Helping the Mentally Ill

Caution: this post contains graphic pictures and a graphic video clip. 

A lobotomy is an operation on the brain.

The reason it sometimes works is not entirely clear, but it is used to calm agitated or aggressive mental patients, and for other reasons, such as to relieve depression or some obsessive-compulsive behaviors.

A lobotomy (more correctly a prefrontal lobotomy) involves cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex of the brain. That is, the two lobes of the brain in front, behind the forehead. Initially, the operation, which was first used in the early part of the 20th century, was quite crude. The head had to be cut open. Risk of infection was pretty high, as you might imagine in primitive brain surgery. But it had a high rate of success in calming the patient down. Often, of course, this calming was to the extent that the patient didn't care one way or the other anymore, or, in some cases, became rather unresponsive generally.

This picture is purported to be genuine, though I have my doubts. It is a bit too Hollywood, I think.

As the science progressed through the years, ways were discovered to perform the cutting of the brain without opening the skull radically. For example, in one technique, a small hole was drilled in the side of the head and a cutting instrument was inserted in that hole.

Perhaps the most famous of the people who popularized lobotomies and pioneered new techniques in them, was Dr. Walter Freeman. In his lifetime he performed almost 3500 of the procedures.

Dr. Freeman was the inventor of the transorbital lobotomy. In this procedure, and ice pick-like device was inserted through the patient's eye socket and tapped with a hammer to break through the thin bone layer, and into the brain's frontal lobe. The patient was "anesthetized" prior to this by using electric shock to induce convulsions. The procedure was done through both eyes, cutting both frontal lobes.

You can watch a short video of the procedure here, from a PBS documentary on Dr. Freeman.

One of the most famous lobotomies, and one of the most tragic, was performed on Rosemary Kennedy, daughter of Joseph Kennedy and sister of President Kennedy. Rosemary wasn't that abnormal. She was prone to mood swings and was a little "slow" compared to her brilliant siblings, perhaps a little clumsy, but not severely mentally deficient (she could do division and multiplication) She was presented to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1938 (her father was the American Ambassador to the Court of St. James's) and, it is said, she stumbled a bit on her curtsey, which embarrassed her father. But she was all right. She spoke well, dressed well, kept a diary. Her older brother John doted on her. The lobotomy, performed by Dr. Freeman, left her an incontinent vegetable who could only babble. A tragedy. You can read a bit more about her on the below link under the pictures.

Rosemary is standing left, rear, in the below photo.

If you would like to read a list and descriptions of some of Dr. Freeman's lobotomy patients, including Rosemary Kennedy, it is available online here.

Mental Health of Yore

Long ago there was a different attitude toward the mentally ill and mentally deficient in the U.S.

We are much more enlightened today.

Between the 1920s and the 1960s, it was thought that state-ordered sterilization was part of the solution. This was the era of the Progressives' eugenics ideas, though much of it was pre-WWII.

These people were often put in state hospitals, the mentally ill for treatment and the mentally deficient or "feeble-minded" as they were called, for warehousing. Warehousing and experimentation sometimes.

Epileptics, embarrassments to their parents, were housed in other state hospitals and often lived out their lives there. Obviously these people were not mentally deficient (for the most part) nor mentally ill, yet they were separated from society anyway. Experimental surgeries were performed and different medications were tried.

I have read that the Nazis got a lot of their ideas about racial cleansing from us and our progressive society. I don't like to think that is true.
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For the mentally ill, Electro-shock therapy was common - it still is used today - and then came the rise in popularity of the lobotomy. Next post, I would like to introduce you to the father of modern lobotomy, perfecter of the transorbital method, performer of nearly 3500 lobotomies, Dr. Walter Freeman. Some people hailed him as a true medical pioneer, and some probably still do. Personally, I think of him as Victor Frankenstein incarnate.

Nevada to retain "None of the Above"

A federal appeals court decided this week to allow Nevada's controversial "None of the Above" voting option to stand as the printing of the state's November ballots proceeds. Nevada has had that option since 1976. Although the ballot item can't technically win an election, it does let the candidates who do win know the people don't really like them. The first federal judge tried to delay his decision until the ballots had already gone to the printer. The appeals judge struck down the lower court's decision to remove, and also chastised the judge for dragging his feet.

In 1998, Senate Leader Harry Reid beat the Republican challenger by just 428 votes. "None of the Above" got 8,000 votes. The provision can't force a new election, however.

Still, Nevada says the ballot item boosts voter turnout, bringing out disgruntled people who would otherwise simply not have voted.

The Mitt Romney camp was reportedly disappointed with the decision because they felt people who don't like either candidate might vote for him in larger numbers than for President Obama.
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In President Clinton's speech last night to the Democratic Convention in Charlotte - the best speech of his life, many say - he made a better case for Barack Obama's reelection than Obama himself has ever made. Some say the President may be reelected in November because of Clinton's brilliant explaining of the issues last night. Michelle Obama's perfect speech on Tuesday (in her unique "purposeful stuttering" style) set the stage though, emotionally. The President will speak tonight, accepting his party's nomination (one assumes) and closing the convention.