Icepick Surgeon: Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science

Dr. Walter Freeman performed lobotomies with an ice pick through the eye socket....and other stories about doctors who do evil scientific deeds in the name of medicine.

Air Date: December 23, 2021 8:00 am

Sam Kean, author of The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science. (Little, Brown and Company Publishers)

Neurologist Dr. Walter Freeman, disturbed by the horrendous conditions in mental asylums in the 1920s and the lack of medical treatment, popularized the wide use of lobotomies – but his shortcut version involved an ice pick through the eye socket. We talk about the scientists so obsessed with discovery and the pursuit of knowledge that they’ve consciously ignored the harm and pain they inflicted.

Guest: Sam Kean, author of The Icepick Surgeon: Murder, Fraud, Sabotage, Piracy, and Other Dastardly Deeds Perpetrated in the Name of Science

Recommended Reading

The Washington Post “A history of horrors, committed in the name of science“

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