I watched the tail end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest a couple of weeks ago and it got me thinking about lobodomies and wondering what those things really were all about. I knew it had something to do with scrambling the frontal lobes but I really knew nothing more. Well, this stuck with me and yesterday I finally decided to google it.
I read a little about the history of it. It started in the late 1800’s in Switzerland and worked its way to the US in 1935 by a Dr. Freeman.
At first the surgery involved injecting some solution like alcohol to destroy the brian in the fontal lobes. Dr. Freeman later developed a type of lobotomy called the “Ice Pick” Lobotomy where, instead of drilling holes into the patient’s head and destroying the brain via injection, he used an “ice pick-like instrument” (really just an ice pick) and inserted it under the eyelides and above the eyeball and tapped it through the bone there with a mallet. Once in the frontal lobes, he “moved it around” a bit and did the same on the other side.
Disturbing, I know. But things like this tend to get my attention and I can spend hours reading about this stuff (although at the same time horrified).
I came across the story of the youngest human ever known to have had a lobotomy in the US. His name is Howard Dully and he was lobotomized by Freeman in 1960 at the age of 12.
This disturbed me more than all the other stories I ever ready about lobotomies because his lobotomy was done thanks to his evil step mother who wanted to get rid of him. He wasn’t mentally disturbed, he wasn’t violent, he was a normal 12 year old with normal 12 year old behaviour.
Howard, in his 50’s set off on a mission to find out all he could about his lobotomy. By some miracle he wasn’t left a vegetable.
He eventually found his original medical records and before and after photos of himself ..and notes from Dr. Freeman..
October 26 1960… “Howard is a rather tall, slender, somewhat withdrawn type of individual. The first interview today was largely a matter of getting acquainted. He told about his paper-route which brings him some $20 each month. And he’s saving up to get a record player. Howard is rather evasive about talking about things that go on in the home…â€Â
November 30th… my birthday. “Mrs. Dully came in for a talk about Howard. Things have gotten much worse and she can barely endure it. I explained to Mrs. Dully, that the family should consider the possibility of changing Howard’s personality by means of transorbital lobotomy. Mrs Dully said it was up to her husband, that I would have to talk with him and make it stick.â€Â
December 3 1960… “Mr and Mrs Dully have apparently decided to have Howard operated on. I suggested them not tell Howard anything about it.â€Â
December 17 1960: “I performed transorbital lobotomy.â€Â
I know that medicine has come a long way and that we know better these days but I always thought that lobotomies were done on the violently insane because they knew no other way to deal with those cases. Not on innocent kids. Dr. Freeman should have been executed for what he did to this kid and this kid’s stepmother should have been lobodomized herself as punishment.
I had an “evil stepmother” once too and I remember her threatening myself and my brother with “taking us to the phychiatrist” just because she wanted to be mean that day. She was walking us to school when she said it and I was so scared I wasn’t sure what to do with myself. Our stepmother was a kid herself so I blame my dad more for entrusting his kids to another snot nose. That’s a whole other story too, anyway.
But what possessed a grown woman like Mrs. Dully to do this to her stepson? and where was dad? He was just another ignorant fool who wasn’t smart enough to see that his son needed him. This story made me angrier than I can explain and I still can’t shake the feeling. His real mother, who died when he was younger, must have been screaming in her grave on that day. What barbarism. It’s scandulous.
I would rather someone kill my kids than do some atrocity like this to either of them.
Enraged
Enraged is right! This is what gets me: “the family should consider the possibility of changing Howard’s personality by means of transorbital lobotomy.” His stepmother didn’t like the kid so she just had his brain hacked up with an ice pick?! Definitely all parties involved should have been prosecuted.
Here’s a thought, though: many parents today medicate their kids (for ADHD, for example), which — in a sense — alters their personality. And I have some of those kids in class, so I can tell you they focus better when they’ve taken their medication, but where’s the line? Obviously there’s a HUGE difference between a lobotomy and a pill, but there’s a lot of room in between too.
Reply to MeganI was thinking about the similarity to the meds given to kids today for adhd as well. Although the effects aren’t permanent or barbaric like taking an ice pick to the brain, but I think parents today just don’t explore other alternatives like changing a child’s diet or putting them into team sports to get them more exercise.
Reply to Tania (digsite)