The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 11 - The Lobotomy Doctor

Episode Date: July 6, 2014

Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds explore the man who brought lobotomies to America.Tour DatesSources Dollop MerchPatreon

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illegal. And then the other one we were we were in do as a gong gong. That's law and order. Yeah okay that oh boom boom yeah you can't do either that is that is on NBC. What if you combine them? Yeah so it's all over the thing now. It's legal. Yeah so that's our new theme song. I love it. Get it out of my head honestly. I remember I'd asked people to come up with a theme song for the doll a long time ago and I feel like people were fucking with me. Why do people say they would? Some people sent some okay stuff but yeah some people sent stuff that was I was just like what are you doing? Are you mocking me? I was just like are we in a

fight? Are we having a fight? This episode of the dollop is brought to you by noise. There's a contractor here in the house and he is under the house and he is a bang a bang a bang. He's shirtless today. He hasn't been shirtless yet. I'm a big fan. Today he's shirtless. He's very tan. I don't know if he's ticklish. I haven't gotten down there but there'll be some tickling later. I had a sound bite for this. Bum bum bum you know. No no no I had an actual thing on my phone that I should probably go grab. Okay. So Gareth. Yes that's my name yes. Gareth. Yes it is Gareth. Yes TH at the end not Gary Gareth. Okay so I'm here with Gary

Riney. Damn it. Damn it. You had it. I'm Dave Anthony I'm here with Gareth Riney. This is the dollop. It's a it's a little it's a little dollop is like a little little thing. It's a little tiny bit of history. It's a little tiny taste and every time someone says here I sent you here I drew you a logo it looks like a pile of shit. Dave your appreciation for the fan. If you draw I wouldn't know but you can make a dollop look like a little dollop of whipped cream or you can make it look like a giant dump and everybody makes it look like a giant dump. They're thinking of the dump look. And I don't really want a dump as my logo but I

appreciate the efforts. Yeah clearly. Thank you. Yeah that's right. A lobotomy. Sure. Is a psychosurgical procedure in which the connections of the prefrontal cortex and underlying structures structures are severed or the frontal cortex tissue is destroyed. It's not showing up on the sound so we'll see if that actually shows up but right now it sounds like he's under the house with like one of those you know when you go to the fair and you hit the way it goes up to the top. It's just missing the ding. It sounds like he's smashing the house with one of those. He's training fair in two weeks. I'm gonna win that fucking bear.

I'm gonna send this house up to the roof. What? Nothing. Or the frontal cortical tissue is destroyed the theory being that this leads to the uncoupling of the brain's emotional centers and the seat of intellect. So it makes it makes someone like joyfully stupid. Yeah. That's the idea. Yeah. It makes you. You remove. You're like the good and the bad baby and the bathwater stuff bothered me and now I'm like curtains. Hey why did I end up in this psych ward anyway. You gotta be shitting me. You guys come on fucking Fridays. You got a real. We're gonna have to wait this out. Are you cool with that. Yeah. All right. Yeah. So gardeners came

where they usually come on Friday Friday but apparently they believe in the 4th of July which is nice. They've taken on the partying aspect of their new country. Yeah. Fair idea. Yeah. I do it too. If I was down in Mexico I would be like this means everything. The lobotomy was first performed on humans in the 1890s. Okay. So for I mean for my fairly recent. No that's not. Is that right. Yeah. So in my mind that's just a great. I just picture that as a beautiful surgical time in the 1890s. And then the person who's been lobotomized mind they picture clouds. Okay. So this is so weird in the 1930s the procedure was pioneered at

that time by a Portuguese neuropsychiatrist Antonio Moniz. He began performing lobotomies after hearing a speech by two Yale neurologists who had been performing the lobotomies on chimps. So you see the jump. Yeah. So he just he really liked that speech. He was like man that was great. I love the monkeys after you cut their brain they just lay there. Yeah. I know some people that I don't like. They like bananas and bark the same amount now since we lobotomized them. Well listen so this is from the report. The chimpanzee went to the experimental cage which is a cage where they like can fuck around with stuff like

you know. The usual procedure of baiting the cup and lowering the screen was followed. If the animal made a mistake it showed no evidence of emotional disturbance but quietly awaited the loading of the cups for the next trial. It was if the animal had joined a quote happiness cult. Oh my god. And had placed its burdens on the Lord. So what a bunch of bullshit. So like the yeah yeah so they so basically it was like a screaming monkey. Yeah. And then they went and they were like what if we cut its brain up. So they went in and they sliced some of the brain parts disconnected some shit and then went look at how happy

he is. He doesn't mind anymore. As if you haven't just scrambled his brain. Yeah. You know what we've done is we've removed that emotional part. No you've taken most of his brain out. So he doesn't feel anymore. He separated his brain part so the brain doesn't work. Oh look he's fine when the basket spills. He just wants it filled up again. He's like duh. It's like he doesn't give a shit about anything. Why not. That's why. So after hearing the Yale neurologist speak Moniz asked if the surgical procedure procedure would be beneficial for people with otherwise untreatable psychosis. The Yale researchers were shocked by the question.

They were like in the back. We're fucking up monkeys dude. What do you what what do you want to do. I think we can take this to the human level. Right. Guys. Hello. Hello is this on. Is the mic not working. The mic is on. Correct. They were like yeah we're talking about a monkey bro. So together with a colleague Alameda Lima they operated on the first patient three months later. So they took three months and they went let's fucking do this summer break. We got to do it. We got to do it. I mean how long we gonna talk about this. Literally months. Two of them. I want to get into a fucking brain. I can't wait to

take that guy's brain out. So he started doing lobotomies. In all he did 50 lobotomies. It's a lot of brain. Oh it was so not a lot. He used a special knife and he severed brain connections. So they would go into the frontal cortex and they then they sever it from the rest of the brain kind of. They keep it in. Yeah it's there. They just cut it. Yeah they just cut they just cut it. It'd be like if they went into your leg and just cut the knee. Oh cool. So then so the bottom half of your leg would look like a lot of fun. Look at how much more he likes sitting. Oh my god. Do you see how his ankle is just so happy and blubbery. He loves sitting more than ever. Have you noticed that since we

cut his tendon he's just a big sitting guy. So in some cases there were improvements in behavior. In others there was no noticeable difference. What. Now I know that's the one that I can't even remotely understand. There were some people that they did lobotomies on and they were like all right thanks Jim I'll see you next week. I'm still kind of pissed about you doing that. Shit it didn't work. The first one that happened with that they were like what the fuck is going on over here. And how do you feel when I poke you. Kind of angry. Don't do that asshole. Jesus Christ. He's not like a monkey at all. Like boy we need to get the monkeys back in here. I'm so. And in other cases the symptom being treated

became markedly worse. Oh good. Can you imagine that. Good. That's good. Okay. In other words lobotomies are a real crap shoe. Yeah it's like a brain crap shoe. Brain roulette. Hey you want to play a brain lottery. No I like my brain. Later on he received the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his innovations in neurosurgery. So he got a lobotomies. He got a Nobel Prize for coming up with lobotomies that someone else was doing. For taking an idea you heard of this PhD in doing it on humans. Yeah cool. So he but he did advise extreme caution when using lobotomies and felt that it should only be used in cases where everything else had been tried and the person was basically a maniac. Yeah. I mean these are mostly institutionalized

people that are getting this procedure. Yeah. Enter America. Oh boy. Good God. Of course. Hey who can make this worse. Oh we do that with everything. Enter the big swinging dick with the small brain. Walter Freeman. I'm nervous. Dr. Walter Freeman. Freeman was born in a family of medical tradition. His grandfather W.W. Keane. W.W. Keane is one of the best fucking names. W.W. Keane. W.W. Keane. I mean he's so close to a website. It's amazing. Yeah. What do you sell shirts. Go to Keane.com. What the hell are you talking about W.W. Keane was at the time he was America's foremost surgeon. He was like the top surgeon in America. And then Walter's father was also a well-known otolaryngologist. Oh yeah the guy who created

lung cars. Otolaryngologist. Lung cars. O-T-O-L-A-R-Y-N-G-O-L-O-G-I-S. Do you know what that is. Yeah lung cars. What. Lung cars. Okay. Are you saying words. Yeah never mind. Lung. Yeah that sounds like lung cars. I think you're doing depth to hear the great timing the first two times. That sounds crazy I agree. Yeah the guy who came up with lung cars. Yeah the guy who made lung cars. Um I'd say your nose and throat guy but back then they called him some giant name that made everyone pissed and finally everyone just went what about your nose and throat. What about you call yourself that. Well fine. Um you want to take the shine off it. Uh he uh yeah your nose throat doctor so um that's what we called him. So congratulations

to your big bullshit word. I mean seriously. Yeah. Let's take it down a notch. Yeah that's not yeah I agree. Um so Walter graduated second in his class so like he's the third third generation doctor second in his class in medical school won the prize for the best undergraduate research published in the archives of neurology and psychiatry. So he's a fucking coming out hot shot. A hot shot. Yeah. Hot shit shot. Yeah he's a shit shot. Okay now mental institutions back then very different than now. How so Dave. Uh well. They were more understanding right. Be straight with me. Everyone had their own room. Everyone. It was it was more about talking than drugs. Yes. That's exactly right. No change on the wall. Nothing. Um overcrowding

was common. Hospitals struggled financially. They didn't have enough money. They were understaffed like it was they were they were a nightmare. We'll be there soon again. I hope so. Um and then there were no they had no idea to treat the people so it was just a bunch of crazy people bouncing off walls. Yeah. Yeah you just picture one flew over the cuckoo's nest. So maybe worse. Worse. Much worse. Not as funny. No chief. So um the situation was made even worse after World War II when all the vets came rolling back and they had all their problems and then in 1946 Life Magazine uh went out and did like a picture uh what do you call it a pictorial essay sort of thing. Um and the photos look like concentration

camps some of them some of the hospitals just look horrifying. So people were pretty freaked out and they were looking for an answer. Okay. Oh boy. Okay so lobotomy was the perfect way to fix this because it took crazy people and made them seem like they were not crazy docile. Yes they've made them. Lap dogs. It's like yeah it's like uh it's like cut your dog's balls off or uh or head. Yeah. Um but and it did help some patients. Sure. So why do you have this. It's a mischievous grin. It's always it helps some patients I'm always thinking well yeah you cut some guy who was like. It is a real. And now he's not doing that. Well the thing is you can't now ask the person who had the procedure if it did

anything. Hey do you feel better. No some people talk and stuff that's what's the crazy about this is reading about finding out about this is that some people then continued on with their lives and didn't have the reaction you would think which is like from one flu of a cuckoo's nest. Yeah. Some people just kept going. I don't know how you can have your brain cut it severed. Well why does it work on some and it just doesn't work. Maybe they didn't do a good job or they just didn't sever something. I mean there is like one real sweetheart who's like I can't do this and every time you'd be like I snipped it so I'm up. There's just this lobotomy doctor with a heart of gold that we don't know about.

Everybody happy. So while Walter Freeman was at St. Elizabeth's Hospital you know that's where there were crazy people he did not believe in psychotherapy. So Freud was bullshit. Sure. He believed that it was a physical condition that was causing these problems. Right. Yeah. So he didn't want to be like a shame for these people. Well that's it ends up being true in the end. Yeah I guess later. So he was super into research that showed that the behavior that was changed by encephalitis and syphilis was a physical connection. So people who Al Capone had syphilis his whole life because he hated shots. Really. Yeah. So he eventually went crazy. He shot so many people. But he eventually went crazy in Alcatraz because of syphilis.

He had like third stage syphilis where he was just like. And so that they knew was the brain was affected by a physical condition. Right. So he believed in that research. OK. And then he figured all the other things were the same. He believed that lobotomies work because the procedures severed connections between the frontal lobes of the brains and the thalamus which is seats human emotion is what they believe. So they all this comes down to is that they think like you're just too emotional. Yeah. That's well yeah if you're emotional you're crazy. So let's remove emotion. Hey you know the emotion part of you. We're going to get rid of that. That's not good. What's the side effect. Most of your brain

and thoughts are gone. You'll be easy to deal with though. OK. So here's a little bit of a hiccup in the plan. OK. Walter Freeman isn't a surgeon. OK. So he couldn't legally start digging around in people's brains. Right. OK. So he hooked up with a surgeon named James Watts. Sure. Doc Watts. Team Freeman Watts. Yep. And together they started doing lobotomies. Oh cool. Good cop bad cop in them. But actually first they started working on dead guys in the morgue. First they practiced on dead guys in the morgue which to me is a weird thing. What time you want to meet 9 9 30 when you want to start. It's also like so you go you cut into some guy's head and you go. Yeah. Do you feel any different. Are you still. Are

you dead still. OK. Good practice. I think this guy's emotions would be totally different. This guy's the same. The same. This guy we did this to this. Look at him. Look at him. Look at this guy. This is how we want all the guys to look after lobotomies. Look his tongue out his tongue out. He's cute. He's got crosses on his eyes. Oh my god he's adorable. So before this time they weren't actually called lobotomies. They didn't have a word for it. So these guys actually came up with the word lobotomy. They were cutting up. They were cutting up corpses and they're like what do we call it. I don't know. It's called like brain mixing or some shit. I don't know what it's called. So what is what is lobotomy.

Does it do we know. I mean it's what is it. Loeb. Yeah probably like the front of lobe right. And you're cutting the lobe. You've gotten the autumn out. It would be great to have like the political shine that we have on things now. Oh yeah. On that. You know. Oh yeah. Be like emotional sustainability. Some good old bullshit. Do you want some emotional sustainability. Well that sounds great. It does sound good. I'm going to cut into your head. You're better now. So their method was known as the precision method. So they created their own method that the other guys weren't doing. Right. So they would insert a blunt spitula. Already a weird beginning to the precision method through. I know blunt through

the holes in both sides of the skull. So cut holes in the skull. Put this thing through the instrument was moved up and down to sever the thalamo. God damn it. Thalamo cortical fibers and then. Then what do they do with the holes. Cock them. Yeah well then they put a little cocking in there. I guess if you cut the skull doesn't grow back right. I don't think the bone does. The bone doesn't grow back. So you would I guess plug it up with some putty or something. Oh my God. Putty in there. Maybe a coin. Hey doctor are you done with that gum. Can you make it the exact size of a quarter. And then we can just go ahead and pop that in there. We're doctors. Well I'm not. I can't cut. I'm more of an

doctor. So after they fucked up the dead people in the morgue for a while they did their first patient Miss Hammett 63 who suffered from agitated depression and sleeplessness. Time to cut her brain. Well fucking cut that shit up. You know how you're sad and you can't sleep. Cut the cord. Cut that shit. They drilled six holes into the top of her skull and splicey splice slice slice slice. Six. I don't know why they did six but apparently they need six so she must look great afterwards. According to Freeman Hammett emerged transformed able to go to the theater and really enjoy the play. So we know what that means right. Yeah. She just sat there. She liked lights. Yeah. She just they just brought her and she was like

pretty. Yeah. Yeah. And you drill six holes into someone's head. They like musicals. They claim that 52 percent of their 623 first lobotomies yielded good results. So 48 percent had bad. I mean if you're negative and I am. I'm going to be glass half empty with brains. Well then OK Mr. Yes. Nay nay nay. 52 percent are loving it. We're coming out on top. By a margin of two. But but what they didn't do was offer like a clinical yardstick for what was considered an improvement. Good. So they were like yeah better than before. Don't look. Exactly. Stay out of that room. Well what was she like before. Stay out of that room please don't even look through that glass. She is better now. Better. Yes. What

was she love the musical. What was she like before. Bitch. A huge bitch. An awful bitch. Six holes in her head. She's happy. She loves plays. Well she's been staring at that chair for an hour and a half. It's a great chair. Get out of here and stop looking through that window. That's exactly what it was. So yeah. So over time over time. Sure. Over all the lobotomies that were performed over all the years a third of people are improved a third of the same and a third are worse off. So those are great. That's a terrible procedure. Those are great numbers. That is not good enough for this to be happening. No. Did you hear the part right. Yeah. One thirty three percent were improved. Yes. And then two thirds

were unchanged or worse off. Oh my god. You're such a negative Nancy. I'm going to be negative. These are human brains. I can't even believe that you don't want thirty three percent of people to get better. You know how I can get you to believe that. Yeah. Let me drill six holes in your head. Okay. I can just cut this part and you'll just buy all my bullshit. The cool thing about the third worse off is that 15 percent of them were dead. Oh Christ. So that's that's okay. That's yeah. That's a negative. Although I will say they weren't as emotionally distressed after. Hey this one. Put them in the top category. This one's not screaming. Hey this one's happy at the musical too. Others around him mildly disturbed

but he's loving it. That's why musicals are so popular. They were just weekend at Bernie's the fucking crowd bunch of corpses. And with the surgery you get to go see my fair lady and wait. There's more. If you sign up for a lot of you right now you'll get two free tickets to free tickets to my fair lady. Okay. But at that point they said it was only three percent that were dying but they're fudging the numbers. They're fudging the numbers because later it came out that 15 percent is how many dying you do lobotomies. Sure. Great procedure. But here's the thing. Hospitals were all down for it. I bet. Because because people were running on screaming and tackle them in the hall. Better work environment. That's exactly

what it was. Yes. They're tackling people in hallways. They're fucking putting straight jackets on people. They're chaining them to walls. They're chaining to their bed. Now now they're just like oh you're just gonna sit in that chair. Yeah. I can and I wipe your mouth every couple hours. Somebody's really had a 180. You gone from worst to first my man. My drooling little amigo. Oh you did a boom boom in your pants. That's fine. I'll leave it. You won't care. You're always happy. So so they were all for it. So they just basically want everyone to shut up right. That was the basic hospital. So Freeman is now unhappy with the procedure. Oh somebody needs to get it. Because it's taking too long

to do. Wow. Now it's weird. What a cunt. It's weird that a guy who wasn't trained as a surgeon would be like oh this fucking two hours. Getting it all right. Drilling and cutting. Cutting the right place. Blah blah blah. Not being able to jab around and hit the golf course. Let's just go through the eye with a spoon. Just start bashing them with hammers. Be in and out in 45. Is anybody else bored right now. Right. Show of hands. Who thinks this just sucks. We could be out of here on the golf course. Just saying a cold frosty beer doesn't sound too bad either. Hear me out. Okay so. He was. You've got something good. You've got something good. He was like I wish there was a hole that would allow

easier access to the brain. Oh fuck me. So he developed a quicker method. Oh Christ. The so called ice pick lobotomy. It's just. Which he performed for the first time on January 17th. 1945. So that's. That's pretty. Like that's the 40s. Well the world was so distracted at this point that I guess you could just get away with this shit. Okay. What do we rank this up. What is this. This son. It was quick. It was easy. It was diabolical. He lined up two women. My father went over and tickled the first one in the ribs. So on. He tickled the ribs of the other one. She was paralyzed on the left side. Okay. So. You look very upset. I mean what do you think I'm supposed to look like right now. Happy.

I mean. We can lose the jazzy music for that. That was a little bit. But you know what jazz is bad at bad at bad at bad. Jazz isn't great to begin with. You got to put it to something. That is terrible. That is terrible. He didn't tell what. Wait. He just is hiding his ice pick method. Yes. So this guy's a fucking psycho. This is not. This is not a good. This is not somebody we should even be talking about. Like we should be talking about this like this criminal. This psychotic criminal. Yeah. I get so much better. Better means worse. It's always a good side when you share an office with a guy. One guy's a surgeon and the other guy's not. And the non surgeon starts performing surgeries and hiding them

from the surgeon. That's good. Yeah. That's good. That's quicker. That's better. It's quicker. Hey what's with that ice pick man. Nothing. Okay. So let's just keep a you know I went in there and you can't move on the left side. Let's keep this on the deal. On the deal. Walter Freeman's son in an interview said we didn't have a refrigerator. We had an ice box and the first instruments came out of the kitchen drawer and they worked perfectly. So he literally opened a drawer and went holy shit this ice pick would work awesome. Oh my God. And then did it. Did it. Also he couldn't afford a refrigerator. Yeah. No I don't know if that's not a lot of red. But no you must. They probably did

if they had a fucking ice pick. They must have had refrigerators in 1945. I don't know what refrigerators are in. They had to have had refrigerators in 1945. They were past the ice boxes. So he should have had a refrigerator if he was really doing well. So he just there was a person who he was like well you're just going to we're going to try the ice pick on you. Yeah. Basically yeah. Okay. So yeah he basically just said let's we're going to try this new thing and he just went and did it. And then so what he does is he just puts the ice pick in their fucking goes in through the corner of the eye near your nose and does a little wiggly wiggly and fucking cuts your brain. Well you said cuts his brain. I said

I say it does a wiggly wiggly. Sorry does a wiggly wiggly. What. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well I think you're being a little negative. So he found he could. Here's what it is. He found he can insert an ice pick above each eye of a patient with only a local anesthetic. So the person's okay. What he does was he he gives them electroshock therapy and then so then they're kind of like go and then he puts the ice pick in their eye and does that's the that's the local anesthetic. Yeah. Is electroshock therapy because that's not what we call an anesthetic. I mean he might have had another anesthetic but he was using let your thought therapy first so that they would be calm. Just no. Listen if they had an anesthetic

there's no need for the electroshock therapy. Okay. Look if you are even if you're on if you if you're given a local anesthetic that means you're still awake and if someone comes near your eye even if you have a local anesthetic you're gonna be like get the fuck out of here. Yeah. And they're like well how about if we just charge you through it with electricity I'm like I'll just breathe deep while you go through my eyeballs I guess. Breathe deep. Okay this is gonna hurt so much. Not like a little. No a fucking lot. You're gonna feel a huge pinch in your brain. You're gonna what's gonna happen is I'm gonna put this in you're gonna it's really gonna hurt and you're gonna scream and then you're gonna go. So the last

thing you're gonna feel ever is intense horror fear and pain. Then gone. And then we're gonna go see my fair lady. So he does look anesthetic he he would drive the ice pick through the bone near the eye and tap it with a mallet a mallet and then he switched the pick back and forth like a windshield wiper and everybody's good. So his new technique could be formed in 10 minutes. Oh. Bada boom. Let's get this shit started. We're on a fucking roll baby. Under 10 the bottom is eight bucks each get him in here line him up. Come on down. That's crazy. Now remember this is in the time when Ford in the assembly line that kind of shit was the great American thing. So he basically took the culture of America and applied it

to surgery. Oh boy. Aren't we putting a little shine on it. He basically he was the Ford of brain mutilation. OK now here's the cool thing. What's the cool thing because because he could use electroshock. He didn't have to do it in a clinical setting. So he didn't have to go to a hospital to do it. I'm really excited for where he's doing it. So so he started doing them in their office in their D.C. just like come on in here lay down on the table or whatever. So it's the desk the desk. You know whatever is flat. The floor OK. Sure this is the right way to just get on the get on the table. You're not going to care about it in three two snap. Who am I. I'm sorry I didn't do the operation yet

but you know what I'm talking about. So one day Watts walks into the office to find Freeman cramming an icepick into someone's eye socket and he was like what the fuck are you doing. What are we doing for lunch. So yeah he was like completely flipped out and he ended their relationship right there. He's like you're a fucking madman. Yeah. This is not how we do things. OK. I'm a surgeon. Remember the whole studying thing to be a surgeon I did. You're a crazy person. OK. I'm on his side. Freeman was like you gotta be shitting me. This is so fast. It's fucking awesome. Look at this guy. He's stupid as he could be. It's perfect. No. Freeman. My god. I basically turned this guy into an apple. It's great.

Wait. That's not an icepick. 10 minutes. OK. Seriously. Time me. Time me. I'm not going to time you. Get the secretary. Game. Get this. Get Barbara in here. I'll do it. Barbara should not know about this. Nobody should know about a stopwatch or just one of those sand things. It's the 40s. Yeah. I don't think we have a stopwatch yet. Ice from the fridge. I can do these at Denny's now. Now we're in my van. Let's make it happen. A mobile lobotomy unit. Come on. Come on. Well then you don't have to bookmobiles. Oh god. Yeah. Good. Good. I'd plug this back in. That'll be fine. So. So yeah. So he is. So things are good. Things are going good. Well he's lost his. So he's lost his surgical partner. Right. So I wouldn't

even say his surgical partner because he's not a surgeon. But he's lost the guy that does the surgery. He's lost the surgeon. OK. Fair enough. So after Watts ended the partnership he shut down the office. After he had his little petite mall. Right. So Freeman was like well I'm not stopping this shit and he took it on the road. Oh Christ. So he bought a van. I mean the weren't we just doing a hypothetical joke about him being in a van doing this shit. He got a van. Lobotomobile. Yeah. Boy. I wish I was kidding. He called it. The bottom. Shut up. Shut up. He did. He called it. The Lobotomobile. The Lobotomobile. It's unbelievable. How the fuck are these things slipping through the fucking cracks.

I hope it had like it like it like an ice cream. Oh yeah. Like just going through the bottom. All right kids. What do you guys want. I want an ice cream sandwich and then a snip and all right. Who's next. So he would pull up to say in asylums and and people would fucking line up for lobotomies people being the patients the patients. I don't understand how they why will they. So the lobotomy. Is it because they don't know that there's a huge downside yet and that they might die. Right. Right. It's because everyone's like this looks great. It's because it's called a lobotomobile. It sounds. Oh yeah. And he's a hunk of his horn and wearing a fun hat. Done 19 to myself. It's great. Glitter. Glitter. You're gonna love

this one. It's over. Glitter. So yeah. So it's just so he's cruising on the country. He's stopping off in hospitals to perform the operation. The patients are lining up. People thought it would help. Right. Patients. The word is that it helps doctors were all for it. So that's the big thing. The reason people are lining up is because the doctors are like this is going to be awesome because you'll stop punching me. Yeah. The hospital. So nice doctors. So could you imagine being in the back on the lobotomy line and you're like oh god I hope I hope I get there in time. Oh my god. I just want to get lobotomized. Oh my god. I get here in time. I had to go potty. What do you mean I can't get lobotomy

line. God damn it. All this thinking driving me crazy. One year he went back and forth across the United States 11 times hitting up all these insane asylums he could. He belongs in one. I mean 11. What is he doing. He was also flamboyant self advertising and grandiose. Man. I know we say this every dollar but there's just such a movie here. Oh my god. So he started getting like all show money. Oh that's great. Like he turned into like the Liberace lobotomy. Oh that's great. So to mix things up he would perform lobotomies right handed and then left handed now and sometimes two hands at once. Now. So he would put the bartender. Tom Cruise cocktail slinging lobotomies and dreams. So he's right handed and he's like look I can

have left handed and sometimes he put ice picks in both heads and then bang him at the same time. Swish him around. Hey. Holy shit. That one's paralyzed. Both are dead. Oh no that didn't work out. Probably should just stick with my good hand. So this was not like in front of people that he was doing. Okay. Yeah. This is like a spectacle like a show. He's like lobotomizing people in front of people and he's using his two hands. Yeah. And he's showing off and he's got flair showing off for the crowd. He's like a magician at this point. He's like fucking one trick is cutting brains and it sometimes doesn't have a Tadah. Tadah. Oh that one's a Tadah. Tadah. We got one Tadah, one Tadah. What the fuck.

He would use ordinary's carpenter's mallets instead of surgical hammers. Oh good. For hygiene. Crowds would show up. The press would show up and he always played for the crowd instead of the formal approval of his colleagues. Any requests? Can you bang the ice pick with your forehead? What? Done. I don't want to lobotomize myself. Nice try sir. Wham. Wham. He'd see him with like four patients last night and he just runs down the line. Yeah. You'd have a stare at heaven you guys. This one's the dollar. Oh fuck. Horrible. Once he killed the patient when he carelessly stepped back to pose for a photograph during the operation. My god, hey, oh camera

By the way, little smile came back. This is not this is not a iPhone cameras either It's a good delay in the posing the big flash. Yeah, don't oh god. It's all in her brain. She'll be fine How do I look he let his eye ice picks sleep slip too deep into the patient's brain? And he's like, uh, so he drove an ice pick through a human's brain Yeah, but someone was taking a photo so he had to got a pose so he had to turn and pose yeah, and then he was like Oh, yeah, yeah, can uh held up his Twitter handle on a sign You know can we do another photo where I don't kill the guy? Is that guy dead? Yeah, we'll get another guy

I would like to do a different photo sure. We'll do one more not killing the guy great. Okay. It could be natural too You don't need to pose No, I think I should have my I think I should be doing okay, okay, and I need I also need to look at the camera Okay, I need to make eye contact. It's really good stuff. We're doing here beautiful eyes And I think right I think it might I should be wasted if they're looking at the surgery. Yeah. Yeah, that man's dead He's better. Okay. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool Driving from town to town Looking for people the lobotomized in the lobotomobile was what he called the head and shoulder hunt. This is not a good man

Monster, right? He's an absolute monster. Yeah, he would have been perfect with the Nazis. He's like absolutely. Yeah He claimed that time is happening around World War two. Yeah, this is 1945. This is right Doing this is soldiers. Do you think it was just so desensitized people are so fucking this like I don't I can't I can't give he started doing it before the war. He was this isn't like it. I Just can't imagine that he claimed that time passed more swiftly when he was hold head and shoulder hunting So it's so boring when I'm driving around looking at national parks So if I got a drive all day and see like a buffalo or whatever natural stuff I just boring compared when I can just have an ice pick into someone's head

What a prick he really is saying that yeah, it passes the time for me It makes the days fly by for me You know what just makes a day just just fly by is when I can just put an ice pick and like nine guys had a great I was swamped. I had to ice pick 30 brains Not boring though. They went by like that We should lobotomize you. No, I was just a sneeze. I don't think so. No, no, I'm fine So he started having his assistants time him to see if he could break his lobotomy speed records. I Know that you want me to say something

And I'm not going to tell you how fucking crazy that is and Reggie Reggie go and this one actually only looks paralyzed Oh, yeah, but we did it literally a man's dad. He's literally killed but dead man, but time-wise He started performing the operation in a production line manner What? You mean keep going. I'm sorry. Like like Ford's Assembly line lined them up Yes, what a fucking prick. He wants lobotomized 25 women in a single day So they would just like bring in the next one tap tap tap tap bring in the next one tap tap

So they're like they're like coming through on gurneys Like the way in an assembly on a guy we just stand at the line where they killed car would come in front of me He'd put like something on it Bumper bumper bumper bumper, so he's doing that with human beings and lobotomies. Oh god He performed up to 110 lobotomies a week. That's just crazy Journalists were often present on his tours of hospitals so that his appearance would end up on the front page of the local newspaper He was also featured in highly popular Publications at the time such as Time magazine and Life magazine and often these news stories

exaggerated the success of lobotomy in Alleviating the symptoms of so everybody was in on it the magazines were like, let's not okay Let's not to take the picture of the dead one. Let's take the picture of the lady that's smiling So they were all like this is her before look at her like the story Yeah, and everyone's like so when reading it is like they're like Fox news everyone's like well, this is Amazing, you know, it's all fake right everyone is doing bullshit stories on the lobotomy fluff pieces on brain-cutting. Yeah, right So he is the first celeb celebrity lobotomist is it safe to say he's the only He started wearing a wide-brimmed hat. Oh my god carrying a cane

Oh boy, and he had a briefcase in which he kept his instruments and he got a gold plated ice pick He's like in a John Woo movie, but now he's like the Prince of Lobotomy. Yeah a Gold pit. I mean really the balls Granted he's just like nobody's saying stop or the guy he went in to get it Gold plated was like you want to do what I need it a gold ice pick because I'm the lobotomy man You see what I do, right? So this silver shit ain't working for me. I'm the bottom Rache He became known for his captivating style When presenting to his collies when he presented to his colleagues, he loved to shock them

He proudly wrote in his diaries when his fellow professionals attending the operations fainted or vomited Oh my god, so great dr. Larry Jenkins today First vomited and then passed out in his own vomit. Dear diary nailed it again Literally Literally turned a patient into a cucumber made seven doctors throw up. Let's just say I killed nine people and a bunch of my colleagues have chastised me and fainted Because that's what actually happened today It's called winning. That's what that's called. Hashtag ice picker Oh, I'm gonna frame my ice pick

Freeman was a single-handedly responsible for the sex success of lobotomy in America Which was not successful. Well, I mean, but it was successful in terms of it being done in a horrible time. Yeah Yeah, but it was it was as far as the fad of lobotomies goes. Yeah, he was the king of a horrible fad. Okay Hitler was the king of killing Jews He possessed the skills academic credentials and personal characteristics Required for such a medical breakthrough. He was the master of exploiting the press and the contemporary environment His technique was adopted in elite institutions. So now Everyone's seen it and now everyone's doing it. So they're all all over the country

Everyone's like I can do I can get an ice pick and scramble a brow I can get a scramble a brow So now it's just picking up makes the day fly by too. It's going like wildfire. Plus you're in a hospital and some guys screaming at you And you're like, I okay. I'm really I have a headache. I'm tired. I have a headache. You're gonna have a headache Hey screaming Jimmy. Can you come in this room over here? Oh It's so nice in here right now. My headache's gone want to watch the game Yeah, you do

Oh Oh, I think I'm gonna go ahead and get it. I think I'm gonna go ahead and get it So he's now traveling across the country teaching the technique to groups of psychiatrists. So he's doing like So he's teaching surgery To groups of psychiatrists even though he is not a surgeon. He's not a surgeon. He's not a surgeon And and he's teaching it to psychiatrists who aren't surgeons generally. I don't think so is this is that that is where it goes Right, then they start. Yes. Psychiatrists are Yeah, so then people are not qualified to do it or doing it all over the place now

It's just like hey, you just got to get a little tippy tap tap. Yeah activity tap tippity tap tap tap tap Um Freeman happily performed ice pickle bottomings on anyone who has referred to him During his career he performed. What is someone there for like they were like it was from my foot Wait, oh no no during his career. He would perform almost 3,500 operations Some of his patients could return to work Those guys I do not fucking know. I I cannot even Begin to understand and maybe he just missed the things he was supposed to be cutting. Well, I don't know

It seems pretty exact what he's doing I feel like he'd hit it perfectly every time While others were left in something of a vegetative state. Um, yeah I can't but I cannot get over the guys who went back. Hey, what would you do this weekend jimmy? Man, I'll tell you the craziest shit in the world happened. What's up? I got lobotomized. I'm sorry. Yeah Well, anyway, uh, what do I need to say which documents do I need to sign over here? These are Uh, what did you and Kathy did you guys end up going to the lake ballgame? Yeah, oh, that's great. That is great Well, I'll see you I better hit the hit the john. Am I right? I might get a lobotomy every weekend. I feel pretty good

So all of the all of the new york times newsweek readers digest were all reporting positively on the lobotomy and so the The american public loved the idea of the lobotomy. It was like this is the fucking shiznit It's it's just the same It really isn't it just like the same sort of thing over and over again? Like We'll just buy into some bullshit because everybody's like it's great. It's the same thing as like Iraq

Yeah, it's the same thing as iraq But it's also the same thing as like the cookie diet. Yeah, it's all this nonsense fucking shit that we're always thinking Yeah, it's the same thing as like kale is now the new superfood and there was like get kale And then the next week you're like, oh now it's watercress And eat more eggs don't eat eggs only eggs. That's all this is and so everyone's jumping on board Seriously on board, but this is even more people are coming in. I have a cold. Yeah Yeah, could you could you the time I broke my thumb? Can you lobotomize me? So there was really no objective

Analysis of the scientific revolt like so no one was like doing like oh, this doesn't really work devil's advocate Hold on now. I was just counting And I'm seeing Um thousands of dead people and paralyzed and whatnot cured Fair enough all are cured fair fair. Thank you um Freeman also operate on people who were clearly afflicted by psychological disorders

But this was not always the case Some patients underwent the procedure for reasons reasons such as alcoholism. What the fuck? I cannot stop with a drinky drinky drinky. Let's cut your brain in half Okay Or Bad behavior. Oh my god, or simply because they were perceived as mentally disturbed He even operated on a 12 year old boy. Howard dully whose stepmother didn't like him And wanted his personality changed. He was basically a normal kid

And she had him lobotomized He's still alive. He wrote an article on the uk guardian. It's called He didn't know he was lobotomized. He was fine. You know, he hadn't well, he went on as a functioning person But he had no idea he'd been lobotomized And and he didn't find out until he was like 45 And he's like a bus driver. What that's how we make bus drivers Wait So how did he find out? I don't know how he found out but at one point he was like, wait, I'm sorry

What you said what wait you said what happened when your lobe is cut? Also, he also performed a lobotomy on rosemary kennedy Wow, the rosemary was said to have been considered Quote-unquote retarded by members of her family But that assessment has been widely disputed by subsequent analysis subsequent analysis Some concluded that rosemary may not have been as brilliant as other members of her family But she was a functioning person. She kept a diary. She had an active social life

She was reported to have violent mood swings and a stormy personal personality Yeah In 1941 when she was 23 her father joseph kennedy was told by doctors that a new procedure would help calm her mood swings That the family was finding difficult to handle her father gave permission He performed the frontal lobotomy. This was freemen and watts at the time After the surgery rosemary was reduced to an infantile mentality that left her incontinent and staring blankly at walls for hours Her verbal skills were reduced to unintelligible babble. She was she was institutionalized That was in 41 to the most famous family in america

Yeah, and the newspapers still acted like it was fucking awesome. That's crazy Right, it's crazy. I don't know I don't know that's then you would think you would think that this would not be okay You really think that like I can't imagine seeing somebody like brain dead and being like better Better You're a hero. We've done it. You're a hero, sir So then the end of cum 1954 so he's been doing this for you know 10 years

A new drug thorazine I came out a drug a pill a pill a shot marketed as a chemical lobotomy So the way to market the pill was to act like it was as good as the Yes, the mix he makes good stop this monster So it was giving it to me impatience and it was very successful. Yeah Not a lot of dying. Yeah, not a lot of not a lot of irreversible damage Suddenly freeman was no longer invited to state institutions. Oh boy poor guy All of a sudden people started talking about the negative effects of lobotomies. I'd love to hear some haven't heard any yet

I haven't heard neither Protests started. Whoa and serious research supported the protesters Statistics showed that a third of lobotomy patients approved A third stayed the same and a third got worse suddenly It became difficult for freeman to leave An inexperienced psychiatrist alone with a patient just to catch a holiday flight So he used to like go in and go. Yeah, that's how you do it. I got to get out of here So the lobotomy fat is over. It's like disco just like the cookie fat. It is just like disco

Just like iraq the bottom. It sucks. All cool things come to an end. Yeah Eventually people like wait slavery is horrible You know what I just realized But not for freeman. Oh He did not want to give up the lobotomy No, so he moved to california where we love Hey, what's new the fucking leader the leaders of anti-fax? Hey, what's really shitty for me that sounds good

so He began pushing lobotomies on depressed housewives who didn't feel like their lives were amounting too much So he's like, are you you in the house just feeling sad sick of doing dishes? Yeah, I'm gonna cutting your brain He eventually Performed the bottom. He's on children He's just scraping the bottom of the barrel patients with terminal cancer What really well, I mean Some degree like I can understand that a little bit more because you're like relief because they're

Well, it's finite. You're you you're dealing like you maybe are gonna go through Something horrible soon. Yeah, and but at that point I'd rather die But I could understand somebody being like but there's no medical reason to do it No, there's no medical connection to curing cancer in your brain. Oh, no I mean, there's no real medical connection to lobotomies. No, this is gonna do the trick They're not gonna do anything. I trust Look at walty. Look walty in the eyes. Walty's blinking. Trust Trust walty. I don't trust walty

He lobotomized 19 children under the age of 18 including a four-year-old. What a fucking asshole. He's a monster at this point A monster a fucking four-year-old now. He's just he now. He should be executed now. He's a fucking monster an unfocused four-year-old He was selling lobotomies to people for 25 bucks a pop got their hand job They're at back alley hand jobs Hey, man, I'll suck your dick for a fuck. You get crack rock Suck your dick for a lobotomizing the alley for 25 real quick. Yeah. Yeah, you can do a little bottom in the bathroom You can do a body in a bathroom with this box over your head. Here we go. Clank Clank Clank goes to trolley later Hey, you have another beer

25 bucks pretty good money though Right back a man, right? I mean, that's pretty solid. Yeah, that's not that's not bad. I guess For murdering in 1967 67 god 67 peace and love who wants their brain cut? So he's been doing so since it the fad ended in 54 He's been doing lobotomies For 13 rogue years another 13 years in california. He just just fucking acts and people up um

He performed a botany on one of his patients in berkeley california He severed a blood vessel And the patient died three days later Yeah, this was the end of walther freeman's lobotomy spree. His medical license was was revoked. It was fucking Now Now was revoked. That's it Okay, the four-year-old was one thing, but this guy you killed Okay, this is maybe like the thousandth guy you've killed, but you killed the last one you've probably murdered about

1700 people, but this one was just graphic. You're not a doctor anymore over the line Yep, by the way, you were never a doctor. You were a man with a toolkit You had a nice pick in a mallet. You're what we're what we call a contractor. You had a nice pick a mallet in a dream Okay, you can go to home depot. So during the last five years of his life. He performed no more lobotomies. He died from cancer in 1972 at the age of 76 He really should have been lobotomized, but here's the crazy thing freeman Was one of the very few psychiatrists who believe that mental illness

Had a physical biological component, which is what is bleeding out. So in sure. Okay, hold on No, so in some ways the lobotomy Led to thorazine which led to all of the stuff we have now which helps people Don't do this. No, you have to do it because Because it was the fucking dark ages and he was doing a horrible thing Yes, but did in the end Was he a guy who may have ended up saving more people? Yes

Yes to that probably but fuck off That is bullshit because He could have that could have so okay thorazine was created He didn't fuck off. He didn't fuck off, but thorazine. You're right. No, you're right. Well, he had a he had a problem Well, he also had a gold plated ice pick and he had a nice hat. He had a he had a lobotomy mobile What's he supposed to do? Just who's gonna buy that now? He's still got a Still got a lease on it. What were you doing in here? Huh making keys you in or out?

But so he was one of the few guys who yes Who thought that there was a physical so he yes, yeah, so okay. Yes, you're right. Yeah, he had a uh, he He yes, he believed something that was maybe not widely believed right however However, we cannot defend a man Who took his fucking lobotomy? business on the road like hair tonic in the 1800s and Is selling people a song dance and using jazz hands while cutting page

Just can't happen Jazz hands. It's not okay Check this out. I can balance a nice pick on my nose while the bottom has these two guys You guys this is gonna be great. That's my husband who has the cloud wake I mean you can picture bill Murray playing this guy Oh my god Could you make this in a movie because it's so horrifying you probably could it would probably not do well. Yeah. Yeah You know, I got a way to stop this. Yeah, you just put a little icepick in the dog's eyeball

Oh, yeah, I had you on icepick. Just give a little little about you. You want an icepick in your brain? Cut your brain gonna cut your brain a little so you shut up. Yeah, I cut that brain so How do you feel this is play our good our darkest one? Uh, this is Horrible. Well, because since the vampire one Vampire heart one. I'm gonna pick this up. All right, pick it up Since the vampire heart one. This is by far the the vampire heart one is similar in the sense that you can't

You just can't believe And there's shit that we're doing now that people are gonna look back on and be like the fuck was wrong with that Yeah, but I you can't believe there was a time when these things were okay Okay At all. No, they shouldn't be they should never be never but again When you have a circumstance Where you're desperate which they were in those hospitals, right? They're desperate. Yeah True. So they needed an answer and some guy provided them with one look horrific as it was. Yes

I'm all I understand they had a stressful work environment. Okay, so now I want to talk about hitler I wake up at the dogs The dogs on board the exact you wake up Yeah, the dog the dog is not like lobotomies. No the dog needs one I'll tell you what though for all the potential for all the potential noises It's pretty good that we just that was it could have been worse. Yeah. Oh, no, we had a lot of us. We did dodge So we're gonna end this with a dog barking. Hey At this point lobotomy

Lobotomy that should be the dog's name Lobotomy if you got a labrador named it. Let this is this is exactly what it's like It's this like lobotomizing the dish dog should be lobotomized So that was so instead of having the joy and emotion that the dog is, you know, the dog's expressing Nerves or whatever it is right now. We can throw that all out. Okay. So we're trying to do something right now, right? We're trying to get something accomplished and there's just this and there's like this screaming. It doesn't understand And it's not listening right. It's not listening. You can't get it to calm down because it thinks it's protecting the house. Yeah, blah, but he blah Uh, so we could take care of this but just snippity snip. I think we just did just a bang bang snippity snip

I think we do a bang bang snip snip tap tap and I think we'll be fine And then where's case scenario bleeds out in your son's playroom Hey dad, what's wrong with the dad the dog, uh, you know what daddy fixed it daddy fixed him Daddy fixed the dog good. He's not gonna bark anymore. He won't bark at you and he's still fun to play with Yeah, he's gonna be great. Good doggy dog. Oh, look at him. He just lays there like a rug Look at him. He's been dead for days. Look at him. Whoa. Well, I'm sorry. I had to tell you this Yeah, well, I'm sorry too. And I mean They're not it's the American history is not always pretty and sometimes we're gonna have to go into some dark

Sometimes we're gonna have to go to some dark shit. It's disgusting. This is disgusting. This is the worst one yet the worst Yeah, but I the Comedian in me is excited to think of the movie Because fuck man, that is amazing All right, all right, we're all done. I hope everybody's happy. Now. Nobody's happy. I speak for everyone Yeah, when I say nobody's happy Well, there's some out there out of the bottom. It's probably pretty happy. Okay the guy the dollop fan listening to the The dollop fan. Our good one like

Here's an idea for a dollop Here's some art Here's a here's an idea for a dollop. It's a picture of a flower Do it! Alrighty, all right, well we tried Okay, uh, here we go Hi there dollop people. This is gareth not gary gareth enough already Uh, I've got some stand-up dates. I wanted to keep you updated on join me on the road

We're having a lot of laughs march 13th. I will be at summit city comedy in fort Wayne, indiana Tuesday march 14th I'll be at helium comedy club in indianapolis march 15th wednesday. I'll be at the louisville comedy club in louisville, kentucky March 16th. I'll be at the columbus funny bone in columbus, ohio Dayton, ohio march 17th friday at the funny bone march 18th I'll be at the funny bone in perriesburg, ohio and that's two shows that night march 19th I will be at hilarious hilarities and it'll be hilarious in cleveland, ohio march 21st I'll be in lexington lexington, kentucky. I'm drunk at comedy off broadway march 22nd I will be in st. louis at the galleria

March 23rd. I will be at the comedy club of kansas city and friday march 24th I'll be in demoyne, iowa same with march 25th saturday demoyne, iowa and then march 26th I'll be at the funny bone in Omaha, nebraska also april 12th the Tacoma comedy club I told you i was drunk and then april 13th i will be in spokane and then april 14th and april 15th i will be in bozeman montana at last best comedy you can go to gareth reynolds.com for all that ticket information so come join me on the road gareth reynolds.com we're having laughs i'm drunk