LOBOTOMY TIME

Alright-

So I must admit that my first post wasn't exactly what I expected it to be- intriguing, inspiring, funny, the works. But I guess I'll lay the blame on that I wasn't all that inspired that day (;

BUT I was going through my "Books of Knowledge", my notebooks of which I write all of the things I've learned- and I've decided to write about something that I've always been interested in, despite the horror of the whole thing.

Walter J. Freeman, the creator of the Lobotomy. 

Now, for those of you who don't know what a Lobotomy is, it's truly a horrific and inhumane thing. But me being the person who has always been fascinated with dark history, holds this as one of the most intriguing things I've ever learned about. 

A Lobotomy, or trans-orbital/ice pick Lobotomy (sounds creepy already, right?) is a matter of what they called "cure" for the mentally insane. 

On January 17, 1946, Walter J. Freeman preformed the first Lobotomy, In Washington D.C. - The patient is first rendered unconscious by electroshock (electrocution of the brain) and then Freeman took an ice pick (whats in the picture above) of which he places under the patients eyelid against the top of the eye socket - a mallet was then used to drive the pick on into the frontal lobes of the brain, and the sharp tip was moved back and forth. The process was repeated on the other side of the face. 

Now what really strikes me, is that this procedure was cutting the connections to and from the pre-frontal cortex - the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain. 

These parts of the brain were used for planning complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision making, and moderating social behavior. So crazy or not, these people were basically brain dead. Freeman Lobotomized 19 children under the age of 18 - including a 4 year old. Mental illnesses usually cannot be confirmed until after the patient has matured, or in other words, are past 18 years of age. Some of these children may have only had ADHD, ADD, OCD....which means they weren't crazy, they were CHILDREN. 

It wasn't only Freeman who thought of mental patients in this low regard -

Dorothy Dix, early crusader for reform in prisons and asylums-

"They don't need any heat; they have no feeling." 

This kind of mistreatment happened all over the globe in mental asylums-  they believed that to cure an individual, it was necessary to undergo cathartic medical treatment, and to either catalyze crisis or expel crisis from the individual. 

Such medical procedures involved submerging patients in ice baths until they lost consciousness, or executing a massive shock to the brain. Means to expel crisis from an individual included inducing vomiting, or the notorious "bleeding" practice. They actually thought that draining "bad blood" from the patient would make them better; although this inhumane practice normally resulted in death or the need for lifelong care. 

Another example - Danvers State Hospital. 

Built in 1878 to house 500 patients had over 2,300 patients at it's peak in the 1940's. 

Danvers is the rumored birthplace of the Lobotomy.

However, this facility closed in 1992, with a plan to build condos stalled when it promptly burned down - I'm not one to believe in curses or ghosts, but it's quite interesting that the hospital was built on a plot of land once owned by John Hawthorne, the most unforgiving of the Salem Witch Trial judges (;   

All in all, Walter J. Freeman preformed over 3,000 Lobotomies and was labeled, "the traveling Lobotomist" - a fearsome title if you ask me. 

This is my knowledge on the Lobotomy, I hope I've made someone smarter today~ (does that sound conceited?) ~But anyways, this is one of my favorite things to research, although it's insanely creepy ;_; 

I've learned that the Lobotomy, in a modified form, in still done in rare cases of OCD at hospitals around the world - I hope I don't get Lobotomized xD

OCD lady right here, organized freak and grammar Nazi.  

That's all for today,

ALLONS-Y

&

PEACE OFF!!!!

-Callie (thatonegirl)