“I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy,”
What is the difference between a prefrontal lobotomy and a transorbital lobotomy?
The two procedures differ in how the doctor gets access to the brain.
In a prefrontal lobotomy, the doctor drills holes in the side or on top of the patient's skull to get to the frontal lobes.
In the transorbital lobotomy, the brain is accessed through the eye sockets.
The transorbital lobotomy left no scars (apart from two black eyes); took less than 10 minutes; could be performed outside of an operating room.
What effect did the ice pick lobotomy have on patients?
Freeman believed that cutting certain nerves in the brain could eliminate excess emotion and stabilize a personality.
Indeed, many people who received the transorbital lobotomy seemed to lose their ability to feel intense emotions, appearing childlike and less prone to worry.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014565
http://archive.is/VAkC
Fiamberti performed the operation by forcing a thin tube (cannula) or a leukotome through the bony orbit at the back of the eye socket and injecting alcohol (or formalin) into the frontal lobe. Instead of a tube and alcohol, Freeman’s instrument of choice to penetrate through the bone was initially an ice pick and later a specially designed leukotome, which he manipulated by hand to destroy the neuronal tracts in the brain that were thought to give rise to mental illness.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Walter-Jackson-Freeman-II#ref1119483
http://archive.is/dSOgi
Freeman bypassed the need for anaesthetics by electroshocking (using ECT machines) the patient until they passed out. He then placed an orbitoclast (jokingly referred to as an 'icepick') beneath the upper eye lid, and behind the eye. It was then tapped through the orbital bone, to a depth of 5 cm, parallel to the bony ridge of the nose, and ~15° towards the midline. The icepick was then pivoted approximately 40° away from the nose, then returned. The pick was then tapped a further 2 cm, and handle pivoted ~20° towards the nose, and then ~30° away, then moved toward the top of the head. It was then returned to the starting position, and removed. This was then repeated on the other side.
https://www.samhs.org.au/Virtual%20Museum/Surgery/Leucotomy/Leucotomy.html
http://archive.is/KOLKv
The prefrontal cortex serves a number of complex functions in the brain, usually called executive functions. (Higher-level decision making and planning, reasoning and understanding, personality expression, creativity and behaving in a socially acceptable way all fit under this category.) The prefrontal cortex is connected to many other regions of the brain, including the thalamus, which receives and relays sensory signals.
https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/lobotomy1.htm
http://archive.is/hi9cz
Following the operation, spontaneity, responsiveness, self-awareness and self-control were reduced. Activity was replaced by inertia, and people were left emotionally blunted and restricted in their intellectual range. The lobotomy procedure could have severe negative effects on a patient's personality and ability to function independently. Lobotomy patients often show a marked reduction in initiative and inhibition. They may also exhibit difficulty putting themselves in the position of others because of decreased cognition and detachment from society.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobotomy
tl;dr cabalists' black eyes = transorbital lobotomy