Labotomy Mug

Surgery performed between 1900 and 1950 to cure mental illness of all types. The "Ice Pick Method", perfected by a Dr. Freeman, involved hammering an ice-pick type tool into the tear ducts of the eye, going through bone, and inserting the tool several inches into the frontal lobe of the brain. This was repeated several times in each eyelid. The results of the surgery ranged from death to better than before the surgery - there were no real successes. The frontal lobe controls emotions and ambitions, and many patients who received labotomies would be quiet and have very flat personalities. The labotomy has been discredited, less than 20 surgeries each year are performed on the brain to battle mental illness, and most of those surgeries are on patients with Parkinsons disease, to control their convulsions.