Walter Jackson Freeman II

Walter Jackson Freeman II ( born November 14, 1895 in Philadelphia, † May 31, 1972 ) was an American physician, psychiatrist and staunch advocate of the lobotomy.

Training

Originally from a wealthy family of doctors Freeman studied at Yale University first history and languages ​​, to his interest in medicine, in particular the physiology and pathophysiology of the brain woke up, which is why he moved to the medical faculty of the University of Pennsylvania and turned to neurology.

After the study

Shortly after he had finished his studies, Freeman took over in 1924, the work as a practicing neurologist in Washington (as the first doctor of this discipline there at all ) on. With discomfort he saw the suffering of the patients at the local psychiatric hospital, St. Elizabeth 's Hospital. After his doctorate, he was chief physician of Neurology at George Washington University.

Lobotomy

Fascinated by the " lobotomy " said psychosurgery method of the Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz, who had developed in 1935 to cure mental illness, modified and simplified Freeman this in 1936 by reaching the access to the brain by simply piercing the eye sockets. This effort has (but not the risk ), so that he finally downright lobotomierte on the assembly line, even if the results were much less questionable. Until 1967, he treated about 3,500 people using this method.

End of career

Walter Freeman, who had never been trained for the rest surgically, did not approve of animal testing prior to use in humans. The damage caused the intervention, were obvious. The lobotomy in general and Freeman's method, in particular, came under increasing criticism, especially since he also operated minors. In addition, there was now psychotropic drugs that made ​​the intervention unnecessary.

But it was only in 1967, after a patient had died three days after surgery of a cerebral hemorrhage, him the surgery was finally banned. In an effort to redeem himself, he sold his house and drove a motor home for the purpose of data collection by the States.

On 31 May 1972 he died of colon cancer.