The Lobotomist

The theory of frontal lobotomy is to separate frontal lobe with the rest of your brain and to stop the emotional access for people suffering from mental disorders. The patients (retarded, manic…) were all kept in an asylum without any real treatment. Doctor Walter Freeman was disgusted; he saw them as people who did not require sympathy, but action. A neurologist without surgical training, he was called the Maverick Medical Genius. In 1930’s, they were trying shock therapies; the patients left the table subdued, proving to Freeman that mental disorders come from the brain. In 1936 he made a discovery. He picked up an obscure procedure done by a Portuguese doctor, Egas Moniz, which consisted of actually opening the skull, but with no real understanding of the source of outcome. It showed that the first patient to receive this procedure, after waking, had a placid expression. So Freeman, with the help of doctor James Watts, went on to perfect the technique so he operated on conscious patients to see their reaction. This was called by many as a medical turning point. Even the patients with the most favorable outcomes had problems pursuing actions in daily life. Despite the long side effects, Freeman still performed it on a large number of patients.

Prognosis: after they received the procedure, those without support will be hospitalized permanently, and those with outside support can live without noises in their heads, but still would not be able to completely integrate into society. Freeman called lobotomy “an operation of last resort”; however, he still performed them almost every day.  Many who once supported this operation does not anymore. There is no way that the destruction of the brain can restore patients to any normal state. It was no more subtle than a gunshot to the head. Freeman had little patience for his critiques, and went on saying he was doing something for them other people could not. He was giving the patients a chance to erase the pain. Freeman's most notorious operation was on the ill-fated, Rosemary Kennedy, who was permanently incapacitated by a lobotomy at age 23.

In 1954, a new drug called Thorazine produced results similar to those of lobotomy, except for the fact it does not directly operate on the brain. With the emergence of this pill, Freeman’s opportunities to operate vanished. This drug had effects similar to those of tranquilizers and antipsychotics. So Freeman then moved to Los Angeles and started to look for a new group of people on which to conduct lobotomy. He started to focus on kids with ADD, ADHD…etc. One of his first patients was a 12 years old boy, who according to his stepmom was disobedient. Freeman suggested a change of personality through lobotomy. From this, one can notice how his desperation to operate has altered his perception and now directs this procedure to any possible patient. He lobotomized 19 kids in total, all under the age of 18.

Walter Freeman died from cancer in 1972 at the age of 76. Lobotomy is still performed in extreme cases.