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The 1940s was the decade when psychosurgery was most popular, largely due to the efforts of American neurologist Walter Freeman; its use has been declining since then. Freeman's particular form of psychosurgery, the lobotomy , was last used in the 1970s, but other forms of psychosurgery, such as the cingulotomy and capsulotomy have survived.
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.
More lobotomies were performed on women than on men: a 1951 study found that nearly 60% of American lobotomy patients were women, and limited data shows that 74% of lobotomies in Ontario from 1948 to 1952 were performed on female patients. [6] [7] [8] From the 1950s onward, lobotomy began to be abandoned, [9] first in the Soviet Union [10] and ...
By the late 1940s, new procedures that included electric and insulin shock treatments were employed regularly at the hospital. [3] Hypnosis and group therapy sessions followed and three lobotomies were performed. By 1949 the facility, originally built for 550, housed almost 1,500 men and 250 women. [6]
In 1949, 5,074 lobotomies were carried out in the United States and by 1951, 18,608 people had undergone the controversial procedure in that country. [63] One of the most famous people to have a lobotomy was the sister of John F. Kennedy , Rosemary Kennedy , who was rendered profoundly intellectually disabled as a result of the surgery.
Invented by Canadian neurosurgeon Dr. Kenneth G. McKenzie in the 1940s, the leucotome has a narrow shaft which is inserted into the brain through a hole in the skull, and then a plunger on the back of the leucotome is depressed to extend a wire loop or metal strip into the brain.
The 1940s saw a rapid expansion of psychosurgery, in spite of the fact that it involved a significant risk of death [42] and severe personality changes. [43] By the end of the decade, up to 5000 psychosurgical operations were being carried out annually in the US. [43] In 1949, Moniz was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
James Winston Watts (January 19, 1904 – November 15, 1994) was an American neurosurgeon, born in Lynchburg, Virginia. He was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute as well as the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Watts is noteworthy for his professional partnership with the neurologist and psychiatrist Walter Freeman.