Hypnopedia Operation

Have you ever wanted to have an IQ of 200+ and be considered a genius. That’s exactly what Charlie Gordon got but it didn’t last as long as he wanted it to. Charlie was selected to be the only human to undergo this experiment. First it took a while for his intelligence to start to increase and Charlie thought it wasn’t working. Then Charlie saw a huge difference in his spelling. Charlie’s IQ sat at 300+ plus for a couple of months and then he realized that Algernon, the mouse, was starting to be vicious and biting people. That was the first clue that the surgery may not last forever. Charlie had some very difficult times because of the surgery and because of that I think he should have never have gotten it.

This book follows Charlie Gordon, a 32-year-old man with an extremely low IQ. He becomes the subject of an experimental surgery to raise his intelligence, however, this experiment has only been preformed on mice. Written in the voice of Charlie, readers are able to see his progression through journal entries and progress reports.

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”-James Madison. In the science fiction story “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes Charlie Gordon always wanted to have the power of knowledge. Ever since he was a boy, his life goals were to be smart, have friends, and be respected. All of this was hard for him, as he only had an IQ of sixty eight, so he agreed to an A.I. surgery that would hopefully triple his IQ. Charlie Gordon’s life was much better and easier after the A.I. surgery. After the operation Charlie finally had an imagination, experienced adult emotions, and had a second chance to contribute to the real world and science.

Strauss, and in this letter was all research and explanations. He called it ¨The Algernon-Gordon Effect¨ because he was studying it based off of the surgery Algernon and Charlie both had. For instance, ¨Under separate cover I am sending you a copy of my report called ¨The Algernon-Gordon Effect: A Study of Structure and Function of Increased Intelligence,¨ which I would like to have you read and have published¨ (Keyes 239). This quote proves that he was smart enough to figure out a theory and contribute to the science field. Charlie knew more about the surgery than the two doctors themselves, and there is nothing more to Charlie than doing what he dreamed of. Again, more is needed before you insert the quote from the

In the modern world, patients expect their doctors to aid them and to support them. In the short story, “Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes, Dr. Strauss and Dr. Nemur conducted an intelligence enhancement experiment on a man named, Charlie Gordon and changed his life. With an IQ of sixty-eight, the scientists altered him and tripled his IQ. However, this operation has not been ethical because the procedure was abstruse to Charlie, the doctors were rushing, and Dr. Nemur and Dr. Strauss were acting selfishly.

and James Olds, neuroscientists. They placed a small electrode in the brains of rats at the

In the novel Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes, Charlie, a mentally disabled adult, has brain surgery to increase intelligence.The scientists do not have a right to surgically change his brain.Rather than think about/believe Charlie's quality of life, the scientists think about/believe their own fame.Ultimately, with the death of Algernon and Charlie's research, the operation did not yield success.

H.M. was a man who had no memory after having a surgery that was supposed to help reduce his seizures. At the age of seven, he was knocked down by a bicycle. Later on at age ten, began to have minor seizures. As he got older, the seizures progressed, and by age 16, they became major. He went on trying to live a normal life and work until age 27. His seizures at this point were too severe, and could not be controlled by even the highest doses of anticonvulsant drugs. Then, a Dr. by the name of William Scoville offered H.M. an experimental procedure, this would be the procedure that would make him wake up without being able to remember any new information from that point on. For the rest of his life, he participated in experimental studies about memory, and other brain diseases.

The surgery was used on Charlie to, one, make him smarter and, two to improve the science of human intelligence. Therefore it was ethically correct to perform

After the BBC experiment many websites and doctors started examining the breakthrough study. The aforementioned website also states that “The results were startling. Individuals paced neurotically in their cells, and some reported visions of oysters, zebras and tiny cars. Psychological tests administered before and after the ordeal demonstrated significant declines in subjects’ intellectual faculties on the one hand, and increases in suggestibility on the other. (University, 2011)”

Dr. Amir Soas of Case Western Reserve University Medical School in Cleveland, says that you have a higher chance in getting Alzheimer's if you do not read at an early age or try to enhance your learning ability. Charlie was eager to learn for himself which is why he went to night school to learn to benefit his learning ability. Data says artificial smartness could affect the brain. It could give him unknown mental illnesses as one possible side effect. Just because the operation showed positive results, it does not mean that it came from the smartness. The operation could have triggered something else in his brain that has not been in effect. Before the operation Charlie had the motivation to learn new things and to work

His non-declarative memory remained mostly intact, as he could still learn new skills with some effort. This was shown majorly in an experiment where H.M. learnt to trace a star reflected in a mirror, and it proved that while the hippocampus deals with conscious memories, other parts of the brain process different types of memories, such as this performance skill (Holt/Corkin). Before Molaison, researchers didn’t know very much about how memory works, or what areas controlled it, as is exemplified by Dr. Scoville removing H.M.’s hippocampi, unaware of the damage it would cause. In December of 2008, H.M. died, donating his unique brain to science. It was cut into 2,000 slices (Ogden), each of which were scanned to create a digitised 3-Dimensional map of H.M.’s brain for everyone to study

In the late 1880’s, evidence that patients who were mentally ill could be controlled through surgical manipulation of the brain first emerged. Gottlieb Burckhardt, a Swiss physician, removed parts of the brain cortex on mentally ill patients in the insane asylum he supervised. Burckhardt performed his operation on six patients with the goal of calming patients so that they were more controlled but not necessarily sane. Many of his patients more manageable after the surgery but one died several days after the surgery and some patients suffered severe seizures (Stone, 2001). In 1935, Dr. John Fulton, a respected Yale neurophysiologist, who founded the Journal of Neurophysiology and Journal of Neurosurgery, presented his findings of animal

In the story, Flowers for Algernon, Charlie Gordon makes a decision to allow doctors to do an operation on his brain to ¨make him smarter¨. Because of Charlie being mentally handicapped, I think that most of the decision making for Charlie was based on hopes and dreams, and not medical arguments, therefore nobody made the right decision.

Due to insufficient research and animal testing, neither doctor fully understood the consequences of the surgery, as mentioned in the story, “Burt, who is in charge of the experimental animals, tells me that Algernon is changing. He is less co-operative, he refuses to run the maze any more; general motivation has decreased. And he hasn’t been eating. Everyone is upset about what this may mean.”. If the doctors were patient, they would’ve seen something terrible might go on after the brain surgery was performed. This could be the end of his life. Lacking research of potential side effects, this surgery could be illegal. If the doctors had researched more, maybe this brain surgery could be legal and could potentially be the most powerful find yet.