X-Message-Number: 13037
Date: Sat, 01 Jan 2000 16:24:51 -0700
From: Mike Perry <>
Subject: Consciousness of Lobotomy Patients

George Smith, #13029 comments

>I am reminded of the early fifties when psychiatrists were commonly
>performing lobotomies which seemed to help patients.  Later it was realized
>that the patients with lobotomies were incapable of learning anything new,
>such as being able to tie one's shoelaces with a knot that went over instead
>of under.  The word "zombie" was recently used here on the Cryonet regarding
>what I would term "non-conscious personality duplications", such as we see
>in lobotomy patients.
>
If by this you mean lobotomy patients were not conscious, I disagree.
Apparently they had a version of Korsakoff's syndrome--inability to form new
memories. But this doesn't preclude consciousness.

Mike Perry

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