Mental Hospital Procedures

I have this thing for mental hospitals and I was just wondering... What do you think about the earlier methods of handling the mentally ill?
I am probably like many others, I absolutely think the lobotomy procedure was barbaric. For those of you who don't know what a lobotomy is, it was a phychiatric surgical procedure (psychosurgery) used around the 30's through the 50's to "help" the mentally ill.


Founded in 1888 by Gottlieb Burckhardt, the procedure after it was a few times preformed, already started to get negative reviews.


It was then used again by Portugese neurologist Egas Moniz. He performed the psychosurgery by drilling holes in the skull to get to the brain. He then would destroy tissue of the brain by injecting alcohol.

(Walter Freeman)

In the 1930's, Walter Freeman introduced a new way to perform surgery on the mentally-ill. He used "ice-picks". He would take these ice-picks and insert them into the eye-socket, where he would then move them up-and-down and cut into the brain tissue. This usually left the patient in a "quiet" state, and by that, the patient was happily deemed cured.

Well no, he wasn't cured. He was basically a vegitable.


Another procedure that was used in mental hospitals (and is still used today under extensive circumstances) is electroconvulsive therapy. The way this was used in mental hospitals ranged from pure helpfulness to extreme punishment.


Then of course there was the "rubber-room" where patients were put to keep from hurting themselves and others. They would usually be put in strait-jackets in the process.



There are many things about mental hospitals I don't agree with, but there are also some things I liked about them. What do you think?



Neurology Word of the Day: neuron - A cell of the nervous system.


Psychology Word of the Day: psychosurgery - Surgery of the brain to treat mental illness.

*Definitions are reworded by me, but are originally from Wikipedia or Wiktionary.