gross; they also used inhumane forms of treatment on their patients. Kimberly Leupo, discusses some of the practices that were used, these included may types of electro shocks, submitting patients to ice bath, as well as many other horrific events (Leupo). Lobotomies, which are surgical procedures that cut and scrape different connections in the brain, were very common practice. They were thought to help cure mental illness, but often ended up with more damage than good.
One of the most famous forms of a cure during the 1930s was a surgery called Lobotomy. “Lobotomy, also known as leucotomy which mean cut/slice white in Greek, or its nickname of ice pick, is a neurosurgical operation that involves severing connection in the brain’s prefrontal lobe” according to Freeman. Lobotomy was performed by
Throughout the Great Depression the mentally disabled were treated harshly and were almost constantly being harassed by society. The mentally ill were treated in this cruel manner because they were seen as the cause of some of society’s problems of that day in age. Also, society viewed them as less capable of human being. A physician of that time by the name of Alexis Carrel stated, “The mentally ill should be humanely and economically disposed of in small euthanistic institutions supplied with the proper gases” (Freeman; “Treatment of the…”). Not only did Alexis Carrel feel this way, but so did many other people of the United States way
Sabbatini, Renato M.E. “The History of Psychosurgery” June/August 1997. Brain & Mind Magazine. 14 Jun.1997. State University of Campinus, Brazil. 6 Oct. 2002
Moral treatment is a treatment that uses “psychological methods” to treat mental diseases (Packet Two, 26). In general, moral treatment was a relatively benevolent and humane approach to treat mental disorders. Before the introduction of moral treatment, insane people were regarded by the general public as wild animals whose brains were physically impaired and usually incurable (Packet One, 11). Therefore, regardless of patients’ specific symptoms, physicians generally labeled patients as lunatics and treated them with the same method (Packet One, 11). Because of the perceived impossibility of curing mental illness, physicians put far greater emphasis on restraining patients’ potential danger behaviors than striving to bring them back to sanity. Cruel methods such as bloodletting were widely used, but their effectiveness was really poor. Moral treatment was a response to this ineffective and brutal traditional treatment. The advocates of moral treatment insisted that mental diseases were curable. By providing a friendly environment that contributed to reviving, moral treatment could help patients to...
At some point in every parent-child relationship, the child gets to a point where he no longer wants to feel dependent upon his parent. In some cases, the child will emotionally detach himself from his parent in order to
Around the middle of the last century though, huge developments were made in treating many mental illnesses, which until then had largely been life-long problems. This change made many organizational hospital practices used to insure order and asylum to patients no longer fully necessary. These practices seemed inhumane and excessive on the promise that emerging science could provide alternative treatments to indefinite hospitalization. One huge development that helped turn public opinion against institutionalization of the mentally ill was the introduction of the prefrontal leukotomy. Widely attributed to Portuguese psychiatrist and statesman Dr.
As a Psychiatrist, they are to proficiently understand the function of the human mind to be able to penetrate into their patient’s thoughts and feelings. These medical doctors are required to spend approximately twelve years gaining a better insight into the complex structure of the brain. They are trained to understand how specific sections of the brain work together to achieve varieties of functions and how a mutation can cause a severe malfunction (Zorumski and Rubin). As a result of the years spent training, Psychiatrists are to differentiate and categorize physical and psychosomatic stress caused by chemical changes in the special parts of the brain. Psychiatrists are also trained to use neurotic technologies such as deep brain stimulation. Additionally, the medical doctors are equi...
First, M., & Tasman, A. (2006). Clinical guide to the diagnosis and treatment of mental
Danvers, an insane asylum in Boston, Massachusetts was the rumored birthplace of the procedure known as lobotomy (Taylor). Dr. Walter Freeman studied lobotomy, and he was the first to practice the procedure. Lobotomy began with electric shock to the forehead. Then the eye lids were folded back and an ice pick was used to sever the frontal lobes. The patient would have black eyes after this awful procedure. This was supposed to cure an insane person (“YouTube”).
The treatment involved passing electrical currents through the brain which would trigger a small seizure and ease the symptoms of certain mental illnesses, however the procedure was used without anesthesia and caused the patient to jerk uncontrollably, this treatment would sometimes result in fractures, memory loss, and other side effects. The treatment is still used today, although with much weaker currents and anesthesia. Another popular treatment used in the asylums was the injection of insulin into a patient to induce a coma. This treatment was thought to reset an individual’s brain and bring them back to “normal”, however, insulin coma therapy proved to be not very effective and was phased out in the 1960s. One of the most inhumane treatments for the mentally ill was the lobotomy, or the prefrontal leucotomy. This surgical procedure involved opening a hole in the head to sever nerve pathways in the prefrontal cortex. The lobotomy was performed at least 15,000 times in Britain before being phased out in the late 1950s. Another type of brain surgery discussed in the film, was one done on patient, Maggi Chapman, who underwent a surgery in which an electrode was attached to a part of her brain and then turned on to fry that part of the brain. Maggi goes on to describe how the next few years she felt like a zombie and had a difficult time going through life (BBC,
One of the most controversial forms of treatment is electroconvulsive therapy. Electroconvulsive therapy, or ETC, is a procedure that consists of strong electric shocks that pass through the brain to induce convulsions (Vocabulary). This was a common method solve mental illnesses in the 1940’s and 1950’s. ECT was often criticized for not working and causing permanent memory loss (Mental Health America). Another dangerous and controversial diagnosis is Lobotomy. Lobotomy is a surgical procedure that interrupts the nerves in the brain (Vocabulary). It was very popular before prescription drugs and was also a common diagnosis of mental illnesses (Vocabulary.) The side effects include, but are not limited Mto; personality changes, empathy, inhibitions, inative, and the ability to function by themselves (Live Science.com). There was over 50,000 known lobotomies performed in the U.S., most were in mental hospitals (Live Science.com). Dr. Barron Lerner, a medical historian and professor at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, told Live Science the science or thought process of lobotomy (Live Science.com). "The behaviors [doctors] were trying to fix, they thought, were set down in neurological connections. The idea was, if you could damage those connections, you could stop the bad behaviors (Live Science.com)." That’s why lobotomy
For most people the left frontal lobe controls language and the right non-verbal abilities (UNL, 2005).On the left frontal lobe is an area called Broca’s area which allows thoughts to be transformed into words. In addition, there are many connections from the frontal lobe to other parts of the brain that control vision, respiration, blood pressure and gastrointestinal activity (NBTF, 2005). Damage to the frontal lobe results a range of behaviors referred to collectively as ‘frontal lobe syndrome.’ There are numerous ways of damaging the frontal cortex including lesions, tumors, and strokes. Lesions damage the frontal cortex when a blow to the head or a sudden change of motion causes the boney structure underneath the frontal lobes to tear the axons (as is the case with prefrontal lobotomy or leucotomy).
Mental disorders which falls under the umbrella of Abnormal psychology can be attributed to the ability to treat and diagnose mental disorders. Based on advances such as the development of the scientific method psychologists are now able to fully and efficiently attribute the causes of mental disorders to physical and unphysical traits. The process i...
Young children, up to age five or six, are the most confused and the most disoriented by their parents’ separation. They often fear they are going to be abandoned by their parents, which causes great anxiety. The loss of a parent is extremely sad to a child of this age because they feel that their needs are not going to be attended to as well as they had before, when their needs are not going to be attended to as well as they had before, when their family was together. Many of the children in this group are worried that they will be left without a family or their parents might have money troubles and they will be deprived of food and toys. These thoughts that children of this age have cause them to have feelings of guilt, being unloved and fear of being alone. Some children will be extremely sad and show signs of depression and even sleeplessness. They might feel rejected by the parent who left and think that it is all their fault, that they weren’t good children and their parents stopped loving them. They also sometimes have increased tantrums, or may cry more easily than usual. Children at this age may develop physical complaints, like headaches, or stomachaches due to this depressing situation and time they are going thr...