Medical Procedures in the 1930s to 1950s

Lobotomy:

A brain operation that involves cutting nerve pathways in the two frontal lobes of the brain to relieve symptoms in patients suffering from major psychoses. The cutting was done through holes bored in the skull, but later an instrument was passed through the paper-thin bone separating the eye from the frontal lobes. In 1935, the first lobotomy procedure was performed by Dr. Moniz. By boring holes in the brain and injecting alcohol into the white matter (leukos), he destroyed the nerves that connected the frontal lobes to the main body of the human brain. In 1936, Walter Freeman and James Watts performed their first psychosurgery on a woman exhibiting a fearful, agitated personality. With this patient, as it was with future patients, her schizophrenic symptoms seemed to be somewhat appeased; however, she developed apathy, indifference, and dispassion. Walter Freeman, obsessed with this new powerful surgical procedure, developed the "ice-pick lobotomy." He wanted a cheaper and faster way to achieve the results of lobotomy but without boring all those holes in the brain. He finally thought up of using an ice-pick, which was strong enough to penetrate the orbital plate of the skull behind the eyes. He would tranquilize the patient with some quick electric shocks, lift up the eyelid, and pierce the pick above the eye, through the plate and into the brain.

Between 1936 and 1956, thousands of patients who failed to respond to electroshock treatment were lobotomized. Lobotomy produced at least temporary relief of symptoms. The behavior of many patients became worse rather than better after surgery. A number of those whose tensions were relieved became so apathetic as to be characterized as "vegetables."

Electroshock Therapy:

Also known as ECT, the therapy is administered by placing electrodes on the patient's temples and applying current for periods up to half a second. The current induces convulsions, during which the patient is unconscious. The patient regains consciousness after a few minutes but almost always suffers from memory loss.

ECT was developed in Italy in 1938 as a treatment for schizophrenia. It was discovered somewhat by accident after a psychiatrist used a pair of tongs originally applied to pigs before slaughter and placed them on the temples of a 39-year-old man from Milan. This shocked him out of a delirious state.

By the 1940s insulin coma and electric shock treatments were used in many American mental hospitals, especially among the overcrowded public institutions that housed as many as 8,000 patients and as few as 10 doctors.

In the US it was found helpful with depressed patients who were suicidal risks. By 1954, for example, New York state hospitals were maintaining 4,500 patients a year on ECT. Currently, it is used to relieve the symptoms of depression.

ECT has short-term benefits for some patients and may reduce the time they spend in hospitals. Large numbers of patients do not improve with ECT. Relapse is frequent after results that temporarily appear highly successful.

Some theories on ECT postulate a temporary paralysis of brain circuits. Another theory is that the shock produces a period of organic confusion. Other theories attempt to explain ECT, but none has won general acceptance among psychiatrists.

So what does this have to do with Invisible Man?