Monday 23 January 2012

walter freeman and lobotomy







While myself and the FPO were at Robbo and Kerry's on Friday, after the celebrations had abated (Kerry's 40th and a gain of 5 pounds), we were discussing lobotomies (as you do in polite society), and more importantly, the work of Walter Jackson Freeman.
For those that don't know, he pioneered the transorbital ( ice pick) frontal lobotomy, and then got carried away with it, performing them extensively (he kept records of 3,439) over aprox 30 years, including on John F Kennedy's sister Rosemary, until there were too many deaths, and he stopped in1967. This was all without any formal surgical training. Basically, it's put an ice pick up a tear duct and tap it into the front of the brain, wiggle it about, then repeat under the other eye.
Amazing (and no thanks).
There's an interesting sound bite about what it was like to have a lobotomy by Freeman here.

toodle pip

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