James W. Watts

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James Winston Watts (January 19, 1904 – November 7, 1994) was an American neurosurgeon, born in Lynchburg, Virginia. He was a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute as well as the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Watts is noteworthy for his professional partnership with the neurologist, psychiatrist and psychosurgeon Walter Freeman. The two became advocates and prolific practitioners of psychosurgery, specifically the lobotomy. Watts and Freeman wrote two books on lobotomies: Psychosurgery, Intelligence, Emotion and Social Behavior Following Prefrontal Lobotomy for Medical Disorders in 1942, and Psychosurgery in the Treatment of Mental Disorders and Intractable Pain in 1950. He is also known for carrying out the lobotomy of Rosemary Kennedy under the supervision of Freeman. As a result of the lobotomy, Kennedy's mental capacity was diminished to that of a two-year-old child. She could not walk or speak intelligibly and was considered incontinent.

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