Lobotomy in popular culture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lobotomy is a form of psychosurgery that involves cutting the connections to and from, or simply destroying, the prefrontal cortex. It was performed by some 20th century psychiatrists. The presentation of this controversial practice in popular culture may indicate the degree of acceptance that it received from the public.

Contents 1 Literature 2 Film and television 3 Music 4 Other

[edit] Literature

• In the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Randle McMurphy receives a lobotomy after he explodes into a violent rage towards the head nurse. The book was based on Ken Kesey's experience in a mental hospital in Northern California, the Palo Alto VA Hospital. A film version was also made in 1975.
• In the novel The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester, in a future dystopia lobotomy is used as the mandatory punishment for recidivist criminals.
• In the novel FutureTrack 5, a future world with three distinct castes, Lobotomy is the treatment for most crimes. Lobotomised criminals would then serve as menial labourers on, or be hired out by, a "Lobo-Farm".
• In the 1958 Tennessee Williams play (and 1959 movie) Suddenly, Last Summer, which is set in 1937, Catherine (played in the movie by Elizabeth Taylor) is supposed to undergo a lobotomy to silence her, because she witnessed the violent murder of her cousin Sebastian and knows about his homosexuality.
• In The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Esther Greenwood meets a girl in one of the mental hospitals who has a lobotomy scar on her forehead.
• In Katherine Dunn's novel Geek Love, a girl in a set of conjoined twins gets a lobotomy.
• In the poem Howl, which is in part an exploration of mental illness in the Post-War era, poet Allen Ginsberg makes reference to people presenting "themselves on the/granite steps of the madhouse with shaven heads/and harlequin speech of suicide, demanding in-/stantaneous lobotomy".
• In the book Hannibal, Dr. Hannibal Lecter gives Paul Krendler a lobotomy and eats the lobes with a drugged Clarice Starling.
• In the book All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren, the narrator Jack Burden attends a lobotomy performed by Adam Stanton, a childhood friend.
• In her autobiography "An Angel at my table" Janet Frame describes the practice of lobotomy in the mental institution she resided in, and barely escapes undergoing a lobotomy herself.

[edit] Film and television

• In A Fine Madness (1966), a double frontal lobotomy is performed on the eccentric New York poet Samson Shillitoe (Sean Connery).
• In the movie Planet of the Apes, the astronaut Landon is given a lobotomy.
• In Hannibal (2001), Hannibal Lecter gives Paul Krendler (Ray Liotta) a live lobotomy, cooks the salvaged parts of the brain, and feeds them to the victim (the actual movie scene only shows him removing and frying the dura mater).
• In an episode of Justice League, (A Better World) an alternative version of Superman uses his heat vision to lobotomize Doomsday, the Joker, and other villains in Arkham Asylum.
• In the crime drama CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, a German doctor who is later found to be a Nazi who illegally experiments with human subjects performs a lobotomy on one of his victims. (Episode 132: "Pirates of the Third Reich")
• In the episode of the animated television comedy The Simpsons, Treehouse of Horror V, the main character, Homer Simpson, with the help of a time-traveling toaster, accidentally creates a reality where his neighbor, Ned Flanders, has become an evil dictator who controls dissenters by lobotomizing them.
• In the movie From Hell, Annie Crook, a prostitute played by Joanna Page, received a lobotomy so that she would keep quiet about her marriage to Albert Sickert/Prince Edward Albert Victor and their child. Sir William Gull also receives a lobotomy.
• In the movie X2, William Stryker's son Jason has had a lobotomy.
• In the movie One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Randle McMurphy receives a lobotomy after he explodes into a violent rage towards the head nurse.
• In the movie Population 436, people wanting to leave "the most perfect place on Earth" are lobotomized.
• In the 1982 movie Frances, the actress Frances Farmer is shown getting a lobotomy--a treatment never used on her in real life.
• The X-Files episode "Unruhe" features a mentally disturbed villain who kidnaps women in order to perform transorbital lobotomies on them.
• In the film Regarding Henry, a gunshot victim undergoes dramatic personality changes after being shot in the head.
• Session 9 (2001) takes place in Danvers State Hospital, a mental asylum historically known for performing lobotomies. Several characters are lobotomized with a medical implement.
• In the Movie Parts: The Clonus Horror (1979), The Character "Lena" (Paulette Breen) was lobotomized after an escape attempt.
• In the movie Total Recall, the memory altering clinic had one patient who was forced to have a lobotomy.
• In the episode entitled "Superstar Treatment" of My Boys (2006), PJ asks sarcastically, "did I miss when you guys all got lobotomies?"
• In Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw stated that "I got to thinking about relationships and partial lobotomies: two seemingly different ideas that might just be perfect together—like chocolate and peanut butter."
• In the video game "Timesplitters: Future Perfect," one phrase announced by an unseen voice when someone is killed by headshot is "Lobotomy!"
• In the movie Dead Man on Campus, Cooper Frederickson claims that Buckley Schrank tried to perform a self-lobotomy.
• In the video game Gears of War one phrase announced by the character "Baird" says "lobotomized" when he achieves a headshot.
• In Fresh Prince of Bel-Air in the episode "Nice Lady", Carlton mentions that he would rather have a lobotomy then continue to listen to their gabby guest.
• In the film A Love To Hide, (2004), the main character, Jean, undergoes a lobotomy to cure his homosexuality.
• In The Prisoner in the episode A Change of Mind, the Village classifies Number 6 as "unmutal" and threaten to give him a lobotomy using a sonic-like device to burn out the frontal lobe connections.

[edit] Music

• The punk band Zebrahead have a song on their ‘Broadcast to the World’ album titled ‘Lobotomy For Dummies’.
• The circus-metal band Dog Fashion Disco makes refferences to lobotomy in the songs "Leper Friend" and "The Acid Memoirs"
• The grunge band Wish (later renamed Vent) wrote a song called Lobotomy in late 1995. The song chronicled the archetypal tragedy of an unrequited love interest.
• The punk band The Ramones has a song called "Teenage Lobotomy", that is also used in the film Rock 'n Roll Highschool, which is starring the band.
• Irish rock band Ash refers to "my teenage lobotomy" in the song Kung Fu, possibly a reference to the Ramones song.
• Singer-songwriter Tori Amos uses this lyric in her song Beulah Land: "Give me religion and a lobotomy."
• New Wave of British Heavy Metal band Iron Maiden's mascot, Eddie, is characterized as the recipient of a lobotomy for the cover art of the band's 1983 album, Piece of Mind. He is now shown to have been lobotmized on all covers to date.
• Progressive rock band Pink Floyd talks about lobotomy in the second half of Brain Damage.
• In the song High Voltage by Linkin Park there is this reference: "performed lobotomies with telekinetic psychology".
• Death Metal-band Macabre had a song called "Drill Bit Lobotomy" on their concept album based on the story of Jeffrey Dahmer.
• Grunge band Nirvana mentions lobotomies in the song Downer.
• Irish punk band the Lobotomies have the tagline 'Braindead Punx'.
• Christian metal band Zao have a song called 'Pudgy Young Blondes With Lobotomy Eyes'
• The rock band Filter uses a picture of Howard Dully, the youngest person to have been given a lobotomy, for the back of their Short Bus album cover.
• In the song "I Can't Watch This" by "Weird Al" Yankovic, the word lobotomy is referenced: "HBO and Playboy, Showtime and MTV - I might like 'em more after my lobotomy".
• David Bowie refers to lobotomy in his song "All The Madmen".
• In the Slipknot song "Me Inside" lobotomies are referenced.
• Russian punk band Grazhdanskaya Oborona has got a song named Лоботомия — Lobotomy.
• The song 'America Too' by Hymie's Basement, contains the lyric "If you're lonely, get a lobotomy."
• "Sleeping Aides and Razorblades" by pop-punk band The Exploding Hearts contains the lyric, "And ya say you know what's best for me, well if you got your way, I'd have a lobotomy."
• In the virtual band "Gorillaz" the singer, 2D, has been seen wearing a t-shirt with the phrase "lobotmy pop" on it. This phrase also appears in the groups music video for the song "Rock It".

[edit] Other

• In the video game Reboot, during one of the "Game Over" sequences Megabyte is shown to have removed Enzo's "frontal chip" causing him to become submissive and emotionless, indicating a lobotomy.
• During the Halloween season, Calvin states, "Okay, Jack! Time for your lobotomy!" while carving a Jack-O'Lantern. In another strip he told Susie Derkins that "[her] bangs really hide [her] lobotomy scars."