lobotomy

A surgical operation on the frontal lobe of the brain intent on treating certain mental illnesses.

They existed at a time in history when shock therapy, brain tissue manipulation, implants, drug experimentation and lobotomies were treatments de jour.

The severing of the prefrontal cortex from the thalamic region of the brain.

The severing of the sympathetic nerve trunk.

Separation, removal or deprivation.

Yet this conscience is a deep part of the soul; to silence it, characters must perform a kind of moral lobotomy, excising the best parts of themselves, until what is left becomes less than human.

Organisations which set out to treat all individuals as the same, or are ‘colour-blind’ in their philosophy, could be said to impose a form of cultural lobotomy on their clients, in denying the additional skills, knowledge and experience that they have as members of a minority culture.