James W. Watts
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (November 2009) |
James W. Watts | |
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Born | Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S. | January 19, 1904
Died | November 15, 1994 | (aged 90)
Education | |
Known for | Worked as Walter Freeman's surgeon contributing to the popularization of Lobotomy in the United States |
Medical career | |
Profession |
James Winston Watts (January 19, 1904 – November 15, 1994) was an American
He is also known for carrying out the lobotomy of Rosemary Kennedy under the supervision of Freeman. Kennedy's mental capacity diminished to that of a two-year-old child. She could not walk or speak intelligibly and was considered incontinent.[2]
Career
After completing medical school in 1928, Watts worked as a research fellow at Yale before joining the faculty of the Department of Neurosurgery and Neurological Surgery at The George Washington University Hospital in 1935. He remained in this position until his retirement in 1969.
Watts was recruited into a medical partnership by his colleague
Watts' colleague, however, was less conservative and sought other ways to access the frontal lobes of the brain without the complications associated with conventional brain surgery. Inspired by the work of the Italian psychiatrist Amarro Fiamberti, Freeman developed, without the knowledge or participation of Watts, a procedure for reaching the frontal lobes by inserting a probe under the eyelid and above the tear duct, then hammering it through the thin bone of the eye socket. The instrument was swished around, severing the white matter, and was then repeated on the other side. The whole operation took only minutes under local anesthesia or by using an electroshock machine to render the patient unconscious by passing a large electrical current through the brain, inducing a seizure, then leading to a brief period of post-seizure coma, which was when the procedure would be carried out. This new procedure became known as the transorbital lobotomy, also dubbed the "ice pick lobotomy" because the instrument used, an orbitoclast, was very similar to a common ice pick. The new procedure also signaled the end of the professional relationship between Freeman and Watts. After performing the new procedure by himself on ten patients, Freeman finally revealed to Watts what he had been doing. Watts, unlike Freeman, was a trained neurosurgeon and adamantly believed lobotomy should be performed only by a proper surgeon.[4] He insisted that Freeman cease performing operations alone, but it was to no avail and Watts soon left the practice that he had jointly established with Freeman.
The 1950s saw the introduction of the first truly effective
Watts retired in 1969, but continued his association with The George Washington University Hospital until the late 1980s.
Personal life
Watts was born in 1904 in Lynchburg, Virginia. He had two children with wife Julia Harrison Watts. He died in 1994.
References
- ^ Dr. James Watts, 90, Pioneer In Use of Frontal Lobotomy, Tim Hilchey. The New York Times, November 11, 1994.
- ^ Henley, John (August 12, 2009). "The Forgotten Kennedy". theguardian.com.
- ^ George Washington University
- ISBN 0465027105.
- The GW; Foggy Bottom Historical Encyclopedia. "Watts, James W." The George Washington University. Retrieved 2009-12-07.
- "Guide to the Walter Freeman and James Watts Papers, 1918–1988". Special Collections Research Center, The George Washington University. Retrieved 2014-03-25.
- Kopell, Brian H., Machado, Andre G., Rezai, Ali R (2005). "Not Your Father's Lobotomy: Psychiatric Surgery Revisited". Clinical Neurosurgery. 52. Congress of Neurological Surgeons: 315–330. PMID 16626089. Archived from the original on 2012-02-06. Retrieved 2009-12-07.)
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: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - Jansson, Bengt. "Controversial Psychosurgery Resulted in a Nobel Prize". Nobelprize.org. Archived from the original on 2010-01-09. Retrieved 2009-12-07.
- The Obituary Page. "Science, 1994". Retrieved 2009-12-07.