Self mutilation is really amazing and baffling

[Ivan Seeking]

This and any form of self mutilation is really amazing and baffling to me. I have seen videos of people from primitive African cultures who have their heads layed wide open - permanently - for regular trepanning "treatments"

Spirits, Brains And Minds
The Historical Evolution of Concepts on the Mind
Nowadays, even lay people know that the brain is the organ that controls behavior and mental skills. Educated people also know that chemical and electric phenomena lay behind the functioning of the nervous system. However, all this knowledge is quite recent and during many centuries what people considered to be true about the functioning of the brain was completely different from what we know today. Mankind has been linking mind to the brain the for a long time. Human skulls with holes deliberately made in them were found in sites more than 10.000 years old. Probably, those holes were made in order to grant a way out for the bad spirits that should be tormenting those brains [4]. [continued]

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q...tml+Trepanning+-laser+brain&hl=en&lr=&strip=1

Doctors warn of the dangers of trepanning
Roger Dobson Abergavenny

Doctors have warned about the dangers of trepanning after the launch of several websites promoting the "do it yourself" surgery and the case of a Gloucestershire woman who drilled a 2 cm diameter hole in her skull. [continued]

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/320/7235/602/c

You Need It Like . . .
. . . a Hole in the Head?[/b[
...The response of the medical and scientific community to these theories is succinct. "This is nonsense," says Ayub Ommaya, a professor of neurosurgery at George Washington University and the former chief of neurosurgery at the National Institutes of Health. The risks of the procedure – including blood clots, brain injuries and infections leading to meningitis or death – far outweigh any unproven benefits, he says.

According to several doctors and scientists, blood flow – not blood volume – is related to brain function. The removal of bone from the skull might help increase blood flow in a diseased or damaged brain, but in a normal brain, a trepanation would do nothing. "There is no reason to believe drilling a hole in the head will increase blood flow to the brain," says J. Bob Blacklock, an associate professor of neurosurgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. But even if increased blood flow were attainable, brain function would not increase, says Louis Sokoloff, the chief of the Laboratory of Cerebral Metabolism at the National Institute of Mental Health. Brain function decreases with age, he says, and an increase in metabolism as a result of increased blood flow, even if that were possible, would not reverse the process. "It's like a broken clock," he says. "Moving the pendulum back and forth doesn't make it keep time any better."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/features/trepan.htm

A critical reading of Hippocrates'On Wounds of the Head suggests the writer was a beginner at trepanning. He could not explain clearly, in the pathological terms used in his time, why routine early trepanning was beneficial. His technique was hesitant, suggesting he himself had never done the routine early trepanning he advocated, and he had not yet realized that his policy would be unacceptable to most Greek patients. It is suggested that he might have learned trepanning on a brief trip to Marseilles, where the Gauls had already trepanned for 1500 years. Copyright 2000 Harcourt Publishers Ltd.[continued]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/...ve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11029229&dopt=Citation

 

[Evo]

Here is a site I have referred to before. These people are a bit...out there.

http://www.noah.org/trepan/people_with_holes_in_their_heads.html

 

[R0man]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on self-mutilation and the ancient practice of trepanning. While it may seem baffling and amazing to us in modern times, it is important to understand the historical and cultural context in which these practices took place.

As the articles you have provided suggest, our understanding of the brain and its functions has evolved over time. What was once believed to be a treatment for spiritual or mental ailments is now seen as a dangerous and unnecessary procedure. Today, we have a better understanding of the brain and its complexities, and we have developed more effective and less invasive treatments for mental health issues.

It is also important to recognize that self-mutilation is often a sign of underlying mental health issues and should not be glorified or seen as a form of self-expression. Seeking professional help and finding healthy coping mechanisms is crucial for those struggling with self-harm.

Overall, while it may be fascinating to explore ancient practices, it is important to approach them with a critical and empathetic mindset, understanding that our knowledge and understanding of the human brain and mental health have come a long way since then.