Science, Technology, and Society Program, Historical Studies Program, Experimental Humanities Program, American and Indigenous Studies Program, and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Present

Head-and-Shoulder-Hunting in the Americas:
Walter Freeman and the Visual Culture of Lobotomy

Between 1936 and 1967, Walter Freeman, a prominent neurologist, lobotomized as many as 3,500 Americans. Freeman was also an obsessive photographer, taking patients’ photographs before their operations and tracking them down years — even decades — later. In this presentation, Miriam Posner details her efforts to understand why Freeman was so devoted to this practice, using computer-assisted image-mining and -analysis techniques to show how these images fit into the larger visual culture of 20th-century psychiatry.

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For more information, call 845-752-4385, e-mail [email protected],
or visit https://eh.bard.edu/.

Time: 5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EST/GMT-5

Location: RKC 103

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