Walter Jackson Freeman II

"Walter Jackson Freeman" redirects here. For his son, see Walter Jackson Freeman III.
Walter Jackson Freeman II
Walter Jackson Freeman II in 1941
Born(1895-11-14)November 14, 1895
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedMay 31, 1972(1972-05-31) (aged 76)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Education
Occupations
Known for
ChildrenWalter Jackson Freeman III
RelativesWilliam Williams Keen (maternal grandfather)

Walter Jackson Freeman II (November 14, 1895 – May 31, 1972) was an American physician who specialized in lobotomy.[1] Wanting to simplify lobotomies so that it could be carried out by psychiatrists in psychiatric hospitals, where there were often no operating rooms, surgeons, or anesthesia and limited budgets, Freeman invented a transorbital lobotomy procedure. The transorbital approach involved placing an orbitoclast (an instrument resembling an ice pick) under the eyelid and against the top of the eye socket; a mallet was then used to drive the orbitoclast through the thin layer of bone and into the brain. Freeman's transorbital lobotomy method did not require a neurosurgeon and could be performed outside of an operating room, often by untrained psychiatrists without the use of anesthesia by using electroconvulsive therapy to induce seizure and unconsciousness. In 1947, Freeman's partner James W. Watts ended their partnership because Watts was disgusted by Freeman's modification of the lobotomy from a surgical operation into a simple "office" procedure.[2]

Freeman and his procedure played a major role in popularizing lobotomy; he later traveled across the United States visiting mental institutions. In 1951, one of Freeman's patients at Iowa's Cherokee Mental Health Institute died when he suddenly stopped for a photo during the procedure, and the orbitoclast accidentally penetrated too far into the patient's brain. After four decades Freeman had personally performed possibly as many as 4,000 lobotomies on patients as young as 12, despite the fact that he had no formal surgical training.[3] As many as 100 of his patients died of cerebral hemorrhage, and he was finally banned from performing surgery in 1967. Freeman's procedure eventually spread across the world.

  1. ^ "The Lobotomist". American Experience. Retrieved July 10, 2011.
  2. ^ Caruso, James P.; Sheehan, Jason P. (2017). "Psychosurgery, ethics, and media: a history of Walter Freeman and the lobotomy". Neurosurgical Focus. 43 (3): E6. doi:10.3171/2017.6.FOCUS17257. PMID 28859561.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference rowland was invoked but never defined (see the help page).