Walter Freeman correspondence
Scope and Contents
This small collection of letters from Walter Freeman to two Japanese
neurosurgeons, Mizuho Nakata and Sadao Hirose, gives some indication
of Freeman's own views on psychosurgery and lobotomy and is
also filled with personal information on Freeman's career and
family. There are no original items in the collection, only
photocopies of original material in the possession of either
Franklin Freeman or Sadao Hirose.
The 1948 letter to Mizuho Nakata from Walter Freeman discusses
a case of hyperkinesia in a child; enclosed is a request from
Freeman to Lieutenant General Richard Southerland to allow Nakata
to attend an international conference on psychosurgery in Lisbon
in 1948.
The bulk of the collection is Freeman's letters to Sadao Hirose,
1955-1972. Their acquaintance seems to have started in 1955,
but they did not meet until Hirose's visit to the United States
in 1961. Although they met rarely, the two neurosurgeons maintained
a close friendship until Freeman's death.
In the correspondence, Freeman discusses his experiences with
lobotomies and the use of drug therapy as an alternative to
psychosurgery as well as the general hostility in America towards
psychosurgery in the 1960s. He describes some of his lobotomy
operations and follow up studies he pursued after his retirement
from active practice. Freeman was also interested in suicide
among psychiatrists and psychoanalysts.
The remainder of information contained in the letters to Hirose
is personal. Freeman gives news of his family, including accounts
of the death of his son Robert Fitz Randolph in 1969 and of
his wife, Marjorie, in 1970, and an accident suffered by his
aunt, Dora Keen Handy, in 1963. Freeman also describes his
retirement and final illness. The last item in the collection
is a telegram from Marjorie Lorne Canter giving news of her
father's death.
Dates
- Creation: 1848; 1955-1972
Creator
- Freeman, Walter (Person)
Biographical / Historical
Walter Jackson Freeman II was born in Philadelphia on November
14, 1895. He was the son of Walter Jackson Freeman, a physician,
and Corinne Keen, one of the daughters of W.W. Keen. Freeman
married Marjorie Lorne Franklin (d.1970) in 1924. They had
six children: Marjorie Lorne Canter, Walter Jackson, Franklin,
Paul, William Williams Keen (d.1946), and Robert Fitz Randolph
(d.1969). Freeman died on May 31, 1972.
Freeman received an A.B. from Yale University in 1916, an M.D.
for the University of Pennsylvania in 1920, and an M.S. in 1929
and Ph.D in 1931 from Georgetown University. He served as a
pathology intern at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
from 1921 to 1923, then pursued graduate study in neurology
in Paris and Rome (1923-1924.)
In 1926, Freeman began his medical practice as a neurologist in
Washington, D.C. He was the Director of Laboratories at St.
Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington from 1924 to 1933 and Professor
of Neurology at George Washington University (1927-1954). He
also served as a Consulting Neurologist to Walter Reed Army
Hospital from 1944 to 1954. In 1954, Freeman moved his practice
to California. He retired in 1968.
Freeman was the author of several books including Neuropathology
(1933), Psychosurgery with J.W. Watts (1942), Psychosurgery
and the self with M.F. Robinson (1954) and The psychologist
(1967).
Freeman was also active in many professional organizations, including
the American Medical Association, American Neurological Association,
the American Association of Neuropathologists (President, 1944-1945),
the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (President, 1946-1947),
the American Psychiatric Association, and the Philadelphia Neurological
Society (President, 1945). Although he was elected to fellowship
in the College of Physicians of Philadelphia in 1956, Freeman
rejected his election.
Sadao Hirose was born on March 1, 1918. He received his M.D. from
the University of Tokyo in 1941 and was associated with the
Department of Neuropsychiatry at the University of Tokyo from
1941 to 1946. Hirose specialized in affective and schizophrenic
disorders and forensic psychiatry. From 1946 to 1954, Hirose
served as the Medical Official at the Matsuzawa Mental Hospital
in Tokyo. He was appointed Chief Psychiatrist at the hospital
in 1954. In 1960, he became a professor and the Director of
the Department of Neuropsychiatry at Nippon Medical School in
Tokyo. He still held this position in 1983.
In 1948, Mizuho Nakata was the Director of the Surgical Division
of the Niigata Medical College Hospital. According to information
received from Sadao Hirose, Nakata was the first surgeon to
introduce psychosurgery into Japan.
Full Extent
0.1 Linear feet (1 folder, 62 items)
Language of Materials
English
Custodial History
The collection was donated to the Historical Collections of the
College of Physicians of Philadelphia by Walter Freeman's son,
Franklin Freeman, in 1989. The location of the original material
is uncertain, but it is probably in the possession of Franklin
Freeman.
The Freeman correspondence was processed in 1989.
Subject
- Hirose, Sadao (Person)
- Nakata, Mizuho (Person)
- Title
- Walter Freeman correspondence
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Historical Medical Library of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Repository
19 S. 22nd Street
Philadelphia PA 19103 United States
