96: The Good Doctor Freeman

This week’s episode is about Walter J. Freeman. Jr., the surgeon without surgical training who pioneered a brutal procedure that was used to punish the women of the 1950s for stepping out of line. Let’s talk about the gruesome and brutal history of lobotomy.

Twitter: Link

Patreon: Link

Shirts and more: Link

Sources

Psychosurgery, ethics, and media: a history of Walter Freeman and the lobotomy: Link

'My Lobotomy': Howard Dully's Journey: Link

He was bad, so they put an ice pick in his brain...: Link

The First Lobotomy in the US Happened at George Washington University: Link

Most lobotomies were done on women: Link

Diagnosing Womanhood: Lessons Learned from Gender Bias in 20th Century Psychiatry: Link

(F)ailing women in psychiatry: lessons from a painful past: Link

Race and Gender in the Selection of Patients for Lobotomy: Link

Madwives: Schizophrenic Women in the 1950s: Link

50 Years Ago, Doctors Called Domestic Violence 'Therapy': Link

Napa State Hospital to get a history of its very own: Link

Black Women, Mental Hospitals, and Public Housing — A California Carceral Story: Link

Women Who Defied Gender Roles Were Once Imprisoned In Asylums: Link

1950 Census of Institutional Population: Link

Walter Freeman and James Watts collection: Link