Lobotomy In North America

Research Question

The introduction of the lobotomy procedure to North America was primarily due to its endorsement by famed neurologist Walter Freeman in the early 20th century. Despite a barrage of criticism and hostility from both psychoanalysts and a small portion of the medical community who questioned the ethics of the procedure. However, Freeman’s procedure success was mainly due to his reputation as one of the nation’s best neurologists. Freeman was a professor of neurology at George Washington University and performed the first lobotomy in the United States. Freeman unlike his predecessors, Moniz or Gottlieb was a true specialist in his field and a decorated surgeon. Freeman looked for ways to make the procedure both more efficient and less invasive, by using electroshocks and an ice pick which the surgeon would thrust between the eyeball and eyelid via the eye socket into the frontal lobe. The simplicity of Freeman’s procedure and its cost effectiveness allowed the pseudoscience to spread across North America and soon became the standard procedure for mental health care in North America.

My research question is what influenced the rise of lobotomies in North America in the late 18th and early 19th century and how did these factors shape modern North American mental health care and subsequently what led to its fall? In my final paper, I would like to focus on how the procedure changed over time, starting with the ancient science behind the procedure, and the background on its