bedlam; bellatrix lestrange

day 72 : treatment 7

"i have no other choice,"

he says, "the treatments aren't working"

i am as disagreeable as the day i stepped into this god-forsaken hospital

so i am strapped to the white bed,

again,

again, i am strapped to the bed

ropes carving into my skin

still, i struggle

metal clips on my fingers;

cool, hard, and tight

and with the flip of a switch, my fingers begin to sizzle,

dissolving,
dissolving,
d i s
s o v
l i
n
g

until my whole body is thrashing

and eventually—finally—

my eyes close

⊆ ♠ ⊇

wake up lying in a starched white bed,

arms and legs bound

eyes throb and i feel numb

     numb. numb. numb.

     like a cesspool of absolutely nothing.

     numb. numb. numb.

"is alice still there?"

"who is alice?"

doctor says that i've been cured,

     that i can go home soon

i lay quiet and still, completely immobile,

     numb. numb. numb.

and he smiles wide

╓┈♔◦☓◦☙◦♔◦☙◦☓◦♔┈╖
transorbital lobotomy
╙┈♔◦☓◦☙◦♔◦☙◦☓◦♔┈╜

note : description gets a bit gruesome in the second paragraph

in the late 1800s, a swiss physician was able to calm his patients/make them easier to manage by removing parts of their cortex, pioneering the way for surgical manipulation of the brain. later, in 1935 two portuguese medical professionals discovered that if they poured pure ethyl alcohol into the prefrontal cortex, they could similarly calm patients. this idea was then "refined" by two american neurologists, who didn't want to conduct surgery in order to perform this procedure.
in the new method (coined transorbital lobotomy) a pick was stuck into the back of the eye socket to pierce the frontal lobes. the pick would be moved back and forth in order to sever connections in the brain, before the same process was repeated for the other eye.
though lobotomy could be, in a sense, more efficient than surgery (the procedure could be finished in 10 minutes), it also had quite a few side effects. after transorbital lobotomies, patients were apathetic, passive, had a lack of initiative, and lost emotional depth. many also died from the procedure, but that didn't deter its popularity as there were few "cures" for insanity at the time.

if you read this far you get...
     drumroll please
CHOCOLATES!! (duh haha <3)