James W. Watts

…neurologist who, with American neurosurgeon James W. Watts, was responsible for introducing to the United States prefrontal lobotomy, an operation in which the destruction of neurons and neuronal tracts in the white matter of the brain was considered therapeutic for patients with mental disorders. Freeman’s use of and public advocacy…

Freeman II and James W. Watts. Freeman preferred the use of the term lobotomy and therefore renamed the procedure “prefrontal lobotomy.” The American team soon developed the Freeman-Watts standard lobotomy, which laid out an exact protocol for how a leukotome (in this case, a spatula) was to be…