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Some food for thought on frontal lobotomies.
"
Rosemary Kennedy, sister of President John F. Kennedy, was given a lobotomy when her father complained to doctors about the 23-year-old’s moodiness and growing interest in men. The procedure was personally performed by Walter Freeman. Instead of producing the desired result, however, the lobotomy reduced Rosemary to an infantile mentality that left her incontinent and staring blankly at walls for hours. Her verbal skills were reduced to unintelligible babble. To avoid political scandal, the nature of Rosemary's affliction was hidden by her father for years, described to the public as the result of mental retardation. Her sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded the Special Olympics in her honor in 1968.
"Howard Dully had a lobotomy at 12, after his stepmother was simply tired of his "youthful defiance". In regards to the long term effects of the operation, at the age of 56 he said, "I've always felt different -- wondered if something's missing from my soul. I have no memory of the operation". Dully would later go on to uncover the story of his own lobotomy, which had not previously been revealed to him. Crown Publishers published Howard Dully's memoir (co-written by Charles Fleming), My Lobotomy[1], in September 2007.[4][5]
New Zealand author and poet, Janet Frame was due to have a lobotomy because of perceived mental illness. She was only saved from this procedure after she received a literary award the day before her operation was due to take place. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobotomy
From The Sunday TimesFebruary 19, 2006
Mental cruelty
The lobotomy is deemed one of the worst crimes in medical history. But a modern form of it is still practised in Britain - and may soon be performed without the patient's consent. By Christine Toomey and Steven Young
"The flashbacks come late at night. First comes the recollection of intense physical pain, as if the bones in his arms are being snapped like twigs. Then he hears the voice of the neurosurgeon applying an electric current to metal pins implanted in the tissue of his brain. "How do you feel, Derek?" the surgeon Arthur E Wall asks, while peering into Derek Hutchinson's eyes to see if his pupils have yet dilated with fear."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article729403.ece?token=null&offset=0
"Of course, lobotomy now seems like a medically sanctioned form of torture. The main theory behind it was that anxiety and agitation could be quelled by severing the emotional center of the brain from the part that controls intellect, but the evidence to support this idea was meager. The person performing the surgery usually couldn’t even see what he was cutting, and doctors considered patients "cured" after minimal follow-up. Yet, as Elliot S. Valenstein points out in Great and Desperate Cures: The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other Radical Treatments for Mental Illness (Basic Books, 1986), "Even a surgeon who was convinced that he was not obtaining good results seldom gave up lobotomy. It was difficult to admit that the effort had been completely wasted, especially when other surgeons were reporting success. Rather than abandoning psychosurgery, neurosurgeons much more commonly introduced some change in the operation in the hope of increasing the success rate." "
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/21/lobotomy.html
And as this article from the National Catholic Reporter, threatening a detainee with a lobotomy as torture as usual for the United States.
"The manual also suggests threatening a detainee suspected of feigning mental illness by telling him that he might need “a series of electric shock treatments or a frontal lobotomy.”
http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004d/110504/110504a.php
Are any of you reading this seeing the immense potential for abuse?
"
Rosemary Kennedy, sister of President John F. Kennedy, was given a lobotomy when her father complained to doctors about the 23-year-old’s moodiness and growing interest in men. The procedure was personally performed by Walter Freeman. Instead of producing the desired result, however, the lobotomy reduced Rosemary to an infantile mentality that left her incontinent and staring blankly at walls for hours. Her verbal skills were reduced to unintelligible babble. To avoid political scandal, the nature of Rosemary's affliction was hidden by her father for years, described to the public as the result of mental retardation. Her sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, founded the Special Olympics in her honor in 1968.
"Howard Dully had a lobotomy at 12, after his stepmother was simply tired of his "youthful defiance". In regards to the long term effects of the operation, at the age of 56 he said, "I've always felt different -- wondered if something's missing from my soul. I have no memory of the operation". Dully would later go on to uncover the story of his own lobotomy, which had not previously been revealed to him. Crown Publishers published Howard Dully's memoir (co-written by Charles Fleming), My Lobotomy[1], in September 2007.[4][5]
New Zealand author and poet, Janet Frame was due to have a lobotomy because of perceived mental illness. She was only saved from this procedure after she received a literary award the day before her operation was due to take place. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobotomy
From The Sunday TimesFebruary 19, 2006
Mental cruelty
The lobotomy is deemed one of the worst crimes in medical history. But a modern form of it is still practised in Britain - and may soon be performed without the patient's consent. By Christine Toomey and Steven Young
"The flashbacks come late at night. First comes the recollection of intense physical pain, as if the bones in his arms are being snapped like twigs. Then he hears the voice of the neurosurgeon applying an electric current to metal pins implanted in the tissue of his brain. "How do you feel, Derek?" the surgeon Arthur E Wall asks, while peering into Derek Hutchinson's eyes to see if his pupils have yet dilated with fear."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article729403.ece?token=null&offset=0
"Of course, lobotomy now seems like a medically sanctioned form of torture. The main theory behind it was that anxiety and agitation could be quelled by severing the emotional center of the brain from the part that controls intellect, but the evidence to support this idea was meager. The person performing the surgery usually couldn’t even see what he was cutting, and doctors considered patients "cured" after minimal follow-up. Yet, as Elliot S. Valenstein points out in Great and Desperate Cures: The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other Radical Treatments for Mental Illness (Basic Books, 1986), "Even a surgeon who was convinced that he was not obtaining good results seldom gave up lobotomy. It was difficult to admit that the effort had been completely wasted, especially when other surgeons were reporting success. Rather than abandoning psychosurgery, neurosurgeons much more commonly introduced some change in the operation in the hope of increasing the success rate." "
http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/21/lobotomy.html
And as this article from the National Catholic Reporter, threatening a detainee with a lobotomy as torture as usual for the United States.
"The manual also suggests threatening a detainee suspected of feigning mental illness by telling him that he might need “a series of electric shock treatments or a frontal lobotomy.”
http://ncronline.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2004d/110504/110504a.php
Are any of you reading this seeing the immense potential for abuse?