I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

-T & C

 "Society can accommodate itself to the most humble
 labourer, but justifiably distrusts the thinker . . .
 Lobotomized patients make good citizens."

  - Walter Freeman, American psychiatrist, originator of the
      lobotomy

 'Washington surgeons James Watts and Walter Freeman adopted
 the [European brain] operation, renaming it the "lobotomy."
 At first, they warned against its indiscriminate use but,
 by 1942, were claiming that "personality can be cut to
 measure."

 They improved their techiques so the lobotomy could be
 performed through the eye sockets with a modified ice-pick,
 under local anesthetic. While they worked, they asked
 patients to sing a song or perform arithmetic. If they
 could hear no signs of disorientation, they kept cutting
 until they could.

 Many psychiatrists and asylum directors were outraged by
 the lobotomy. However, the operation could be performed for
 $250 (U.S.), while it cost $35,000 a year to maintain a
 patient in hospital. Between 1945 and 1955, at least 40,000
 Americans were lobotomized.

 Dr. Freeman promoted his operation in the press and even
 demonstrated it on television.

 Dr. Watts broke with Dr. Freeman and the public became
 uneasy about an operation that was irreversibly damaging
 and sometimes fatal. A lobotomy was seen as a way to
 manage, not cure, a patient. However, in the 1960s, the
 proselytizing Dr. Freeman was still roving the United
 States in a "lobotomobile." '

 [lobotomy is still practiced in many psychiatric
 "hospitals" around the world]

  - Toronto Globe and Mail, September 18, 1996

 End of forwarded message

 Jai Maharaj
 http://tinyurl.com/24fq83
 http://www.mantra.com/jai
 http://www.mantra.com/jyotish
 Om Shanti

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