Walter Jackson Freeman II
Walter Jackson Freeman II was born on November 14, 1895. See ranking, bio blurb, and everyone else born that day.
About Walter Jackson Freeman II
Walter Jackson Freeman II (November 14, 1895 – May 31, 1972) was an American neurologist who claimed that he specialized in lobotomy. 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 popularized 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. Freeman and his procedure played a major role in popularizing lobotomy and spreading it around the world; he later traveled across the United States visiting mental institutions. After four decades Freeman had personally performed possibly as many as 4,000 lobotomies on patients as young as 12, despite having no surgical training. As many as 100 of his patients died of cerebral hemorrhage, and he was banned from performing surgery in 1967.