The mental illnesses during the 1950’s were definitely different than procedures than those of today.
They used hydrotherapy, metrazol convulsion, electroshock
therapy, fever therapy, insulin, etc.
Patients during this era had electroshock therapy twice a week
for both genders.
What broke my heart was how researchers described when they got
the patients for their treatment they would beg, plead, cry, and resisted just
going to this specific room.
They also wrote down how they saw the look of terror on
their patients faces and how they felt like criminals being in these electric chairs.
These people who were in the chairs were shocked until they
were unconscious.
It was noted that one assistant put a rubber heel in the
patients mouths so they would not chew their tongue during this procedure.
Other assistants had to hold down those who were being electrocuted
and the only thing that was comforting was seeing some of quitter or more
controlled patients calming the terror-stricken ones.
What disturbed me was how there was a widely accepted procedure
during the 1950s in which the brain’s frontal lobe nerves are severed by
inserting tools through the eye socket.
This was supposed to control various behaviors by altering
the section of the brain affecting social conduct.
During this era doing lobotomy treated mental illnesses and
helped them get better.
Today specialists work with their patients regarding
rewiring their brains and having them go to therapy.
They do not do electric shocks nor hydrotherapy but to work
one on one with their patients without harmful testing as methods that were
used in the 50’s.
One thing that I agree with was lobotomies were stopped
during the mid-60’s.
Hydrotherapy was basically showering or having their patients
sit in bathtubs of warm water that extended for a long period of time to calm
them.
Therefore, they used this method a lot for their patients.
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