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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 new procedure also signaled the end of the professional relationship between Freeman and Watts. After performing the new procedure by himself on ten patients, Freeman finally revealed to Watts what he had been doing. Watts, unlike Freeman, was a trained neurosurgeon and adamantly believed lobotomy should be performed only by a proper ...
This was an effort by the state of West Virginia and Walter Freeman to use lobotomy to reduce the number of patients in asylums because there was severe overcrowding. [18] [19] By the 1980s, the hospital had a reduced population due to changes in the treatment of mental illness. Those patients who could not be controlled were often locked in cages.
Lobotomy patients often show a marked reduction in initiative and inhibition. [19] They may also exhibit difficulty imagining themselves in the position of others because of decreased cognition and detachment from society. [20] Walter Freeman coined the term "surgically induced childhood" and used it constantly to refer to the results of lobotomy.
By this time, both his stepmother and Freeman were dead, and due to the aftereffects of the surgery, he was unable to rely on his own memories. He travelled the country with Isay and Piya Kochhar, speaking with members of his family, relatives of other lobotomy patients, and relatives of Freeman, and also gaining access to Freeman's archives.
It was invented by Dr. Walter Freeman in 1948 to replace the unique form of leucotome used up until that point for the transorbital lobotomy procedure. This instrument is, essentially, an ice pick with some gradation marks etched onto the shaft.
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.
Rosemary Kennedy: Walter Freeman's most famous patient and sister of President John F. Kennedy. She was left with permanent mental incapacity as a result of the procedure, unable to speak or walk. [48] [49] Rose Williams: Sister of Tennessee Williams. [50] Howard Dully: One of Walter Freeman's youngest patients, author of My Lobotomy (2007). [51]