Have you ever thought how di we get here, who built us up to this part of our generation? Well if you have never heard of a lobotomy it has just a little of how some of us became so normal. A German scientist named Friederich Golz experimented with the surgical ablation of neocortex in dogs. He reported that in 1890 when one removes the temporal lobe the animals seemed to be tamer and calmer then the dogs not operated on. Hearing about this then inspired Gottlied Burckhardt, a supervisor of an insane asylum in Switzerland. He performed a operation of removing part of the cortex of six of his schizophrenic patients. These patients then became very agitated and had hallucinations because of the operation. Then there where some of his patients who did show signs of being calmer after the operation. Also two of his patients did end up dying. Burckhardt was criticized by the medical authorities in his time so very few operations of this kind were carried out over the next 40 years.
In 1935 a scientist named Carlyle Jacobsen made an observation on the behavior of chimpanzees
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Scientific evidence showed that one third of the operated patients would improve, while one-third remained the same and, one-third got worst. As the years went on ethical objections began to pile up because of the severe damage to the brain. Later on in the 50s drugs Such as Thorazine gave new meaning to help with most of the symptoms experienced by agitated and uncontrollable patients. Neurosurgeons everywhere started to stop using lobotomy for more humane methods of treatment. IN the 70s the United states made a law and so did many other countries. Psychosurgery was classified as an experimental therapy, with many safeguards to the patient's rights. In todays time the original lobotomy operation is now rarely performed, if ever. Although many countries will still take psychosurgery as a form of radical control of violent
The early history of mental illness is bleak. The belief that anyone with a mental illness was possessed by a demon or the family was being given a spiritual was the reason behind the horrific treatment of those with mental illness. These individuals were placed into institutions that were unhygienic and typically were kept in dark, cave like rooms away from people in the outside world. The institutions were not only dark and gross; they also used inhumane forms of treatment on their patients. Kimberly Leupo, discusses some of the practices that were used, these included may types of electro shocks, submitting patients to ice bath, as well as many other horrific events (Leupo). Lobotomies, which are surgical procedures that cut and scrape different connections in the brain, were very common practice. They were thought to help cure mental illness, but often ended up with more damage than good.
Through the operation, science was given breakthrough data and opened a whole new world of possibility. “You're accomplishing in days and weeks what it takes normal people to do in half a lifetime.” While intellect isn’t everything, there’s no questioning that it sure is useful. If everyone had intelligence that skied beyond that of modern geniuses, society and general life for anyone and everyone would improve substantially. “Dr. Strauss said that someday thousands of neurosurgeons might be using his technique all over the world.” With a few tweaks in the operation and some technological improvement, the operation’s effects could move from temporary to permanent. As a result, people all over the world, no matter their original intellect level, could be given
Both in and out of philosophical circle, animals have traditionally been seen as significantly different from, and inferior to, humans because they lacked a certain intangible quality – reason, moral agency, or consciousness – that made them moral agents. Recently however, society has patently begun to move beyond this strong anthropocentric notion and has begun to reach for a more adequate set of moral categories for guiding, assessing and constraining our treatment of other animals. As a growing proportion of the populations in western countries adopts the general position of animal liberation, more and more philosophers are beginning to agree that sentient creatures are of a direct moral concern to humans, though the degree of this concern is still subject to much disagreement. The political, cultural and philosophical animal liberation movement demands for a fundamental transformation of humans’ present relations to all sentient animals. They reject the idea that animals are merely human resources, and instead claim that they have value and worth in themselves. Animals are used, among other things, in basic biomedical research whose purpose is to increase knowledge about the basic processes of human anatomy. The fundamental wrong with this type of research is that it allows humans to see animals as here for them, to be surgically manipulated and exploited for money. The use of animals as subjects in biomedical research brings forth two main underlying ethical issues: firstly, the imposition of avoidable suffering on creatures capable of both sensation and consciousness, and secondly the uncertainty pertaining to the notion of animal rights.
In primates such as chimpanzees it is imperative to look at their culture to understand their intelligence. Culture in this circumstance means a specific set of behaviors obtained through learning in a population/species. Chimpanzee’s intelligence is quite unique how they interact with their environment and use it to their benefit just like humans. They have the ability to overcome the obstacles of everyday life through learning and the ability to use tools to create a better quality of life. The complexity of their intellect is different from any other animal ever seen. A significant part of chimpanzee intelligence that sets them apart from other primates and puts them closer to humans is the way they exhibit social learning within their culture and interactions within their environment.
Sabbatini, Renato M.E. “The History of Psychosurgery” June/August 1997. Brain & Mind Magazine. 14 Jun.1997. State University of Campinus, Brazil. 6 Oct. 2002
In the late eighteenth century, the moral treatment was first adopted by Dr. Willis and then popularized by French physician Philippe Pinel and British philanthropist William Tuke. Discouraged by the inefficiency of traditional treatments and inspired by the Enlightenment principle, these innovators tried to find a new approach to help psychotics back to sanity. Because the principle and practices of moral treatment place a high value on respecting the liberty, humanity, and individuality of patients, the moral treatment achieved the success in curing patients and remained popular in the next century.
Chimpanzees portray their emotions through a number of facial expressions and mannerisms. Just like humans, they undergo mood swings, jealous rages, and laughter. For instance, Goodall observed during her research that a male gorilla “would threaten [me] with an upward and backward movement jerk of his head…” Some of their emotions are easy to read, while at other times we have to look at multiple places on their faces to understand their feelings. A chimpanzee also uses its facial expressions and sounds to communicate with each other, such as hoots and yells.
The cerebrum mainly controls the person’s language ability and the left prefrontal cortex is mainly responsible for self-control and decision making (Weiten, 2014), and also personality traits and organization of emotional reactions (Prefrontal Cortex, 2015). Gage only acquired damage to these parts of his brain. Other daily functions such as movement and his basic living processes were unharmed. The damage done to his prefrontal cortex somewhat resembled a lobotomy procedure. A lobotomy is a procedure that severs the connections between the lobes of the frontal lobe of the brain (Lewis, 2013). The tampering iron practically performed a lobotomy on Gage’s frontal lobe when it diagonally pierced his left
Medicine has always played a major role in society, but it was not until the early 1900s that mental illnesses were receiving more attention. People began searching for cures and new treatments were starting, or at least being tried. Famous psychiatrist, Walter Freeman, created the first ever lobotomy in the United States. Although he was not the first ever to attempt one, he was the one known for having the best method. The lobotomy is a type of neurosurgery, or surgery performed on the brain, also known as psychosurgery (Freeman). He created his version of the lobotomy in 1936 with his partner James Watts. The medical field marveled at the new procedure and it was not long before Walter Freeman became a household name. After realizing his
The treatment involved passing electrical currents through the brain which would trigger a small seizure and ease the symptoms of certain mental illnesses, however the procedure was used without anesthesia and caused the patient to jerk uncontrollably, this treatment would sometimes result in fractures, memory loss, and other side effects. The treatment is still used today, although with much weaker currents and anesthesia. Another popular treatment used in the asylums was the injection of insulin into a patient to induce a coma. This treatment was thought to reset an individual’s brain and bring them back to “normal”, however, insulin coma therapy proved to be not very effective and was phased out in the 1960s. One of the most inhumane treatments for the mentally ill was the lobotomy, or the prefrontal leucotomy. This surgical procedure involved opening a hole in the head to sever nerve pathways in the prefrontal cortex. The lobotomy was performed at least 15,000 times in Britain before being phased out in the late 1950s. Another type of brain surgery discussed in the film, was one done on patient, Maggi Chapman, who underwent a surgery in which an electrode was attached to a part of her brain and then turned on to fry that part of the brain. Maggi goes on to describe how the next few years she felt like a zombie and had a difficult time going through life (BBC,
One of the most controversial forms of treatment is electroconvulsive therapy. Electroconvulsive therapy, or ETC, is a procedure that consists of strong electric shocks that pass through the brain to induce convulsions (Vocabulary). This was a common method solve mental illnesses in the 1940’s and 1950’s. ECT was often criticized for not working and causing permanent memory loss (Mental Health America). Another dangerous and controversial diagnosis is Lobotomy. Lobotomy is a surgical procedure that interrupts the nerves in the brain (Vocabulary). It was very popular before prescription drugs and was also a common diagnosis of mental illnesses (Vocabulary.) The side effects include, but are not limited Mto; personality changes, empathy, inhibitions, inative, and the ability to function by themselves (Live Science.com). There was over 50,000 known lobotomies performed in the U.S., most were in mental hospitals (Live Science.com). Dr. Barron Lerner, a medical historian and professor at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, told Live Science the science or thought process of lobotomy (Live Science.com). "The behaviors [doctors] were trying to fix, they thought, were set down in neurological connections. The idea was, if you could damage those connections, you could stop the bad behaviors (Live Science.com)." That’s why lobotomy
Vergano, D. Scientist scratch the surface of chimp communication. USA Today. April 6. 2006. Retrieve Mar 20 from
Ethics refers to the values and customs of a community at a particular point in time. At present, the term ethics is guided by the moral principles that guide our everyday actions. These moral principles guide the researcher into deciding what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. The foundation of medical ethics is governed by two philosophical frameworks that are deontology, and utilitarianism. However ultimately the ethics committees need to balance the risks, and benefits for the participants and the community associated with the particular research proposal. This balance is quite important as the well being of participants is at risk.7
patient to go unscious and have a seizures, this was only done in very severe cases of
Her discoveries made a major contribution to the biological community, paving the way for others, and well as earned her many awards. Not much about chimpanzees was known, or studied, on the mid-1900s before Jane came along. At the time, these animals were mainly unbothered by curious humans. But the height of the space research program involving chimps went from the early 1950s to the early 1960s, right around the time Jane first ventured to Africa ("Air and Space | Research | Release & Restitution for Chimpanzees"). They were used to test gravity force as well as other conditions expected in space travel. Furthermore, Jane was not the only scientist to be studying the monkey family behaviorism, though she is certainly the most well known. An additional scientist at work around the same time was Francine Patterson. With permission form the San Francisco Zoo, she started to train a one-year-old gorilla American Sign Language. Patterson, still alive and well today, founded The Gorilla Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to the preservation of lowland gorillas (“Ape Women: 10 Dedicated Primate Researchers”). Similarly, Sally Boysen is also renowned for teaching chimps to read and write using English words and letters, as well as studying their cognitive development (“Chimps R Us”). Yet another scientist and conservationist, Birute Galdikas, was working with orangutans around 15years after Jane’s most prominent work with chimpanzees. Galdikas dedicated her life to the safety and wellbeing of the animals entrusted to her (“Birute