The prefrontal lobotomy composed of drilling holes to the skull, then, inserting the leucotome. With the use of the wire loops, later modified into steel loops, the nerve tracts are severed. The patients will recover after sometime. There is also the Freeman-Watts Standard Procedure which is tackles on what is the right way of inserting the leucotome (Sabbatini). While the trans orbital lobotomy, used a steel ice pick-like instrument is inserted from the orbit of the eye towards the brain. Freeman also used a small mallet to drive instrument deeply.
Then he would move the ‘ice pick’ sideways to cut across the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the brains. This is done twice, one in each eye. This is also termed as a ‘blind operation’ (psychosurgery. org) since the surgeon does not really see whether he is hitting the right parts of the brain. The patients are most likely to recover from the surgery shortly. But, this does not guarantee that the mental disorder is really cured. With the separation of the prefrontal region and the rest of the brain, it is supposed that violent behaviors and mental disorders will be diminished.
Emotional understanding was also cut off with the procedure. If the patient is not reduced into a vegetative state, the person will most likely be behaved but deprived of any real emotions or of self-awareness. Lobotomy in Popular Culture Some of the famous people who underwent lobotomy include; Rose Williams, a sister of a famous American writer Tennessee Williams. The procedure was done in 1943, which only disabled her (Sabbatini). This led his brother to write a celebrated drama ‘Suddenly Last Summer’. It starred Elizabeth Taylor where she also won an award. Frances Farmer, Hollywood actress, had a trans orbital lobotomy when she was 34.
She was then released from an institution and was able to work and get back to being an actress (Sabbatini). Rosemary Kennedy is perhaps the most well-known personality to have undergone the procedure. She is the sister of former president John Kennedy. She was considered mentally weak, with incidents of aggressiveness. The procedure left her in a vegetative state. Her parents then established Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation which aimed to help those that had the same mental condition (Sabbatini). Eunice Kennedy Shriver, her sister, also founded the Special Olympics in 1968.
Howard Dully has recently published his story about how he was after the lobotomy. He was only 12 when the procedure was performed. The booked covered how he feels about knowing that a part of his brain was tinkered upon by a surgeon when he was young. His story caused a stir in the Internet as well. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a Jack Nicholson starred film from the book written by Ken Kesey in 1958. This is an award winning film that showed how lobotomy was performed in mental asylums.
Works Cited
Boeree, C. George. A Brief History of the Lobotomy. 2001. 14 March 2009. <http://webspace. ship.edu/cgboer/lobotomy. html> Jansson, Bengt. , Controversial Psychosurgery Resulted in a Nobel Prize, 1998. The Nobel Foundation 1949. 14 March 2009. <http://nobelprize. org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1949/moniz-bio. html> McManamy, John. Father of the Lobotomy. c. 2000. 14 March 2009. <http://www. mcmanweb. com/lobotomy. html> Psychosurgery. org. What is lobotomy anyway? 14 March 2009. <http://www. psychosurgery. org/index_files/page0012. htm> Sabbatini, Renato, The History of Psychosurgery. Brain and Mind. 1997. 14 March 2009. <http://www. cerebromente. org. br/n02/historia/important. htm>