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Article ID: CBB001551567

Freeman's Transorbital Lobotomy as an Anomaly: A Material Culture Examination of Surgical Instruments and Operative Spaces (2015)

Collins, Brianne M. (Author)
Stam, Henderikus J. (Author)

History of Psychology
Volume: 18, no. 2
Issue: 2
Pages: 119-131
Publication date: 2015
Language: English

DOI: 10.1037/a0039061

Publication Date: 2015
Edition Details: Part of a Series: History and Material Culture in Psychology and Psychiatry

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Neurosciences Surgery Psychiatry Lobotomy Medical instruments and apparatus Freeman, Walter

In 1946, Walter Freeman introduced the transorbital ice pick lobotomy. Touted as a procedure that could be learned and subsequently performed by psychiatrists outside of the operating room, the technique was quickly criticized by neurosurgeons. In this article, we take a material culture approach to consider 2 grounds upon which neurosurgeons based their objections---surgical instruments and operative spaces. On both counts, Freeman was in contravention of established normative neurosurgical practices and, ultimately, his technique was exposed as an anomaly by neurosurgeons. Despite its rejection, the transorbital lobotomy became entrenched in contemporary memory and remains the emblematic procedure of the psychosurgery era.

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Article Young, Jacy L. (2015) Test or Toy? Materiality and the Measurement of Infant Intelligence. History of Psychology (pp. 103-118). unapi

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