ONE F-ed up barbaric procedure

[Racket_Man]

I mostly listen to NPR when I am working. Late at night the local NPR network broadcasts the BBC World Service and I heard this story.

http://www.npr.org/2005/11/16/501408...dullys-journey

It is the story of a 60 YO man who at age 12 was given a "forced" procedure called a transorbital lobotomy. Essencially it involves driving an icepick like device into a patients eye socket and wiggling it around inside the brain. tHE purported purpose was to disrupt the connection between the 2 halves of the brain.

The reason Mr. Dully had this procedure was because his Step-Mother did not want him around AND his Father just did not care anymore.

[draco664]

Yeah, I read about that case a few years ago. Fucked up all round.

[anakhouri]

He wrote a book about it as well. It's mind-blowing that any doctor would perform this procedure because the kid was 'trouble' (according to the stepmother, the man himself begs to differ). Sadly icepick lobotomies were performed well into the mid-20th century. It's a sickening thing to think about.

[AccountingDrone]

They did it also to one of the Kennedy daughters - Rose Kennedy.

At the time, the lobotomy was the 'miracle cure' and done to many people that probably did not actually need nor benefit from it.

But then again, it used to not be uncommon to get people dumped into lunatic assylums that were not technically lunatics - deaf-mutes, retarded people, kids that were disruptive [probably ADD, ADHD and definitely autism spectrums] and *yes* I know 'retarded' is not PC, but that is what they were called at the time. I am tired of trying to keep track of the PC terms for everything when they keep changing.

[Aethian]

Mom was told to just send me straight up to a home because being born 12 weeks early I would be stupid, not know how to talk or walk, and wouldn't know how to even dress myself. This was in 1982.

[Dreamstalker]

My mom was told (in 1992) that I would need to be institutionalized...why, we had no idea. At that point I was in school and doing decently. It might have had something to do with said shrink believing my childhood misdiagnoses (schizophrenia, psychosis, etc).

[Ginger Tea]

There are a lot of things that happened in the last 50 years that you would think were stopped over a hundred ago if they were even allowed to happen.

My mother spoke of it being common for left handed people to have their hand tied behind their back to force them to write right handed or had their knuckles wrapped with a ruler or cane, this was in the 50's.

Korea seems to be conflicting with being the most progressive and backwards at the same time, I occasionally visit /r/Korea on reddit and a recent post someone asked about where was the best place in Seoul to hook up with transsexuals and my first thought was "wrong Asian country." but a quick Google and wiki later it seems that you can change your gender and birth documents and marry any gender, where as the west is only just coming to terms with the prospect of two men marrying.

Yet being a single mother is still a bad thing and mothers would rather abandon babies anonymously at baby drop off points.

[Andara Bledin]

I'm almost positive that my ex was naturally left handed. But in his case, it's most likely that he used his right hand to be like everybody else, because he picked up some crippling self-doubt behavior from his father, who still seems to think he needs to buy his son's affection. >_<

[Panacea]

My mom is left handed. She did have some teachers try to punish her out of it, and others who simply taught her to hold the pen differently to avoid smearing the ink.

She wrote left handed her entire adult life, and before she got Alzheimers had beautiful penmanship. In fact, her hand writing was one of the first clues I had that something was terribly wrong.

I was a bit luckier than other folks; my parents knew I was different, knew I had disabilities, but were encouraged Children's Hopsital psychologists to find ways for me to cope rather than throw me away or assume I'd never amount to anything.

The middle school I went to was a problem, but my high school was more accepting; I did much better there.

[AccountingDrone]

My mother spoke of it being common for left handed people to have their hand tied behind their back to force them to write right handed or had their knuckles wrapped with a ruler or cane, this was in the 50's.
.

1965, Catholic kindergarten in Germany. Sister Agathe and a ruler. I can now write equally shitty with both hands...to even come close to writing neatly is by using my drafting print script

[HYHYBT]

My mother spoke of it being common for left handed people to have their hand tied behind their back to force them to write right handed or had their knuckles wrapped with a ruler or cane, this was in the 50's.

I had, briefly, almost the opposite problem. Dad saw that I often used my left hand for things like eating, and decided, wrongly, that I was really left-handed and the teacher was trying to force me into becoming a rightie. He tried to countrr this by having me write left-handed at home. Never could do it legibly. He gave up trying, but it was years more before he really believed my right-handedness.

[Ginger Tea]

I use the knife with my left hand when it comes to cutlery, I think everyone in my family used/s the right as it's predominantly for cutting and better at it.
But I can not for the life of me remember a time when I didn't do it that way as spoons were right handed and soup's and ice cream seem to be predominantly like that with everyone else I saw.

Knife in right for spreading jam and butter etc on toast or cutting a loaf or something, but on a plate has to be left hand side.

I rarely used a knife at work for the cooked meals as it was plastic cutlery, but everyone who did used the fork in their left hand, sometimes keeping it that way if they only had a fork to eat with.

[Panacea]

It's actually quite common for people to have odd preferences for their off hand with some tasks.

For me (I am very right handed) it's using a fork. Most Americans eat with their right hand and use the knife with their left. I do the opposite.

I also wear my watch on my right wrist even though I am right handed. It seems more natural to me.

It doesn't change the fact I am predominately right handed in practically everything else.

[DGoddess]

I read about that on another website a few years ago (doing research for possible story)

Very barbaric indeed. No way would I put anyone through that kind of procedure.

I did read somewhere not long ago that the procedure is still used in the UK as a last resort after medication and pyschotherapy have all failed. Can't recall what the numbers were, but it was very low (I want to say it was around 100 or so a year.)

Either way, if it were me going through severe mental illness, I sure wouldn't want someone sticking an ice pick up my nose and into my brain.

As far as side preference, I was originally writing left handed. But thanks to a religious-nut teacher (I was sent to a private Christian academy in the 1st grade) who decided I was possessed (she would also take me out in the hall, lift my skirt and paddle me for NO reasons other than she did not like me) I was forced to write with my right hand.

Must also be why I have a preference for wearing slacks or jeans, come to think of it - I'm rarely in a skirt.

I did discover, after I had graduated high school, that I could still write left handed. Maybe not as well as I do with the right, but I can still do it.

If I use a case cutter, it's left handed. Hammer the same way. Scissors too (although I can use scissors with either hand.)

Mouse I prefer left handed, but at work I have to use my right.

Either way, it's stupid to try to force preferences on someone, especially a small child. That kind of damage lasts forever.

[ExRetailDrone]

Truly disgusting, indeed. I remember reading about Dr. Freeman when I was doing research for a paper about the stigma of mental illness, specifically depression. Made me really glad, as a depression sufferer, that I wasn't around when this was still somewhat common *twitch*