Transformation of “ice Pick” Lobotomy

        Known as one the most crucial brain surgeries in the medical field, the lobotomy is also called the surgery of the soul. Invented in 1935 by Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz, this was sought out to be treatment for severe mental disorders but that changed drastically. This was also practiced in Sweden when various mental hospitals introduced this procedure to general surgeons. Approximately 4,500 pre-frontal lobotomies were performed in the 1944-1966 time period in Sweden at the Serafimer Hospital. (Sandlund Ogren, 2007, p.1) After being published worldwide, Walter Freeman, a psychiatrist from the United States, became very intrigued by this surgical procedure.

         In 1946 Psychiatrist Walter Freeman brought the trans-orbital lobotomy to the United States to treat mental illness with his partner James Watts accompanying him. The procedure of the “ice pick” lobotomy consists of Dr. Freeman inserting an ice pick into your frontal lobe. He would first strap the patient down then proceed to give them an electric shock.  Then Dr. Freeman would place an ice pick parallel to the patients’ nose then slowly slide it directly under the eyelid. He would then tap the ice pick until it entered the orbital of the eyeball shoving it forward into the brain. Then he would progressively begin to wiggle it around hoping to disconnect the nerves in the brain that connected to the sense of emotions. Walter freeman believed that mental illness was in connection to overactive emotions.

        Even though this procedure seemed more efficient that drilling a hole through the patients skull as the first procedure was done in Portugal, this still not to be taken lightly. Freeman was convinced that this would “revolutionize medicine and spent the rest of his life trying to prove his point” (National Public Radio,’ My Lobotomy’: Howard Dully’s Journey).  Watts and Freeman performed the first lobotomy in the United States in 1936 which spawned a new era in mental illness treatments. This was the main purpose of this procedure, to treat mental illness in patients that could not find any other help. This surgical procedure was sought out as the “last resort” for many patients but further along in Freeman’s success, he did not treat it as such. Walter Freeman soon began to do this procedure daily, even doing a few in his office. It was claimed that he performed 228 lobotomies in two week period and 25 women in one day (National Public Radio, ‘My Lobotomy’: Howard Dully’s Journey).

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