The open brain: lobotomy and trephination of the skull in the 20th century

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

In 1887, the work of the venerable anthropologist Dmitry Nikolaevich Anuchin "On ancient artificially deformed turtles found within Russia" was published. So we caught up and surpassed Peru, which until then was considered the main world oasis of such plastic surgery.

It was there that the mass graves of ancient and not so citizens were discovered, whose heads were flattened from infancy by caring parents: newborns were tied to the skull with tight plates, giving their heads the shape of a long egg. Egg-headed Mesoamericans, of course, belonged to the local elite, who considered it their duty to stand out from the rest of the population in every possible way. But our Sarmatians turned out to be no worse than the Mesoamericans: in this group of tribes, the skulls of children were pulled out and flattened, even holes were drilled into them (apparently, so that fresh ideas could penetrate into the brain faster), and the holes were inlaid with stones and glands

Oh yes, you can sneer at the wild ideas of the people of the Iron Age, but you should not think that the era of cars and computers has changed us too dramatically. Let the ancient Egyptians, Chinese and other Greeks have manipulations with sawing skulls already exclusively medical procedures, but in the XX century, part of humanity again came to the same wonderful idea that the Sarmatians and Peruvians once understood: for a person to become better, smarter and happier, you need to punch his head off.

Magic bus

It probably started with a lobotomy. In 1936, in Portugal, for the first time, an operation was performed, which consisted in the fact that the patient's skull was pierced in the orbit area and everything that they could reach with a scalpel was cut through the hole. Approximately five percent of those operated on died immediately, the rest remained to live with a deformed brain and forever broken connections between its lobes. Some of them demonstrated the intelligence of guinea pigs, others could even say something, understand and use the pot, a few retained more or less intelligence, but they were all listless, apathetic and indifferent. Since such operations were mainly performed on schizophrenics, hysterics, neurotics and other overly energetic individuals *, the doctors were satisfied with the results: lobotomy was declared a panacea for all mental illnesses and nervous disorders.

“It was this procedure - a lobotomy - that McMurphy, the hero of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, underwent in the end. He turned from a rebel into a vegetable, and the Leader could not bear this sight, strangled him, tore out the washstand, knocked out the window and ran away … Well then we sat down!"

For more than twenty years it was practiced all over the world, it was advertised as the best way to bring an exhausted person into a state of harmony with oneself and the world, it was carried out by charlatans of all stripes, and even “lobotomic salesmen” traveled across the United States - people often with semi-medical education and without a license, who were ready to operate inexpensively any psycho, drug addict or harlot, if they were dragged into the operating room by caring relatives. The most famous of these traveling salesmen was the psychiatrist Walter Freeman, a singer and lobotomy enthusiast. He traveled the country in a furniture van, which he gave the remarkable name "lobotomobil", and offered everyone to do a lobotomy for a reasonable fee. In the early 50s in the United States, up to five thousand lobotomies were performed per year. The operation was sometimes done voluntarily even by perfectly healthy people who had read a lot of laudatory brochures and believed that life with a shredded brain was the ultimate dream of any thinking creature. all good things come to an end. The protests of both ordinary citizens and medical professionals began; there were several high-profile books dedicated to the horror stories of lobotomy victims. One such book was written by Howard Dalli, who was lobotomized at the age of 12. His young age helped him better than other patients to adapt to life with a damaged brain and keep his mind and will.

Already in the 60s, lobotomy was banned in most countries of the world as a cruel and senseless operation, leading not to the cure of a person, but to the death of that very person.

But a stone thrown into the water (or, say, a scalpel thrown into the brain) does not immediately disappear from the surface of the noosphere, but drives the wave in circles for a long time. The idea that our heads are somehow incorrect on the whole and that they can be significantly improved with a hammer and, say, gum or scotch tape, was imbued with the generation of the 60s - 70s of the last century. A generation that has long been trying to expand its consciousness as much as possible by various chemical methods. The time has come and physical ways.

Walked and whistled with a hole

Lobotomy victim Howard Dully as a child and adult

In the mid-60s, a movement of trepanners emerged - this is how people called themselves who decided to acquire a “third eye”, a mystical expander of consciousness, in the simplest way: not by meditation and prayers, but simply by drilling it into their foreheads. The pioneer of self-treatment was the Dutch librarian and dropout physician Hugo Bart Hughes, who was expelled from the university for his propaganda of marijuana. Hughes read and thought about how to change the world for the better. The result of this reflection was the brilliant idea that the only thing that limits the intellectual and mental capabilities of a person is his own skull. In his scientific work "Mechanisms of cerebral circulation" Hughes argued that the transition of mankind to upright posture had a bad effect on the blood supply to the brain. People are born with soft and non-accrete head bones, but during life the fontanelles overgrow, the skull in most (with the exception of genius natures) hardens, increasing intracranial pressure, which has a detrimental effect on the personality.

At first, Hughes tried to rectify the situation in soft ways: he stood on his head, increasing the blood flow to her, and jumped from a hot bath to a cold one. But I quickly realized that the only way out was trepanation. On January 6, 1965, using a conventional drill and pain reliever, Hughes drilled into his skull. The entire operation took no more than 45 minutes, although then another four hours had to be scrubbed off the blood. The reward was a feeling of freedom and elation, and at the same time the complete disappearance of the symptoms of the depression that tormented him.

Inspired by his success, Hughes decided to share his joy with the world and publicly announced his act in one of the community centers in Amsterdam, removing the bandages from his head (he painted them in psychedelic colors, and also wrote great words on them: “Ha ha ha ha ha -ha …”) and then went to the local hospital to get X-ray evidence of the operation. Doctors, naturally, did not appreciate Hughes' feat and sent him to compulsory treatment. But three weeks later they had to release the patient: all tests showed that, oddly enough, the librarian with a leaky head … ahem … mentally healthy.

Hughes' next step after his release was to find students. Such a student was Joey Mellen, whom Hughes met in Ibiza. Joey had by then left Oxford, tried to work at the stock exchange, and then embarked on a trip to Europe. He wrote poetry, read Huxley's Doors of Perception, sold cigarettes and whiskey. "Adult life seemed flat and boring to me," recalled Mellen, who dreamed of "opening the doors of the mind." Hughes offered him a simple solution.

The eccentric couple tried to promote their ideas, based on ancient history, popular medicine and new age, in the bohemian circles of London in the 60s. Rock ballad performer Judy Felix even recorded several songs then, among which was the trepanation hymn: "Cleanse the bad vibrations and make eight holes in your head right now." During these wanderings, the friends were joined by the young artist Amanda Fielding, also a student at Oxford and a representative of a noble aristocracy dating back to the imperial dynasty of the Habsburgs. The three of them became the founders of the trepanner movement.

Doctor, you are not a romantic! Dmitry Chagava, head of the neurosurgery department of the Central Clinical Hospital of Civil Aviation, advises against rushing to take up the drill:

“Drilling a hole in the skull is called trephination. It will not help in any way communication with "higher powers" - at least not one of my hundreds of patients reported this. But what non-professional trephination definitely contributes to is infection of the dura mater, the risk of damage during drilling and damage to the vessels of the membrane and cerebral cortex. The latter may well lead to the development of the ability to "communicate with space" - depending on the degree of damage. I would like to remind you that the spinal cord and brain are not in vain the most protected organs of humans and most animals, which indicates their extreme importance (I hope for the majority) and vulnerability.

If the trephination hole is not too large, 1-2 cm in diameter, then over time it is overgrown with callus. In our practice, we always cover the postoperative openings with layer-by-layer sutured soft tissues to prevent brain infection.

To summarize, I will say: there is no benefit from trephination as such for healthy or sick people. In neurosurgery, it is only used to access the brain. People who decide on such a procedure will not hear any additional voices, unless, of course, they heard them before drilling."

How was it done?

Images from the cult film "Heartbeat in the Brain"

This question from the most practical of our readers (who have already acquired a drill, but have not yet received proper instruction) is worth answering with a story from the source. Moreover, better instruction than the memoirs of Joey Mellen with the inspiring title "Drilling Holes" can still be found.

Joey began his journey to enlightenment by solving a dilemma - electric or manual? Deciding that manual work is still better, he purchased an auger - a screw with teeth and a sharp spike. The choice was not very good: everything went wrong right away. While trying to inject pain medication into the crown of his head, Mellen broke the needle of the syringe. Then he made an incision in the bone and tried to insert the spike of his weapon into the skull, but he did not have enough strength for this. Then the hapless trepaner turned to his teacher Hughes. He responded and immediately went from Amsterdam to London, but … was not allowed into England, where by that time had already become persona non grata. By the way, leaving inhospitable England, Hughes gave an angry interview, which was later reprinted by most British newspapers under the characteristic headline "This dangerous idiot must be thrown out of the country as soon as possible."

Amanda Fielding, who by that time had become his wife, came to Mellen's rescue. Selflessly opening a fresh incision on her husband's head, she literally pressed a thorn into the skull bone. Taking painkillers, Mellen began the process of cutting the hole, but at the most important moment fainted, and Amanda had to call an ambulance.

Returning from the hospital, Mellen immediately took up the old, or rather, the saw. This time, he sawed through his previously outlined cut, which separated his brain from the coming enlightenment (or, according to doctors, from instant death). Soon Joey, in his own words, heard some ominous gurgle. A few more painful seconds - and the trepaner saw a piece of the skull in his hands. Uneven, though: the screw went deeper on one side than on the other. Nevertheless, half the work was done.

Soon Mellen made a fourth attempt at trepanning, deciding to drill another hole in his forehead, and again he was unlucky. The electric drill he had chosen now had a burned out cable. Having repeatedly cursed and repaired the instrument, Joey again rushed to storm the depths of his own head. This time it was successful: the drill went into the head by almost an inch, and after the blood came out, Mellen was able to observe the pulsation of his brain in the hole.

The result obtained met all expectations. Over the next four hours, the already accomplished trepanner felt his mood improve, reaching the state of freedom and tranquility that is supposedly inherent in him to this day.

Returning Amanda Fielding was so delighted with the act of her husband that she decided to immediately join him "on a mental level." However, this time, Joey and Amanda decided to go even further, recording the entire process of sawing Amanda's head on camera - for posterity and followers. The result was the cult film Heartbeat in the Brain (1970), which was also assessed by renowned filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci. The camera captures how the artist in front of the mirror neatly lays out a set of drills on the sheet, shaves her head and drills a hole in it, and then wipes off the blood with a frightening and dazzlingly beautiful smile.

During the later public lectures of trepanners, this film was shown to ordinary viewers - they ran away from the hall and even fell from their chairs in a fit of faintness. But the trepanners themselves consider the picture very beautiful: eerie scenes are played under soothing music, from time to time viewers are even shown a true symbol of wisdom - a tame dove named Bertie. Not to mention the importance of the invaluable practice that trepanners encourage people all over the world to join.

What's the point?

Trepanners' website trepan.com says that trepanation is a philosophy of freedom, a leap for the suffocating edges of the prevailing reality, including the edges of one's own skull. Contemporary trepanners include artists and musicians, shopkeepers and brokers, and people from a wide variety of professions and lifestyles. “Some people just look at it as a hole in their heads,” says modern trepaner Tom Vargo in an interview. "I see it as removing a small piece of the skull to correct a big mistake of nature."

The dream of the general availability of this method of enlightenment still beckons the imagination, and Amanda Fielding twice ran for parliament in the 70s with the idea of allowing such an operation in Great Britain. And with a good rating. And one of the opposition journalists even saw in the artist's success an exceptional example of protest voting: votes were allegedly cast for her in spite of Thatcher's election campaign (in order to show that England needs the Conservative cabinet less than a hole in the head).

One way or another, self-repair was able to win the interest of the public. She is mentioned in the cult film of the 80s "Ghostbusters", and one of the most famous trepaners was Fielding's new husband Lord James Neidpat, a professor at Oxford and one of the teachers of future President Bill Clinton (Neidpat did trepanning under the influence of his wife, but did not have time to influence his pupil). In modern Egypt, just like in Ancient Egypt, anyone, even a tourist, today can do such an operation for themselves for two thousand dollars. And the famous medical publication People's Medical Journal even prophesied a second wind for this practice.

Of course, traditional medicine could not fail to meet such a cult of drills with hostility, emphasizing that a hole in the head cannot lead to anything but the brain, and if it can, then to the injury of this very brain. All the improvements in physical well-being that trepanners experienced were nothing more than self-hypnosis. “This is just nonsense! - said one of the most famous American neurosurgeons Abraham Ommaya. "The huge risks of such an operation will more than outweigh any, especially unproven, advantages."