Post on 19-Dec-2015
WALTER FREEMAN IILOBOTOMY
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’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
Walter Freeman I
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.
Corinne Keen
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
Swiss Psychiatrist Born in 1836 in
Switzerland Performed the first
psychosurgical operation Received his medical
doctorate in 1860 Died in 1907 from
Pnemonia
Johann Gottlieb Burckhardt
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.
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
Alice Hood Hammatt
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
Presentation in Baltimore
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”.
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.
Ammaro Fiamberti
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
Bedlam 1946
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
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.
Critics
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
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.
Helen Mortensen
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
Lobotomobile
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
U.S. Psychiatrist Member of the American
Psychological Association Led to the use of psychiatric
drugs
The Henry Ford of Lobotomy
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/