Walter Freeman II Lobotomy By: Lynelle Tremelling

William Williams Keen Walter’s Grandfather Brown University Jefferson College Served in the Civil War in the US Army as a surgeon Performed the first brain operation to remove a tumor and also operated on President Grover Cleveland He was a showman in surgery

Walter Freeman I Walter’s Father (Walter Freeman) was a successful Doctor Born in 1860 Double majored Took classes in Philadelphia to court Corrine Cold and strict father Distant husband to Corrine Keen

Corinne Keen Walter II mother Daughter of William Williams Keen Born in 1868 Distant cousin to Lizzie Borden Very cold, strict Walter II said that he admired her but never loved her. Spent most of her time with the children, liked to talk about feelings.

Walter Freeman II Childhood He was born into a very affluent and prominent family on Nov. 14, 1895 He was very sick as a child Grandfather performed surgery “Little Wonder Boy” Tutored in dancing in riding, had a governess Leather whip when misbehaving Gold coin

Walter in College He had an odd personality and an odd sense of fashion He liked poetry and to show off his family’s wealth-limo A friend of his remembered meeting him at Yale for the first time while he was wearing a Mexican sombrero and swinging a cane.

Walter Freeman’s Higher Education He attended Yale and got his Undergraduate from 1912 to 1916 1918 World War I-Student Doctor 1920 Neurology school University of Pennsylvania Medical School. Began work in 1924 as a neurologist He earned his PhD in neuropathology Never got a license to perform surgery

College continued… William Spillar rejected Freeman Traveled to Europe visited asylums in London and Paris. He worked with psychiatrists in Vienna and Rome. St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and George Washington University He returned to the states depressed. He saw no real treatment for the insane. He wrote, “I looked around at the hundreds of patients and thought, what a waste.”

Marjorie Barnard College stayed until earning her masters for Economics Became an assistant professor at 25 Earned PHD in Economics When the couple met Six children with Walter U.S. Tariff for 20 years Inattentive grandmother Marjorie passed away in 1932

Johann Gottlieb Burckhardt Swiss Psychiatrist Born in 1836 in Switzerland Performed the first psychosurgical operation Received his medical doctorate in 1860 Died in 1907 from Pnemonia

Neurology Millions of soldiers were wounded in WW1 and returned to England, Germany, France and the US with brain damage. In earlier wars soldiers would have died because there was no penicillin. Scientists had many subjects to study because of this.

Psychotherapy Sigmund Freud had published his theories and they were beginning to spread and accepted worldwide. Freeman wasn’t intrigued by Freud or psychoanalysis. He thought the approach could be dangerous.

Treating the Mentally Ill Electrotherapy Hydrotherapy Electric Showers- patient wears helmet that gives a shower of electricity. Rest cure-isolation Sleep therapy-induced sleep and keep the patient there for 4-6 weeks. Metrazol-Caused violent convulsions Infected teeth The Media left out the bad

Lobotomy 20th Century Used to cure aching pains in the body, as well as behavioral issues Then later began being used for no visible reason at all The U.S. performed the most lobotomies The majority took place between the 1940s-1950s In 1950 the Soviet Union, Japan, and Germany prohibited it as well stating, the procedure was contrary to the principles of humanity.

1935 Conference Walter Freeman and Antonio Egas Moniz attended Results were shown about chimps in which their fronal lobes had been operated on. They became passive and subdued but no one knew why. Moniz immediately started his own research Wrote an article in a French magazine saying that subjects with anxiety and depression seemed to respond best to leucotomies but those with Schizophrenia didn’t respond at all.

Antonio Egas Moniz-Leucotomy Portuguese neurologist 1935 he performed the first brain operation used to treat mental illness Drilled holes in his patient’s skull to access the brain Nobel Prize in medicine in 1949

Walter Jackson Freeman II Studying cadaver brains Massive doses of insulin and use of Metrazol Giant volts of electric shock Was not a very successful doctor but was a good professor with his theatrical personality The Penis Ring

Tools

Prefrontal Lobotomy Convincing in telling people that lobotomies would cure various conditions. 1936 first prefrontal lobotomy performed in US with the help of his research partner James Watts. He believed that cutting certain nerves between the thalamus and the frontal lobes would stabilize a person’s personality.

Alice Hood Hammatt First lobotomy performed in 1936 suffered from insomnia and hysteria Operation took an hour Slipped into comatose and regressed to a child. Forgot to eat, speak, did get better. She was able to stay out of mental hospitals with lessened anxiety She died of pneumonia at the age of 68

Presentation in Baltimore He did five more prefrontal lobotomies before presenting his findings He said they all were anxious, depressed, nervous. And now were all more content and more easily cared for. 15% fatality rate Giving the public hope

Rosemary Kennedy First daughter born to JFK Senior and Rose Kennedy She was born with intellectual disabilities Had lobotomy at the age of 23 in 1941 Lobotomy failed and was institutionalized in WI where she passed away They explained to the public years later that she was “mentally retarded”.

Ammaro Fiamberti Italian psychiatrist Performed the first transorbital lobotomy in 1937 Transorbital rarely practiced until Freeman Freeman believed it was less intrusive than Moniz’ Fiamberti became Director of the Psychiatric Hospital of Varese when it was opened in 1964.

Bedlam 1946 Media puts spotlight on mental hospitals U.S. mental hospitals look like concentration camps Public reaction Freeman felt he could help with a cheaper and simpler method

Transorbital Lobotomy 10-minute procedure-no side effects Patient would become unconscious with electroshock Freeman then would peel back the eyelid and place an ice pick He then would hammer the ice pick into the frontal lobes of the brain moving the tool back and forth He would follow the same process with the other eye

Transorbital Lobotomy Watts backed out Competitions with himself-25 in 1 day Called reporters to get crowds Two eyes at one time

Critics Colleagues protested mutilation not an operation James Watts stopped participating due to cruelty and overuse of the lobotomies. No consent from the mentally ill Asked to leave hospitals because of his work being unethical Jonathon Williams said he did not sterilize anything and held people down against their will.

Los Altos Symptoms were long term in patients 1950s Thorazine Classes cancelled Lobotomies becoming unpopular on East Coast Moved away to resurface his career Keen-Yosemite National Park Falls Extramarital affairs

Howard Dully Freeman diagnosed Dully with Schizophrenia at the age of 4 Stepmother and father had him get a lobotomy at the age of 12 in 1960 Howard misbehaved as a child It took him years to recover and was in and out of juvenile correctional systems. He lived homeless and as an alcoholic at this time as well. My Lobotomy

Helen Mortensen Housewife one of his first ten patients. Kept having relapses of psychiatric symptoms. Lobotomies performed in 1946 and 1956 Passed away during her third lobotomy in 1967 Freeman’s surgical privileges were revoked and he retired soon after.

Lobotomobile He charged $25/Lobotomy Traveled the country State hospitals were overcrowded so they accepted this practice more than private hospitals. Portable electroshock device began to fail

Marjorie’s Health Alcoholic Unhappy marriage Nursing home Amputation Walter’s son’s argued and about went to court over it 1972 passed away due to Pneumonia

Walter’s Remaining Years Spent with family Randy passed from Malignant Melanoma Visited former patients Wanted to prove his theories were correct Battled with Colon cancer and passed away in 1972

The Henry Ford of Lobotomy U.S. Psychiatrist Member of the American Psychological Association Led to the use of psychiatric drugs

Questions Reactions to how the Kennedy’s handled things with Rose? Lobotomy-valuable knowledge or a medical travesty? Do you think Freeman became more interested in helping the mentally ill or getting the attention from the public and media?

References Dully, H., & Fleming, C. (2007). My lobotomy: A memoir. New York: Crown. Hai, J. (2005). The lobotomist: A maverick medical genius and his tragic quest to rid the world of mental illness. Hoboken, N.J.: J. Wiley. Kessler, The Sins of the Father, p. 226 Tartakovsky, M. (2011). The Surprising History of the Lobotomy. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 2, 2015, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2011/03/21/the-surprising-history-of-the-lobotomy/