The rise and fall of the prefrontal lobotomy

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	The rise and fall of the prefrontal lobotomy

JohnWaterman

7-25-2007 11:18 AM

462 views

tags:

medicine, history, neuroscience, psychiatry

3 Comments |

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7-25-2007 12:29 PM

BartendingBear

This of course bring to mind that great song lyric...

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than have a frontal lobotomy..."

7-26-2007 7:40 AM

Deepti

Isn't this the procedure used in "One flew over the cuckoos nest"?

7-28-2007 11:57 AM

ghgroenewold

It's amazing what we allow supposed experts to get away with. The part in the article about the twelve year old boy is incredible.

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/85bbfcad-08d0-4cf2-bea2-64f0e352ab7a/FADA90CD-1892-4730-AC6B-8D20CDF7D940/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/07/inventing_the_lobotomy.php" href="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/07/inventing_the_lobotomy.php" style="font-size: 11px;">scienceblogs.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/07/inventing_the_lobotomy.php"><div align="center"><img src="http://content9.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/scienceblogs.com/img/E4378DDD-C46A-43C9-A038-3DA96335CDF9" alt="lobotomy.jpg" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/07/inventing_the_lobotomy.php"><P>Lobotomy (from the Greek <I>lobos</I>, meaning lobes of the brain, and <I>tomos</I>, meaning cut) is a psychosurgical procedure in which the connections the prefrontal cortex and underlying structures are severed, or the frontal cortical tissue is destroyed, ther theory being that this leads to the uncoupling of the brain's emotional centres and the seat of intellect (in the subcortical structures and the frontal cortex, respectively).
</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/07/inventing_the_lobotomy.php"><div align="center"><img src="http://content6.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/scienceblogs.com/img/BDB31072-AE5C-4A3D-BB35-CA94565E3AF3" alt="leucot1.gif" /></div></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/07/inventing_the_lobotomy.php">However, Freeman was unhappy with the new procedure. He considered it to be both time-consuming and messy, and so developed a quicker method, the so-called "ice-pick"lobotomy, which he performed for the first time on January 17th, 1945.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/07/inventing_the_lobotomy.php">The photograph at the top shows Freeman performing the procedure on an unidentified patient.)</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/07/inventing_the_lobotomy.php">Freeman happily performed ice-pick lobotomies on anyone who was referred to him. During his career, he would perform almost 3,500 operations.</blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/07/inventing_the_lobotomy.php">Some of his patients could return to work, while others were left in something like a vegetative state</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/FADA90CD-1892-4730-AC6B-8D20CDF7D940/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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