EXTRA CREDIT BLOG!!
Go to http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080 and click on "listen now."
This is approximately 22 minutes long and is a fascinating (also somewhat disconcerting and disturbing) story of a man who was lobotomized as a child. When done, post your thoughts on the procedure. However be sure to carefully listen to the parts of the story when Howard Dully talks to people who felt the procedure had benefits.
Post response by Friday, May 15 for the extra credit!
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Sheesh. I'm so disturbed by this whole thing. This Freedman guy should have been locked away while he was still alive. I can't imagine how many people were psychologically scarred by his procedures. I'm not sure that I even really understand what was done. Were the patients awake while ice picks were shoved through their eye sockets? It doesn't seem like that could be possible. How could people have survived such a thing? It does make me think that the human brain must be fairly resistant to be able to be poked and prodded like that without major mental damage in most patients. I feel so horrible for the man in the report. To be twelve years old and unknowingly walk yourself into a psychologist's office and end up having a labotomy done is so terrifying to me. When I listened to the recording, I also thought that it was strange that in the 1960s there was procedures like this going on. The 60s wasn't that long ago, and this kind of a thing seems so crude and illegal now. It was an interesting report, and although disturbing it was eye opening.
ReplyDeleteI found this article pretty interesting, even though it may have been crazy. This procedure seems to have no real scientific research backing it up. They literally just shoved ice picks into peoples eye sockets. I am completely astounded that it showed positive results, and even more amazed and interested to how it worked. I do understand the reasons people were so willing to test it though, because back then there really weren't any other ways. That was just like how people used to bleed people who had diseases, there was just nothing else that could be done.
ReplyDeleteBrain development is not an exact process. There can be many wiring differences between two individuals, even if both possess perfectly functioning brains.
ReplyDeleteIt's not all a tangle, though - brain scans have identified regions that seem to play the same role in every human mind. So, how much modularity is there? The results of Freedman's lobotomies suggest that there isn't much, because the same procedure results in wildly different outcomes.
Freedman's theory, which attributed most mental illness to a single area of the brain, was, of course, incredibly crude. But even the more sophisticated modular theories of today encounter some difficulties. How do we know if the "lit up" regions in brain scans are incontrovertible proof of a module's existence? Our tools for exploring the mind are still primitive.
A great deal of processing could be distributed across the entire brain, making it almost impossible to observe - scientists aren't sure. Epistemological modesty: gotta have it.
Many would consider Dr. Walter Freeman as a good man, and others would consider him a monster. It all depends on from which side you look at it from. Due to some of the results that can happen from a lobotomy, it does seem like a cruel thing to do to someone just so you can change them. Sure some of the time you can actually change a person's begavior, but then they aren't thier own person and sometimes end up being like a zombie. The only advantage to this medical procedure is it can change some people's lives, personalities, and other things about them to make them somewhat more decent people.
ReplyDeleteLauren Doucette
ReplyDeleteI think that Walter Freeman was crazy to do these lobotomies. I think that it was terrible to stick ice picks into people’s brains through their eyeballs. This image is absolutely horrifying for me. And in the video it said that he gave them an electric shock in order to make them unconscious. I think that the electric shock would give them a mental illness if they didn’t have one already. I feel as though there were better ways to cure mental illness and that Freeman should have not had used this method. Although I suppose Freeman’s method was better than the man from Portugal by who drilled holes in the person’s head. Also, I think that this procedure was used to freely, Freeman did it on two many people who necessarily didn’t need. I don’t see why people were so enthused about this method; it wasn’t always 100 percent accurate. There were some very unpleasant results, and very tragic results. Even though there were some excellent results, lobotomies should have been outlawed. This video has truly shocked me, I never realized things like this actually happened.
This procedure is horribly crude and cruel. It is an example of dangerous medicine pioneered by a seemingly self-serving, unresponsible doctor. The process seems especially terrible for Howard Dully, who was operated on because his stepmother attributed his normal adolescent behavior to a mental illness. In his case, the procedure was used as a punishment and a manipulative tool. It is shocking that the medical community allowed Dr. Freeman to carry out his procedures despite the damaging and sometimes fatal results. Cutting the brain is no way to help a mentally ill person; these patients would have been better off institutionalized than lobotomized. Though there were some positive results from the operations, the procedure was too risky and horrifying to have been performed on thousands of people.
ReplyDeleteLobotomies were an absolutely terrible idea. I don't see any reason Howard Dully needed to have one performed on him. He was simply being a child and growing up, and there was no reason to even believe he had a mental illness. Even though lobotomies appeared to have positive results in a few cases, sticking an ice pick into a living person's brain is way too risky. Results varied on different people, and in some instances it severely damaged the patient for the rest of their life. There are plenty of other ways doctors could have gone about dealing with mental illness rather than performing these terrifying procedures.
ReplyDeleteNathan Doucette
ReplyDeleteAfter listening to Mr. Dully's recording, I have learned a lot about the lobotomy and the effects it had on people who had it done. Personally I find the whole procedure very disturbing. Especially when Mr. Dully said that Dr. Freeman did two handed labodomies, two picks in two eyes. I have no idea how this procedure could produce positive results. I mean i guess that it helped some people and it was the only thing that they had back then. It was not surprising at all that people stopped immediately after there was an alternative treatment. I just feel bad for people like that lady at the end of that tape who are basically now vegetables. If that is how McMurphy was going to end up, it was good of Chief to kill him right away. Having a person like that around your house would be so painful to see. Someone you know that used to be normal, just with different problem. I think I would rather have small brain problems then be a vegetable for the rest of my life. I'm glad though that Mr. Dully finally completed his journey, I'm sure that anyone in his case would want to confront his father who allowed the procedure to take place.