ONE F-ed up barbaric procedure

[anakhouri]

On a side note, Joyce Carroll Oates' short novel "Zombie" is about a serial killer who abducts young men and tries to make them into docile sex slaves via icepick lobotomy. He's a serial killer because he doesn't know how to do it right. A chilling read if you don't mind feeling deeply disturbed.

[Aethian]

There was a Law & Order case like this too.

[HYHYBT]

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

The "correct" way in the US is supposed to be that you pass the fork back and forth, using it with your left hand when cutting with the knife in the right, and then putting the knife down and passing the fork over to the right hand to eat, then pass i back to the left to cut the next bite, and so on. Makes no sense whatsoever any way you look at it, and I'd love to know who came up with that and, more to the point, how it ever got widespread acceptance.

[Andara Bledin]

The "correct" way in the US is supposed to be that you pass the fork back and forth, using it with your left hand when cutting with the knife in the right, and then putting the knife down and passing the fork over to the right hand to eat, then pass i back to the left to cut the next bite, and so on. Makes no sense whatsoever any way you look at it, and I'd love to know who came up with that and, more to the point, how it ever got widespread acceptance.

More than a couple of spies during WWII got caught due to that. I've always thought it was terribly inefficient and simply taught myself to cut with my left hand.

[s_stabeler]

I do it because it feels awkward any other way. That, and it's actually easier to cut a piece of meat with the knife in the right hand.

[Nekojin]

I'm left-handed. The fork never leaves my left hand; the right is on cutting duty.

[AccountingDrone]

The "correct" way in the US is supposed to be that you pass the fork back and forth, using it with your left hand when cutting with the knife in the right, and then putting the knife down and passing the fork over to the right hand to eat, then pass i back to the left to cut the next bite, and so on. Makes no sense whatsoever any way you look at it, and I'd love to know who came up with that and, more to the point, how it ever got widespread acceptance.

And I never got taught to do that, the wonders of a German nanny and both parents and grandparents that thought it was absolutely stupid behavior. Though I was taught that it is highly rude to cut up all your food in one go *unless* it is for a small child, or an invalid with something wrong with one hand/arm preventing them from cutting their own food. Though it was encouraged that if we knew we were having a guest with an issue like that to consider planning the menu to have stuff that didn't require cutting like soups, omelets, fish and so forth.

[hinakiba777]

The whole lobotomy thing makes me sick, but I remember reading about the man mentioned a few years ago.

In terms of being a south paw, I am one and my parents think my brother should have been. Though he easily could have just preferred writing right and doing other things left handed. Being left handed sucks, because i spent a long time having people teach me to do things only to learn that because I'm a lefty I need to learn it differently. (I.E. Sliding in baseball.) So there are somethings that need to be done with dominant and non-dominant hand respectively, that I can only do with one hand. (Catch and throw a ball.) Then there are things that I learned to do right handed that people assume I should do left handed because I'm a lefty. Like left handed scissors. I had never seen a pair until I was 12 or 13 but my family studies teacher insisted I used them. I could not figure out how they worked.

My biggest pet peeve is that at my university there are very few left handed desks, a problem I experience most of my life. The issue is that most people are using laptops so it doesn't matter what kind of desk they use, so they will just sit in the left handed desk because they are typing. I, however, take notes by hand so I NEED a left handed desk. It is staggering the amount of people who don't get that. People who just go "Oh it doesn't matter if this is a left handed desk, because I'm just typing." I know YOU don't need a specific desk, but I do.

[telecom_goddess]

My mother was left handed, and was one of the people who were forced to become right handed. She had her left hand beaten with rulers in school. AS a result she wrote right handed, and it was normal, but she could still write left handed and do mirror writing. You had to hold it up to a mirror to read it.

My oldest daughter is left handed. When my kids were learning to use utensils to eat I put them in the middle, and they went with the hand that felt natural to them. She's a lefty and her two sisters are right handed. And they get to be that way in peace.

[Lace Neil Singer]

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.

Also women who suffered from post-natal depression or PMS, and even disobedient teenagers. Sometimes a patient would be admitted merely on their spouse or parent's sayso... and getting out would be near impossible.

Severalls Hospital

Asylums were partly intended to free up workhouse space, but records show that people - particularly women - could be consigned to them on grounds ranging from medical conditions such as epilepsy or depression, to crimes including infanticide and prostitution, and even because they had been victims of rape.

There are literally hundreds of old asylums dotted round Britain... the stories are worth a read.

Lobotomy wasn't the worst of the "treatments" visited upon inmates, either. Other treatments included electro convulsive therapy, hot and cold water baths, beatings, restraints and lots of other so called "therapies" which nowadays would be condemned as inhumane.

Stories from the asylum

A number of submissions reported people being placed in mental homes for what was apparently a form of punishment for misbehaviour such as running away, refusing to work or perform chores or arguing with Sisters or staff. The use of drugs to pacify children for what may now be considered high spirited or adolescent behaviour was also common and is referred to in the previous section. The use of such institutions for adolescent children is unjustifiable and the impact that it had upon them incalculable.

[Pixilated]

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 seem to have vague memories of one of my siblings being a leftie and being persuaded to use their right hand instead. They weren't punished; the pencil/utensil/whatever was simply repeatedly taken out of their left hand and placed in their right. Because the memories are very vague, I'm thinking it must've been my brother -- I was 8 when he was born and 12 when my sister was born, so I think I'd remember it more clearly if it had been her ... Also I was out of the house when she was growing up so I didn't actually have much interaction with her.

I believe there is some religious connection with not using the left hand ... maybe due to Judas having sat on the left of Jesus?

[HYHYBT]

I believe there are places where, for sanitary reasons, it's a strong custom to do clean things with the right hand and dirty with the left. And in that case, it makes sense for those who are naturally left-handed nonetheless to learn to do things the "right" way. But where sinks and soap are common, not so much.

[cindybubbles]

I peel eggs with my left hand, cut food with a knife in my right hand and fork in my left. I sometimes eat with my left hand while rightie's using the mouse to surf the web.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Coming off topic... lobotomies for all of you! XD

Seriously... it's actually quite scary that not so long ago, jabbing a patient in the eye socket with an icepick using a rubber mallet was considered a top class genuine medical procedure. O_o


Video on Walter Freeman below.

NOTE: Only watch if you do not get queasy at seeing what I just described above!

NOTE #2: I warn you, this video is NOT for the squeamish!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0aNILW6ILk

[Ginger Tea]

I normally have a strong stomach for gore and actual hospital footage etc, but I have a gag reflex on eyes, can't pull my eye lid down without wanting to hurl.

That was the only scene in the saw franchise I was uncomfortable with.