Following Moniz s claims that prefrontal surgery was therapeutically successful and had no significant side effects, there was a rapid proliferation of various forms of prefrontal psychosurgery (see Valenstein, 1980, 1986). One such variation was transorbital lobotomy, which was developed in Italy and then popularized in the United States by Walter Freeman in the late 1940s. It involved inserting an ice-pick-like device under the eyelid, driving it through the orbit (the eye socket) with a few taps of a mallet, and pushing it into the frontal lobes, where it was waved back and forth to sever the connections between the prefrontal lobes and the rest of the brain (see Figure 1.9). This operation was frequently performed in the surgeons office.