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Author: SharleeD

Sep 24th 2012 at 9:07:02 AM

Possibly the description could point out that lobotomy in fiction is almost never presented as an actual ''therapy'', but rather as a threat held over people or a means of rendering an inconvenient subject (e.g. a witness) compliant and unable to threaten the one who performs it.  Something like Corrupt Reason For Lobotomy, with the rare ''legitimate'' medical use of this procedure (legitimate for the time-period, anyway) being an aversion.

BTW, the ''Total Recall'' example isn't really about a lobotomy, so much as how laymen misuse the term "lobotomy" to refer to any sort of brain-tampering effect that diminishes intellect or willpower.  Lobotomy is actually a '''specific''' clinical procedure -- the surgical severing of a particular cluster of nerve fibers -- so having one's mind damaged by Rekall's ''non-surgical'' memory-modification technology wouldn't qualify as one.

And another example:

* Invoked in ''[[MysteryCaseFiles Escape From Ravenhearst]]'', in which the Master Detective must perform a simulated lobotomy on an animatronic "mental patient" so she can beat him in a card game.