Reference Information
Title: Opening Skinner's Box
Author: Lauren Slater
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company (2008)
Chapter 10: Chipped (26 pages)
Summary
The last chapter of Opening Skinner's Box discusses psychosurgery and the inexact science of it. Slater features Antionio Moniz, the "father" of psychosurgery. She talks about his early research in which he injected alcohol into the brain, destroying nerve tissue.
She then discusses Charlie Newitz who undergoes surgery because he found no success with psychiatric medications. His OCD was cured but he felt depressed. He wished to have another surgery if the depression continued.
She concludes by saying that no one really knows how these surgeries work on people. It's kind of like Prozac--doctors don't really know where it operates in the brain. They just know it works sometimes and it helps people, but don't know why that is.
Discussion
Psychosurgery is a tough science; there's not a lot of facts and not a lot of similarities among patients. It's hard to do research on this because one could effectively ruin someone's mind entirely. It's based on a lot of guesswork.
The last chapter of Opening Skinner's Box discusses psychosurgery and the inexact science of it. Slater features Antionio Moniz, the "father" of psychosurgery. She talks about his early research in which he injected alcohol into the brain, destroying nerve tissue.
She then discusses Charlie Newitz who undergoes surgery because he found no success with psychiatric medications. His OCD was cured but he felt depressed. He wished to have another surgery if the depression continued.
She concludes by saying that no one really knows how these surgeries work on people. It's kind of like Prozac--doctors don't really know where it operates in the brain. They just know it works sometimes and it helps people, but don't know why that is.
Discussion
Psychosurgery is a tough science; there's not a lot of facts and not a lot of similarities among patients. It's hard to do research on this because one could effectively ruin someone's mind entirely. It's based on a lot of guesswork.
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