Dr. Walter Freeman's Frontal Lobotomies at Athens (Ohio) State Hospital

Few chapters in the medical history of Athens County,who eventually won a Nobel Prize for his work,
Ohio, are more notorious or fascinating than thatreported the results of his earliest frontal lobotomies in
concerning Walter Freeman, M.D., and the more thana French medical journal. Dr. Walter Freeman, a
200 frontal lobotomies he performed at the Athensneurologist at George Washington University in
State Hospital in seven visits between 1953 andWashington, D.C., who had met Dr. Moniz a year
1957.Until the middle of the twentieth century, treatmentearlier, was
for most inpatients in large state hospitals, like that inimpressed with the report. Within the same year Dr.
Athens, was limited to providing a safe and humaneFreeman teamed with a neurosurgeon to perform the
environment. Effective drugs for mental illnesses didoperation, and over the next decade the partners
not become available until the late 1950s and earlyoperated on many more cases.
1960s.In 1936 Egas Moniz, M.D., a Portugese physician