Shutter Island: Mind Control, Mysteries & Lobotomies
Using science to change criminals in Scorsese's film, Shutter Island
At Curing Crime, we are studying films in which lobotomies are used or discussed. Scorsese’s Shutter Island (2010) is among them. This piece showed how mental health professionals combined surgical, pharmacological, and therapeutic approaches to help their patients and reflected fears about how these tools could be misused.
Before diving into today’s topic, we would like to give an unnecessary spoiler warning (the movie was released in 2010, so you had plenty of time to see it).
If you’re still reading, consider yourself warned. If you have not seen it, and do not want a spoiler, then stop. Seriously. On the other hand, we find that knowing will surely make you see the film differently. Here it goes.
Spoiler: Andrew Laeddis is a psychiatric patient who’s deluded himself into believing he is a US Marshal called Ted Daniels, and is investigating the disappearance of a so-called patient, Rachel Solando. His doctors, Sheehan and Cowley, have decided, after many unsuccessful efforts to cure him, to use an experimental treatment which involves playing along the patient's delusions.
The Plot
A first time-viewer experiences Andrew Laeddis’ delusions as real. Andrew is a patient who believes himself to be Ted Daniels, a US Marshal investigating the disappearance of Rachel Solando in the Ashecliffe Hospital of Shutter Island. He is joined by his lead psychiatrist, Dr. Lester Sheehan, who role-plays as Chuck, Andrew’s new partner. Upon arriving on the island, Ted (Andrew) and Chuck (Dr. Sheehan) are welcomed by Dr. Cawley, the Chief psychiatrist of the institution, who gives basic information regarding the hospital and Solando’s alleged disappearance. Shortly after beginning the investigation, the audience learns of Ted’s true motives for being on the island. That is, to find the man he believed to have murdered his wife: Andrew Laeddis, a pyromaniac.
As the investigation unfolds, Ted became convinced the mental institution was a cover for a government programme that sought to create the perfect human weapon through psychiatric interventions, to fight communism. Taking advantage of a massive storm hitting the island, Ted visits Ward C, the “dangerous” patients ward, and talks with one of paranoid schizophrenic patients, George Noyce. Noyce revealed the truth of the role-playing experiment, letting Teddy know who he was, but Ted misinterpreted the whole conversation as a metaphorical warning for his own safety, and became further convinced of his conspiracy. Much of which was fuelled by Noyce’s own schizophrenic delusions of government experiments on the island.
These beliefs reach their climax when Ted finds the “real Rachel Solando” hidden in a cave below a cliff. The audience later learns that this whole scene was but a figment of Andrew’s imagination, yet she offered confirmation of his worst suspicions. In his mind, Rachel told him she was a former doctor, declared insane once she denounced the experiments. She went into hiding to save her own life and sanity.
Determined to find evidence of this, Ted headed to the Lighthouse, the place where he believed the experiments took place. He found Dr Cawley waiting for him with the truth. Cawley revealed the whole situation to be a ruse, an experiment in a desperate attempt to cure him. Otherwise, he will be subjected to a prefrontal lobotomy. The doctor told Andrew who he was and what he’d done. Upon learning this, he passed out and later woke up accepting his reality: he was Andrew Laeddis, the man who killed his wife.
Fears of Mind-Control were a real thing
In the scene where Andrew imagined a conversation with Rachel Soldano, she mentioned North Korean experiments on American POW which turned “soldiers into traitors.” Given Andrew’s military background and intelligence, it is conceivable that an American serviceman would be familiar with American POWs during the Korean War (1950-53). Real Americans were shocked when American pilots were paraded by their North Korean captors, and admitted to State sanctioned war crimes (Powell, 2021). Some twenty-one American soldiers chose to remain in North Korea and publicly declared the alleged superiority of their communist system. The experience of seeing American POWs apparently betray their country, denounce American actions, and the choice some made to remain in Korea, convinced Americans that brainwashing was real.
The power of psychiatry to reshape people seemed real because of a series of powerful demonstrations and experiments at that time. In 1963, José Delgado, a Spanish neurosurgeon claimed he was close to stopping violence. That year, Delgado stood in the middle of a bull-fighting arena, and was able to stop a charging bull by pressing a button that caused a surgically implanted device to release electricity in the bull’s brain (Chavkin, 1978). Delgado claimed he had not only localized violence in its brain, but that he was able to prevent it from being violent.
The power of psychiatry was also reflected in 1950s-1970s literature. For example, In The Manchurian Candidate (book 1959, film 1962), the son of a powerful political family has been unwittingly brainwashed into carrying out assassinations, by order of the Communists. In another case, the iconic book/film, A Clockwork Orange, a young criminal is offered an opportunity to participate in an experiment which would guarantee his freedom. This intervention allegedly made violence nauseating for him, and hence transformed him into a good citizen. This film asked whether a man can be considered to be good, if that man has the good “imposed” on them.
In the final scenes of Shutter Island, Andrew woke up after having a breakthrough. When Dr. Sheehan asked him how he was doing, Andrew addressed him as Chuck suggesting he had once again regressed. Thus, he was destined to be lobotomized. However, Andrew then added “which would be worse – to live as a monster or die as a good man.” We think this showed that Andrew had overcome his delusions, nonetheless, he chose to undergo a lobotomy to avoid facing reality. Thus, Shutter Island explored a similar question to Clockwork Orange relating to the use of technology to reshape people.
The Clockwork Orange: Forcing Dishonest Men to be Good
Different Approaches to Treating Patients
During the film, Dr. Cawley admitted to creating the most elaborate ruse to see whether it would help Andrew recover from his delusions. He argued that he did so because he believed that the best approach is by listening to patients “with respect” and seeing if they can be cured. During this conversation, Cawley mentioned the “new school” of psychiatry, which was characterized by the use of psychotropics like Thorazine (introduced in 1951).
On October 2, 2024 we will be publishing an overview of the eclipse of lobotomy and thorazine’s role. You can also read our article, Mad Doctors, to learn about why lobotomy became so popular.
Despite Cawley’s dislike of this pharmaceutical approach, he said it was necessary and helpful in Andrew’s case. Many mental health professionals at the time also argued that medicines such as thorazine would help patients be more open to psychotherapeutic interventions. Therefore, the portrayal of a doctor using a combination of drugs and psychotherapeutic approaches is realistic, even if the degree to which role-playing is permitted in the film is beyond reason.
Cawley also mentioned that “old school” psychiatry relied on the use of psychosurgery. These operations made patients easier to manage. The idea that such interventions can be used to control and subdue patients is repeated during one of Andrew’s hallucinated conversations with Rachel Solando. She mentioned that lobotomy eliminated pain and this is one of the ways in which real doctors were experimenting with lobotomy during the period we’ve covered in Gluttony for Lobotomy. She also suggested that psychosurgery could eliminate memory and desensitize individuals.
At the end of the film, Andrew appeared to opt for lobotomy to stop feeling like a monster. During the 1950’s there was a growing awareness of lobotmy’s side effects which makes it plausible that Laeddis knew it could eliminate pain and dull his guilt. In the film, some of the staff seems skeptical of Crawley’s elaborate ruse and the hospital’s board is said to have recommended a lobotomy. The fact that this was recommended suggested that this operation was seen as a legitimate way to intervene. Cawley and Sheehan both advocate trying other interventions beforehand, but neither is staunchly opposed to incurable patients being lobotomized.
A Gluttony For Lobotomy
The film’s plot also made assumptions as to the reasons why people go insane. These likely reflect the book’s authors ideas, as well as the mental health professional who consulted on the film. In the case of Andrew, the film alluded to several experiences that contributed to his madness. First, upon arriving at a Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, he saw hundreds of dead people, many of which were children. The soldiers arrived too late to save them. Furthermore, Andrew may have participated in the shooting of defenseless Nazi guards, and witnessed the camp commander’s slow and agonizing death. Later, Andrew became an alcoholic, and upon returning home one day, found his wife drowned their children. He felt guilty for not having helped his wife when she had shown signs of mental illness. Thus, he felt responsible for his children’s deaths. In his hallucination with Solando, she mentioned that people would think that anyone who had his experiences would crack. This conversation reifies that, according to the film, people could become insane as a result of their experiences.
Conclusion
Films, like literature, are interesting windows into the times in which they were produced. Some of these are set in the past, and this presents a bigger challenge because they, in some ways, are products of their context, representing a different era. Hence, they can reflect ideas and beliefs of both periods.
