My Lobotomy Essay

There wasn’t many answers to the medical society and anything that seemed to be working, was probably the greatest invention ever back then. I believe once they noticed that people started to change to behaviors, they thought they might have found a cure. With that hope, thats why they probably continued with the procedure. There were a lot of people with medical conditions that were being force to living in terriable conditions, so with this precedure, they probably thought this can help with that problem and hopefully get them to normal behavior so they may go back home. Do you think that Howard Dully may have had a childhood onset disorder such as ADHD, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, or Conduct Disorder, or some combination of these disorders? Support your conclusions about this with examples from the memoir. Also discuss why the narrative and its various angles make it difficult to determine, retrospectively, whether or not he had any type of diagnosis. Howard Dully might of had Oppositional Defiant Disorder as a child and the stepmother might of not understand what was happening to his stepson. O. D. D is a pattern of disobedient, hostile, and defiant behavior toward authority figures. According to his step mother, the behavior seems to be a personal issue towards the step mom. When one’s mother dies at a young age, a new stepmother may cause the child to dislike them thus cause inapproiate behavior towards the new mother. Howard seemed like many 12 years boys out there but the stepmother just instantly disliked the child. Howard was just put in a bad situation and this was the â€Å"cure† for any disorder at the time and of course the mother was all for it because it would alter his personality. I believe that if Howard was just raised from a different mother, he was of been a normal teenager. Why do you think Freeman fabricated the diagnosis of schizophrenia for Dully? Do you think this was merely justification to perform the lobotomy or do you think this actually reflects misconceptions about schizophrenia during the time Dully was growing up? I believe Freeman probably did it for both reasons. Freeman, during the time, was probably wanting the fame of the lobotomy, by performing the lobotomy on a twelve year old, and trying to show the world that lobotomy precedures can even be performed on young ages. Dully’s mom didn’t help either. Explaining symptoms that could be perceived as schizophrenia, even though they really didn’t seem like they were behaviors of schizophrenia, could be enough reason for a man that wants to prove his precedure works. What are the effects on Dully of accessing records from before his lobotomy, including notes on dialogue between Dr. Freeman and his stepmother? Also, do you think he gains any peace of mind by questioning his father about his role in the â€Å"treatment† despite the fact that his father shows no remorse and accepts no blame whatsoever for the lobotomy or the effects it has on his son’s life? Dully is offended on how terrible his step mother is. He noticed that he was told to get a lobotomy on his birthday and his mother didn’t hestistate. He couldn’t believe that she was lieing to Dr. Freeman and actually continue trying to get Dr. Freeman to understand that he should get a lobotomy due to some behaviors. When he read about his brother getting attacked from him, he basically was in shock because in his heart, he knows he would never hurt his brother. I think he does gave some peace questioning his father because, even though it took both spouses approval to do the opearation, he know that his step mother was deciever and a liar. If his father can say such things about her, I believe he has a better understanding of what type of person she is and that his life could have been different if it wasn’t for her. I believe in the text, he states that even though his father is not taking blame, it was still the happinest he has been. Explain why good families and parents (i. e. think about Lizzie Simon and her statement about her family versus the harsh world), unlike the cold, unloving parents of Howard Dully, would have allowed Freeman to perform lobotomies on truly mentally ill family members? Base your answer on the PBS excerpt from American Experience: The Lobotomist. Also, describe a real life situation where extreme measures of treatment might be (or actually have been) sought by the family or caretakers of a person with a severe disorder. I believe most families were just looking for answers to their problems. There were families that watched their mother, sister, brother, father, grandmas, or even grandfathers go through changes for the worst and they were just looking for a way out. With all the hype of a possible cure, who wouldn’t blame those family members that were really trying to help their families out. When they made the trans-orbital precedure, it also seemed like a cheaper, quicker fix so many people probably jump on the wagon because of being that way. There are plenty of situations in which family might need to step in and do what is necessary for their family members to be healthy. One example is when a child is going through Anorexia and has the mind set that she will not eat anything because she believes she is overweight. If this child rejects and refuses to listen to their parents, school therapist, and even friends, the parents need to step in. They might need to force their child into a clinic to help them with their problems. They would get professional help and thus, hopefully getting rid of that thought of looking extremely thin is ok.