Walter Freeman JACK BASTEN Childhood Born on November 14, 1895 To - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Walter Freeman

JACK BASTEN

Childhood

 Born on November 14, 1895  To Corinne Keen & Walter Freeman in Philadelphia  Richard, Norman, Jack, William, Virginia, and Dot  William Keen

William Keen

 Renowned surgeon  Served in the Civil War  Eventually became a medical professor  Eventually president of the American Medical Association

Education

 Yale in 1912

 Worked at a General Electric factory  Eventually contracted typhoid fever

 Medical school at University of Pennsylvania  Interest in neuropathology  Eventually began working at St. Elizabeths in 1924

Marjorie Franklin

 Married on November 3, 1924 after knowing each other for 3 months  First daughter, Lorne, in July 1925  Twin boys, Walter and Franklin, in 1927  Paul in 1928  Keen in 1934  Randy in 1936

James Watts

 Accomplished neurosurgeon  Became partners in 1935  Attended a London conference together in 1936

Leucotomy

 Pioneered by Moniz  Originally cut out small sections of the brain  Later moved to cutting the fibers connected to the thalamus  Also started using local anesthetics

Lobotomy

 After WW2, needed to reduce the time of the procedure  Operation now would go through the trans orbital plate behind the

eye

 Decided to move from anesthesia to ECT induced comas  This would eventually lead to the breakup of Freeman and Watts  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7W3Z1_1QMg

Fame

 The number of lobotomies performed went from 150 in 1945 to over

5000 in 1949

 By this time, lobotomy had been fully accepted by the medical

community

 Lobotomies were performed at medical institutes all over the

country

On the Road

 Cross country tour of psychiatric facilities in 1949  1951 began another major trip  1952 trip into Virginia and operated on 353 patients  Trip into West Virginia in July that same year, operated on 228

patients in a 12 day time span

Decline

 1954 led to the invention of Chlorpromazine  Sold as a “chemical lobotomy”  Walter and Marjorie moved to California in June  Eventually was no longer able to practice in 1967  Began a search for past patients to prove lobotomy was a success  Died to colon cancer on May 31, 1972

Success?

 No one was ever fully “cured”  Peoples’ personalities tended to change at the very least  Results were all over the board

Discussion Questions

 Was Walter in this for the fame or did he really want to help?  In 5 or 10 years, what might we realize was not a good idea or

practice?