Chapter 10
Summary
This final chapter discusses psychosurgery and Antonio Egas Moniz, the father of psychosurgery. Slater discusses his early research and the results of some of the first surgeries in which he injected alcohol into the brain to destroy nerve tissue. In many cases his experiments were described as successes but many point out that he had a poor follow-up.
Slater later discusses Charlie Newitz who goes through with the surgery after having no success with psychiatric medications. Afterwards, he says the OCD is gone but that he feels a little low. He even says he might go back to have another surgery if the depression doesn’t leave him.
Slater also compares psychosurgery to medications and how with Prozac, no one really knows how or where Prozac operates in the brain. Slater says doctors that prescribe Prozac are acting like Moniz since they don’t know exactly how it works but want to help people.
Discussion
I’m not sure where I stand with psychosurgery. I know very little about it other than what I have just read in this book. It is unsettling to me to imagine doctors cutting out a small portion of the brain. However, I am also not a big fan of psychiatric medications or any medications for that matter, so I totally agreed with what Slater said about medications. I especially liked when she wrote, “Drugs are like oil spills; they leak everywhere, and washed up on shore are the slick black birds, the insomnia and sweats.”
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