Classroom visuals
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![Brain and Main Nerves of the Human Body]()
Brain and Main Nerves of the Human Body
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![Nervous System]()
Nervous System
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![Cross section of Spinal Cord]()
Cross section of Spinal Cord
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![Brain]()
Brain
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![MRI Scans]()
MRI Scans
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![Cross section of the Brain]()
Cross section of the Brain
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![Diagram of the Human Brain]()
Diagram of the Human Brain
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![CT Scan of the Brain]()
CT Scan of the Brain
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![MRT Scan of a Human Brain]()
MRT Scan of a Human Brain
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Nervous System Organisation (labelled)
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Nervous System Organisation (unlabelled)
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Key Regions of Brain (labelled)
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Key Regions of Brain (unlabelled)
Film info
Film summary
Ice-pick lobotomy was once believed to be a successful treatment for mental illness. Why did people suppose it worked, and what has it taught us about brain function?Key facts
- Dr Walter Freeman introduced the Transorbital Lobotomy procedure.
- This involved using ECT to anesthetize the patient, then hammering an ice pick into the skull and twisting to sever neural pathways.
- Between 1936 and 1967 around 100,000 people were lobotomised.
- The 1950s saw a demise in the procedure and it is now considered a monstrous practice.
Transcript
Dr Walter Freeman has gone down in history for his contribution to brain science, but for all the wrong reasons...
For years he was considered a pioneer of psychiatric medicine but his operations permanently damaged thousands of brains.
Jack El-Hai, Author 'The Lobotomist' – "Psychiatric hospitals in the 1930s were terrible places …
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