Session 9 and The Lobotomist 8:54am, January 20, 2010
Session 9
After reading one of a million top 10 lists this past month, I had a title shoved in my face that had somehow previously slipped by unnoticed. Session 9. I recently got a hold of it and was gripped from the opening credits to the last frame. David Caruso and Peter Mullen (as Gordon) were awesome. Session 9 crackles with fear, and director Brad Anderson absolutely gifts us all with an original story that makes you proud to be a horror fan this side of the new century. If you haven’t seen it, its worth your time to check it out.
One of the more harrowing elements of the film is a weapon used to off a couple of the cast members. A metal spike. Its explained in Session 9 that this spike was used as a method of psychiatry back in the day – a sort of alternative lobotomy procedure. The eyelid is lifted, and the spike is inserted deep into the ocular cavity about four inches or so, until its tip reaches the frontal lobe of the brain. With a little jiggle, the device scratched at the tissue of the brain, and once removed, the patient was left lethargic and “out-of-it” – effectively reducing any psychotic behavior and leaving behind only a black eye as evidence of surgery.
How fucking sick and horrible would that be? To have a steel spike forced past your eyeball and into your brain. Here is a scene from Session 9. Its the end of the film, so if you havent seen it, consider it a major spoiler. Those who are itching to check Session 9 out should come back to this blog later. But if you’ve seen it – here is the chilling ending, and a scene with the spike Im focusing on here today.
Now here is the kicker. The spike story is TRUE. About 50 years ago, Dr Walter Freeman practiced psychiatry, and was researching a way to “instantly” repair the mentally disturbed – a way to bring a psychotic patient into the office, perform a quick operation, and return them to their lives the following day. He developed a lobotmy spike. Watch this video (IF YOU CAN SIT THROUGH IT) and learn about Dr. Freeman’s outpatient treatment that had other observing doctors in the room passing out and throwing up.
The Lobotomist - Walter J. Freeman
WIKIPEDIA: Walter J. Freeman (born January 30, 1927) is an American biologist, theoretical neuroscientist and philosopher who has conducted pioneering research in how brains generate meaning. His main body of research has been on the perception of rabbits using electroencephalography. Based on a theoretical framework of neurodynamics that includes chaos theory, he believed that the currency of brains is primarily meaning and only secondarily information. This contrasts with the symbolic representations emphasized by many traditional researchers in cognitive psychology or cognitive neuroscience who use neural network theories.
Now that’s some wacked out shit. He seems really smart, and the woman in the video is smiling in a picture one day after the procedure, but you would have to kill me before you ever got me into a position like that. Catheters, colonoscopies, and front lobotomies are on my NO FUCKIN WAY list.
Keep your head (or get your head together) people.
Don’t be a victim.
I had to watch videos like this for a psychology class. Pretty sick shit. There was also one I saw where a guy who was trying to cure his OCD allowed the doctors to take off the top of his head, cut a hole in his skull, insert a drill down the hole, and crank the thing like there was no tomorrow. Chunks of brain matter were flying out, and the dude was awake through it all, which is the craziest thing about brain surgery.
One kid in my class fainted and went into a seizure during that part.
SESSiON 9 WAS A GREAT MOViE! i COULDNT SiT THROUGH THE LOBOTOMY.. JUST THAT THiNG GETTiNG CLOSE TO THE EYE.. *CRiNGES* BUT i SAW HER FACE AFTERWRDS.. SHE LOOKS SO SWEET.. i FELT BAD FOR HER..
THAT GUY WALTER FREEMAN iS ONE SiCK FUCK..
I watched Session 9 years ago, and told my friends and family about it. They were all very dismissive of it. My bro watched it, then got angry, and all offended by certain aspects of it (won't spoil anything here). I've always loved that movie. The last line, spoken the way it is, in that weird warbling voice, still gives me chills. I've also known about the lobotomy thing for a long time, since it was mentioned in another movie, but I can't remember what movie it was... I wanna say Hannibal, or Bram Stoker's Dracula, but I'm probably as wrong as a human can be. It is a pretty gnarly procedure (haven't watched that vid yet, but I will), and I pray it never happens to anyone I know. But if you start digging around in medical history, you'll find a lot of sick shit. Experiments done on innocent crazy people, that while some of them did give us knowledge we still use today, were sadistic to say the least.
just watched the vid, and it is disturbing, especially to folks who can't stand shit near their eyes... But it made me think of something. All those people seeing that as a legitimate form of psychological help, would go right in when feeling a little depressed, or something minor, and get that lobotomy. And in Session 9 they listed off a bunch of weird sounding "ailments" as psychological problems that would be candidates for this procedure. that shit gets creepy. They looked at it almost like the drive thru version of psychological help. It's for all occasions, and takes 3 minutes.
whoa. crazy video. Session 9 rocks. Anyone ever see the video with the transplanted monkey head? It was on nat geo or history? They transplanted the head of a monkey to another monkey's body and it survived for a very brief amount of time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb3Zi0DenaE
Session 9 is a sick movie. i saw it when it came out years ago, and remains a classic in my circle of friends. and ReplicA, maybe your thinking of the movie "Insanitarium" , where peter storme who played a crazy Dr, tried to use it at the end... best line of the movie( Insanitarium)- "he's not dead, just a little less engaged"
Just watched Session 9 last night. How the hell does it have a 3/10? That is disgraceful, BD. Someone change that now... or at least do a second review.
That lobotomy spike is some seriously brutal shit. I wonder if those "patients" went into the procedure knowing fully well what was going to happen, or were they kinda just made to do it? I don't think I could ever be fucked up enough to allow some jackass to fry me up and hammer a goddamned icepick into my freaking eye. Science was a real bitch back in the day, huh?
E-e-evil vid! Doctors were treated like gods in them days (probably more so than now I suspect) and what with the horrors of mental illness, a fast, radical cure from a miracle doctor must have looked like the Absolute Thing To Be Done... talk about getting most woefully ripped off!
Wow, might be time to revisit Session 9... great article btw.
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