Walter Jackson Freeman II was an evangelical neurosurgeon, vocal about his beliefs and touting a procedure of his own creation from the 1940s through the 1960s. It was called a lobotomy, an operation that involved inserting a sharp metal instrument through the eye socket of the patient and cutting brain tissue. But what does a lobotomy do? The cutting of connective tissue inside the brain was thought to ease the symptoms of mental illness, and was frequently used on patients who were severely depressed or experienced violent outbursts. Lobotomies were intended to lower levels of emotion, releasing patients from their internal struggles.