# The Lobotomy · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

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The Cult Dossier · No. 158 · Psychiatry / The Asylum
The Lobotomy
Leucotomy; prefrontal lobotomy; the transorbital or ice-pick lobotomy
1935 – 1967 · Portugal; United States; Britain, Scandinavia, Japan and beyond
XV. THE ASYLUM — WHEN MEDICINE DECIDED WHOSE MIND WAS WRONG
None.
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- 12 NOVEMBER 1935 In Lisbon the neurosurgeon PEDRO ALMEIDA LIMA, under EGAS MONIZ'S direction, performs the first prefrontal leucotomy, on a 63-year-old woman. The pair go on to use a wire-loop instrument, the leucotome, to cut frontal white matter.
- 14 SEPTEMBER 1936 WALTER FREEMAN directs JAMES WATTS through the first prefrontal lobotomy in the United States, on a housewife, ALICE HOOD HAMMATT. They begin promoting it energetically.
- NOVEMBER 1941 ROSEMARY KENNEDY, aged 23, is lobotomised by Freeman and Watts at George Washington University, at her father's arrangement. The operation leaves her permanently incapacitated and she is institutionalised for the rest of her life. HER BROTHER SIGNED THE COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH ACT TWENTY-TWO YEARS LATER — see 163.
- 1946 FREEMAN DEVISES THE TRANSORBITAL LOBOTOMY, driving an instrument through the thin bone above the eye socket and sweeping it through the frontal lobe. It requires no operating theatre and no surgeon. Freeman, who was not a surgeon, performed it in offices and hospital wards, sometimes using electroconvulsive shock as the anaesthetic.
- 1949 EGAS MONIZ IS AWARDED THE NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE, nominated by Freeman. IT HAS NEVER BEEN REVOKED, despite later campaigns by patients' families.
- 1949–1952 The peak years. Freeman travels between institutions in a vehicle the press called the lobotomobile, demonstrating the procedure. Across his career he performed MORE THAN 3,400 LOBOTOMIES BY THE USUAL COUNT, AND POSSIBLY AS MANY AS 4,000, some 2,500 of them transorbital, in 23 states. ABOUT 14 TO 15 PER CENT OF HIS PATIENTS DIED.
- 1960 FREEMAN LOBOTOMISES HOWARD DULLY, AGED TWELVE, by transorbital lobotomy, arranged by the boy's father and stepmother for $200. Dully recovered his own records as an adult and told the story on NPR on 16 November 2005, and in a memoir, MY LOBOTOMY, in 2007.
- FEBRUARY 1967 Freeman's patient HELEN MORTENSEN dies of a brain haemorrhage after her third lobotomy. He loses his operating privileges. The era ends.
### Its people
### António Egas Moniz
António Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz
Originator of the prefrontal leucotomy; Nobel laureate 1949 · 29 November 1874 – 13 December 1955 · active 1935–1955
Before the law. No proceedings.
Where things stand. Deceased 1955. THE NOBEL PRIZE HAS NEVER BEEN REVOKED despite campaigns by patients' families; the Nobel Foundation has declined to withdraw it.
- 1927 Develops cerebral angiography.
- NOVEMBER 1935 First prefrontal leucotomy, Lisbon, with Almeida Lima.
- 1949 AWARDED THE NOBEL PRIZE for the leucotomy.
- 1939 Shot and wounded by a patient; uses a wheelchair thereafter.
- 1955 Dies.
Checked 2026-09-05
### Walter Freeman
Walter Jackson Freeman II
Populariser of the lobotomy; deviser of the transorbital procedure · 14 November 1895 – 31 May 1972 · active 1936–1967
Before the law. Never prosecuted. He lost hospital operating privileges in 1967; that was the extent of any sanction.
Where things stand. Deceased 1972. HE BELIEVED IN THE PROCEDURE TO THE END and kept in touch with former patients, compiling follow-ups he regarded as vindication.
- 1936 First US prefrontal lobotomy, with James Watts.
- NOVEMBER 1941 Lobotomises ROSEMARY KENNEDY, aged 23; she is incapacitated for life.
- 1946 Devises the TRANSORBITAL LOBOTOMY.
- 1949 Nominates Egas Moniz for the Nobel Prize, which he receives.
- 16 DECEMBER 1960 Lobotomises HOWARD DULLY, aged 12, at the stepmother's request.
- 1967 His patient HELEN MORTENSEN dies of a brain haemorrhage during a third lobotomy; he loses operating privileges.
- 1972 Dies of cancer.
Checked 2026-09-05
### Rosemary Kennedy
Rose Marie Kennedy
Lobotomy patient; sister of President John F. Kennedy · 13 September 1918 – 7 January 2005 · active 1941–2005
Before the law. No proceedings. Nothing done to her was unlawful at the time, which is the point.
Where things stand. Deceased 2005, aged 86, having outlived the President, the Attorney General and the procedure itself. SHE WAS NOT ASKED, AND SHE WAS NOT MENTALLY ILL IN ANY SENSE THE OPERATION CLAIMED TO TREAT.
- 1918 Born in Brookline, Massachusetts.
- NOVEMBER 1941 Lobotomised at 23 at her father's arrangement.
- 1949 Placed at Saint Coletta, Jefferson, Wisconsin.
- 31 OCTOBER 1963 Her brother, as President, signs the Community Mental Health Act.
- 1968 Eunice Kennedy Shriver founds the Special Olympics.
- 2005 Dies aged 86.
Checked 2026-09-05
### Howard Dully
—
Lobotomised at twelve; later recovered and published his own records · 30 November 1948 – 11 February 2025 · active 1960–2025
Before the law. No proceedings were ever brought. The operation was lawful and was requested by his stepmother.
Where things stand. DECEASED 11 FEBRUARY 2025, AGED 76. THIS FILE WAS WRITTEN AFTER CHECKING, AND THE CHECK MATTERED: he was widely described as living in sources written before 2025, and an entry drafted from those would have been wrong.
- 1948 Born.
- 16 DECEMBER 1960 Lobotomised aged 12 at Doctors General Hospital, San Jose.
- 1960s–90s Institutions, foster care, homelessness, then long employment as a bus driver.
- 2005 Recovers Freeman's records and tells the story for NPR.
- 2007 MY LOBOTOMY published.
- 11 FEBRUARY 2025 DIES, AGED 76.
Checked 2026-09-05
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