Essay On Performing Lobotomies

The first group of institutions were smaller and focused more on offering individualized care, while having good intentions. Since the first documented insane asylum, there have been specific treatments and medicines used for the mentally ill. The standard medicine given to mentally ill patients included performing lobotomies, electroconvulsive therapy, bloodletting, etc. Many of these cruel treatments were no longer being performed at institutions since they were dangerous and had mixed results. For example, lobotomies, or prefrontal leucotomy, were used as a therapeutic measure to assist disturbed patients with schizophrenia, manic depression, bipolar disorders, and other mental and physical conditions. The idea of performing lobotomies was taken from a similar experiment performed on two monkeys named Becky and Lucy. Dr. John Fulton and Dr. …show more content…
After discontinuing the performance of standardized surgeries, institutions adopted the use of drugs and other treatments. Asylums changed from only treating patients to then housing them. Research shows that certain interactions between a person with a mental illness and their family can either improve or worsen their mental illness. As the general population grew, so did the number of the mentally ill. This growth in population resulted in crowded institutions, which prompted the need for bigger facilities. The population in institutions created problems for the faculty and patients, such as terrible living conditions and patients were regularly abused and neglected. The mentally ill patients in these institutions were treated like animals most of the time. Patients were allowed little movement within these cells and nobody knows if the patients were sufficiently fed. In most institutions, rooms were never cleaned and patients were forced to sit amongst their own trash and waste. These conditions were common in asylums around the