In 1967 he performed the last lobotomy in the United States. The patient died. He maintained throughout his life of aluminous correspondence with his patients, and I think some of this he was not a particularly warm man. There were absolutely tragic cases of people who were lobotomized, because it was in some way more convenient for the caregivers.
When physician Walter Freeman died in 1972, he still believed that lobotomies were the best treatment for mental illness. A pioneer in the method, he was a deeply confident and charismatic man who eagerly spread the technique in America, long after the rise of alternative treatments that were less destructive. Listen as journalist Megan McArdle and EconTalk's Russ Roberts discuss what McArdle calls the "Oedipus Trap": mistakes that no one can live with, even if they were innocently made, and how admitting such mistakes to ourselves is nearly impossible. They also discuss the complexity of the credo, "follow the science."