What is a lobotomy?

Question

What is the point of it?
Do people currently get that done to them?
Please, serious answers only. Thanks.

Answer 1

lobotomy (Greek: lobos: Lobe of brain, tomy: cutting) is a form of psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy (from Greek leukos: clear or white). It consists of cutting the connections to and from, or simply destroying, the prefrontal cortex. These procedures often result in major personality changes. Lobotomies have been used in the past to treat a wide range of mental illnesses including schizophrenia, clinical depression, and various anxiety disorders.
In 1890, Dr. Gottlieb Burckhardt performed partial lobotomies on six schizophrenic patients of a psychiatric hospital in Switzerland. He drilled holes into their heads and extracted sections of their frontal lobes. Two of the patients died, but the others exhibited altered behavior.

The first controlled human lobotomy was performed by the Portuguese physician and neurologist António Egas Moniz in 1936. His method involved drilling holes in patients' heads and destroying the tissue connecting the frontal lobes by injecting alcohol into them. Moniz won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1949 for this work. The procedure was brought to the United States by Drs. Walter Freeman and James W. Watts, who refined Moniz's procedures, and changed the name from leukotomy to lobotomy.

Freeman, without the support of Watts, later developed a version that reached frontal lobe tissue through the tear ducts. In his transorbital lobotomy, a mallet is used to force an ice pick through the thin layer of skull at the top of the eye socket. The pick is then wiggled to damage the frontal lobe. This technique could be performed in a doctor's office rather than in an operating room, and required only a few minutes to perform. Freeman advocated this procedure for patients with even fairly mild symptoms, and as a result, performed the operation on thousands of people.

Lobotomy had long been criticized by the medical profession, as many were repulsed at the idea of destroying healthy tissue. With the advent of Thorazine in the 1950s, the procedure began to seem barbaric, and rapidly declined.

In 1977, the U.S. Congress created a National Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research to investigate allegations that psychosurgery, including lobotomy techniques, was used to control minorities and restrain individual rights, and that it had unethical aftereffects. It concluded that, in general, psychosurgery had positive effects. However, concerns about leukotomy steadily grew, as numerous countries such as Germany and Japan, along with several U.S. states, prohibited it. Lobotomy was legally practiced in controlled and regulated U.S. centers and in Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Spain, India, Belgium and the Netherlands. The practice had generally ceased by the early 1970s, but some countries continued small-scale operations through the late 1980s. In France, 32 lobotomies were performed between 1980 and 1986 according to an IGAS report; about 15 each year in the UK, 70 in Belgium, and about 15 for the Massachusetts General Hospital of Boston.[1]

Answer 2

Lobotomy is a 'new opening' in the brain. It is a surgical operation on a part of the brain to treat pain or an emotional disorder. Surgery is generally limited to cases where medications and other treatment methods have not been effective.

Answer 3

A lobotomy is where the cut out a part of the frontal cortex of the brain.
They used to do it more regularly before technology came up with better ways to deal with schizophrenia, clinical depression and various anxiety disorders.
They are still done somewhat today, but only in the most serious of cases.

Answer 4

Oh good question. Um well I believe there really is no 'hell'. There is an outer darkness but only people who 'deny the holy ghost' (aka make a deal with the devil) go there. Other than that there are three kingdoms, celestial kingdom, the terrestrial kingdom, and the telestial kingdom. The celestial is the highest only those how have been bapitized into the true church will go there, god will dwell ONLY in this kingdom. the next highest is the terrestrial. Not as good as the Celestial but Im pretty sure (can't remeber) the Jesus can visit here. And last is the telestail, the lowest.

Answer 5

It is a surgical procedure that destroys the prefrontal cortex of the brain causing major personality changes. It was used (1930's, 40's) by psychiatrists to treat various psychiatric illnesses. Don't think its used anymore. Check it out on Wikipedia.

Answer 6

they remove your frontal lobe so you basically become a brainless idiot. They did this to people to who were totally nuts to keep them from just being crazy. They NEVER do this today no matter how insane you are. It was really ****** up because people who used to be nuts, but be basically happy and have a sort of mental instutional life became brainless retards who could do nothing but sit around acting like retards

Answer 7

Typically Removing a piece of the frontal lobe to relieve severe symptoms. Typically to treat violent irrational behaviour.

It is still practiced where all other treatments have failed.

Answer 8

i think this is cutting out part of the brain to ease the symptoms of mental illness, i dont think this is currently practiced

Answer 9

the point was that they drilled a hole in your forehead and took out part of your brain, they must have figured the ledd you think the less crazy you'd be????

Answer 10

It's a type of brain surgery -- I think doctors/scientists do that type of procedure on people that are dead. They take out the brain and study it... Sure they still do it -- it's how they come up with new inventions, theories, etc.