Walter Freeman autobiography

Collection — Box: 1

Identifier: MSS 2/014-02

Scope and Contents

Unbound typescript autobiography of Walter Freeman, written 1961-1970, discussing Freeman’s life, Keen and Freeman families, his father, Walter J. Freeman, and Freeman’s work in neurology, neuropathology, psychosurgery, and schizophrenia. Notable subjects are: Freeman’s work and disagreement with James W. Watts on prefrontal and transorbital lobotomy; the second International Neurological Congress (1935); Freeman’s follow-up studies of lobotomy patients; establishment of the El Camino Hospital in California; and his research on psychiatrists.

Dates

1961 - 1970

Creator

Freeman, Walter (Person)

Biographical / Historical

Walter Jackson Freeman II, neurologist and psychosurgeon, was born in Philadelphia on 14 Nov. 1895. He was the son of Walter J. Freeman, physician, and a grandson of William W. Keen. Freeman married Marjorie Lorne Franklin (d. 1970) in 1924. Freeman died on 31 May 1972. Freeman received an M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1920, and an M.S. in 1929 and Ph.D. in 1931 from Georgetown University. He was an intern at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 1921-1923, then studied neurology in Paris and Rome. In 1926, Freeman began his neurological practice in Washington, D.C. He was Director of Laboratories at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, 1924-1933, and Professor of Neurology at George Washington University, 1926-1954. He was also Consulting Neurologist to Walter Reed Army Hospital, 1944-1954. He moved his practice in California in 1954 and retired in 1968. Although elected to fellowship in the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1956, Freeman rejected his election.