lobotomies

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has the procedure gotten any less barbaric than what was practiced in the mid 20th Century?

FYI, they used to give you a bit of ECT. They then laid you down, took a Patterson trocar and hammered it below your ocular orbits and literally scrambled the frontal lobe of your brain.

I'm willing to try anything for me to control my temper and for me to be a more down-to-earth person and if that means a portion of my brain has to be removed, so be it.

Neuroleptic drugs have basically the same effect -- they shut down the (pre-)frontal part of the brain. The word "neuroleptic" even means "lobotomizing" (the name is changed noways to "anti-psychotic"). I've read that in the 50's they were advertised in doctor's magazines as a "lobotomy in a vial." Haldol, risperal, geodon, zyprexia, abilify, chlorpromazine, stelazine and a slew of others are on the market. Personally, they sound kind of awful (they're great for making people less annoying, which makes them dangerous to the prescriber). They're all over the place these days.

As far as how it works, my take is that since the (pre-)frontal lobe is where willful behavior comes from, if you remove/damage that, then there is less willful behavior. If some of that behavior is negative, then it is reduced. That's what "cured" means. The down side is that good, and neutral behavior is also going to become impaired. Someone who stares at a wall all day is much less aggressive, but also has no interests, and won't save their family if the house is on fire, etc. They're just not a pain in the butt anymore.

You could look up the effects of frontal lobe brain damage since that's what it is.

If you're serious, I'd say go for the drugs. It shouldn't be hard to get a shrink to prescribe risperal or something.