Also, I believe a lobotomy just makes you more docile and does not turn you into the lifeless rag doll as Mac appeared to be at the end.
There was a lot of variation in outcome for lobotomies, depending on how much the rod was moved around inside the skull and how much hemorrhaging occurred.
In some cases, the person would be basically functional but somewhat off following the surgery. These were the small fraction of "success stories" which basically boiled down to minor rather than severe brain damage. In other cases, the brain damage would be more extreme (usually due to huge hematomas in the frontal cortex), and patients would be left in an almost vegetative state like McMurphy's.
As a case in point, consider John F. Kennedy's sister Rose. She was lobotomized, and required 24 hr. nursing care afterwards for the rest of her life. She was basically left with the mind of an infant. The Kennedy clan tried to keep the story under wraps, of course.
Much the same thing happened to playwright Tennessee Williams' sister.
Long sharp rods that resemble knitting needles are inserted above the eye sockets into the brain and are used to severe the frontal lobe from the rest of the brain. The scar on Mac's head would indicate that a much more radical procedure was done.
I'm not sure whether this is because lobotomies were sometimes performed by craniotomy rather than the postorbital rod, or whether the filmmakers took some artistic license to make it obvious to the audience that McMurphy was brain-damaged following surgery. A black eye wouldn't have made it as obvious, at least not to those unfamiliar with how lobotomies were performed.
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ktowny
11 years ago
"the filmmakers took some artistic license to make it obvious to the audience that McMurphy was brain-damaged following surgery."
This ^^^
Love's turned to lust and blood's turned to dust in my heart.
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