Doctors used these instruments to perform the lobotomy procedure on patients diagnosed with particular psychiatric conditions. The procedure was introduced in 1935 and popularized in the United States by Walter J. Freeman in the 1940s. The doctor inserted the instrument into the frontal lobe of the brain to destroy its connection with other regions.
Henry A. Ator (1906-1995), the donor of this orbitoclast, was a machinist who manufactured Watts-Freeman lobotomy instruments.
Ref: Walter Freeman and James Winston Watts, Psychosurgery (Springfield, Ill., 1950).
“HENRY AVON ATOR,” Washington Post (April 2, 1995), p. B5.
“Dr. Walter Freeman Dies; Introduced Lobotomy Here,” Washington Post (June 1, 1972), p. C5.
“Neurosurgeon James Winston Watts Dies; Helped to Pioneer the Lobotomy,” Washington Post (Nov. 9, 1994), p. C4.
Jack El-Hai, The Lobotomist (Hoboken, 2005).
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