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Walter Freeman: Father of the Lobotomy - Page 2

© John McManamy

Freeman and Watts claimed 52 percent of their first 623 surgeries yielded "good" results, but they did not offer a clinical yardstick for what constituted an improvement. Patients often had to be retaught how to eat and use the bathroom Relapses were common, and three percent died from the procedure. The most famous Freeman-Watts failure was JFK's sister, Rosemary Kennedy, who has needed full-time care for the last 60 years.

Nevertheless, hospitals were willing to put up with lobotomies and all their shortcomings for no other reason than post-operation lethargic patients were easier to care for than pre-operation emotionally-charged ones.

In 1967, Freeman performed a lobotomy on one of his original patients in Berkeley, California. He severed a blood vessel, and the patient died three days later. This effectively brought his career full circle. During the last five years of his life, he performed no more lobotomies. He died from cancer in 1972, age 76.

Today, according to the Washington Post, there are probably fewer than 20 brain operations a year (not lobotomies) in the US to treat psychiatric disorders, part of the negative legacy of Freeman that has scared away researchers and funders. The NIMH does not fund research for psychiatric surgery, though in theory that could change. But first the ghost of Freeman needs to be thoroughly lobotomized.

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