Are you ready to be penetrated? By Dennis, Matt and Trevor

A lobotomy involves slicing major portions off the frontal lobe. Thus, a person who receives a lobotomy will exhibit the following symptoms:  Mind dead  Slow thought process  Slow reaction time  Low IQ and logical comprehension  They basically become a vegetable! Fact: Lobotomies were used so patients with mental disorders would be easier to control!

The first type of lobotomy, known as a leucotomy, involved using a drill and drilling a hole in a patients skull and then slicing off parts of the brain.

The patient is sent off with no further examination or follow up. Some patients who retained some thought process said the surgery felt like “someone shoved a broom handle into their brain!”

The Curious Case of Phineas Gage

 Born into a working-class family, Gage was one of five children.  Gage grew up and attended school in Grafton County, New Hampshire.  Decided to pursue a career in explosives, eventually leading him to rail work.

 Gage was the construction foreman of an American rail company.  Well liked by his peers, Gage was the honest equivalent of a modern football captain.  Many of the doctors he encountered prior to the accident dubbed him as ‘outgoing’ and ‘kind.’  He had a very muscular build and was very knowledgeable in respect to the rail business.

 Occurred on September 13 th,  Upon drilling the hole and setting the blasting powder, it ignited unexpectedly.  The tool used to drill the hole, a 3-foot long, 12 pound iron stake was flung through Gage’s skull.  Miraculously, to the surprise of everyone, Gage was able to survive the accident.

 Gage was treated by Edward H. Williams, who dressed and treated the injuries with great care.  Upon meeting his friends after the accident, they all noted that he was now much more distant, and easily angered.  Gage’s deep thinking was also immensely disturbed, and basic social interaction and emotions were very difficult for him.  While maintaining the muscular build, Gage often had trouble with advanced motor functions.  Some of his friends went as far to comment “that’s not Gage,” due to the fact his personality had been changed so drastically.

 Although Doctors were slow to recognise it, Gage had been effectively lobotomized.  The places where emotion and laughter were present before were now filled by coldness.  Gage’s accident helped neurologists draft the theory that damage to a specific area of the brain could have very precise consequences.  Prior to Gage’s Accident, many neurologists believed that any trauma to the brain could result in overall damage to the individual.

 For the first time in history, scientists were able to understand that trauma to specific areas of the brain could have catastrophic consequences for the individual.  Following Gage’s death, neurologists noted how his personality eventually began to deteriorate to the point of nothing.  The frontal lobe was soon recognised and dubbed to be an area in which trauma could cause damage to an individual’s personality, speaking, emotions and render them “cationic.”  Gage’s case helped inspire some of the earliest forms of mass lobotomization by Freeman and Watts, some of the two earliest doctors to put it into practice.

 Preceded medical usages of lobotomy.  Provided a stepping stone to discovering the technique of lobotomy and its ease.  Demonstrated how damage to specific areas of the brain have specific effects.  A person can be fundamentally changed by lobotomoization.