Here's some fascinating footage from 1942, showing Drs. James Watts and Walter Freeman performing a prefrontal leucotomy. The footage accompanies a short article called Lobotomy Revisited, and, like last week's trepanation film clip, is not for the squeamish.)
The procedure shown in the film is the Freeman-Watts Standard Procedure, which had been in use since 1936. This is different from the "ice-pick" lobotomy, which Freeman began to perform in 1945; it more closely resembles the original procedure of the Portugese neurosurgeon Egas Moniz.
Brain & Behavior
Medicine & Health
Comments (4)
Odd, this video was more disturbing to watch than the trepanation even though this one is less graphic. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that this is being performed by modern, well-meaning doctors.
Posted by: Joshua Zelinsky | February 19, 2008 7:53 PM