Walter Jackson Freeman II

Walter Jackson Freeman II was an American neurologist who claimed that he specialized in lobotomy. Freeman popularized the transorbital lobotomy, often referred to as the “ice-pick” lobotomy to make the procedure faster, cheaper, and accessible for use in overcrowded psychiatric hospitals, where there were often no operating rooms, surgeons, or anesthesia and limited budgets. The transorbital approach involved placing an orbitoclast under the eyelid and against the top of the eye socket; a mallet was then used to drive the orbitoclast through the thin layer of bone and into the brain. Freeman's transorbital lobotomy method did not require a neurosurgeon and could be performed outside of an operating room, often by untrained psychiatrists without the use of anesthesia by using electroconvulsive therapy to induce seizure and unconsciousness. In 1947, Freeman's partner James W. Watts ended their partnership because Watts was disgusted by Freeman's modification of the lobotomy from a surgical operation into a simple "office" procedure.