Book Review: My Lobotomy

I just finished a fascinating memoir by Howard Dully, a man who was lobotomized by one of the operation's pioneers in 1960. For those of you who aren't sure what a lobotomy is, essentially it was a procedure performed on thousands of mental patients and schizophreniacs from the 50s into the 70s. The earliest procedures involved drilling into the skull to remove the frontal lobe of the brain. Dr. Walter Freeman, the man who lobotomized Howard Dully (amongst thousands of others), invented a new way to preform the operation: by inserting an ice pick above the eyeball. After the ice pick was in the brain, Freeman twirled it around in a fashion not too different from how you would beat an egg. The result was a heavily damanged frontal lobe, which often rendered these mental patients vegetables for the rest of their lives.

In Dully's case, it didn't render him a vegetable. He wasn't a schizophreniac. Basically he was just a little shit-ass who liked to cause trouble. If he were a child today, they'd probably put him on Adderall and send him home. In 1960, he had his frontal lobe scrambled with an ice pick.

For forty year's after Howard's operation, his life was a mess. He was disowned by his family. He was in and out of asylums, jails, and halfway houses. Finally, in the year 2000, Howard decided to stop using the lobotomy as an excuse to go through life as a victim. He began asking questions and researching why he was lobotomized and what he had done to deserve such an awful thing. The results of this research were detailed in his memoir, My Lobotomy.

I wouldn't say this is a must-read book. But if you have a little morbid curiosity, you might enjoy this glimpse into the life of a man victimized by one of medicine's most embarrassing moments. The fact that I read it cover to cover is more than I can say for most books I open. Anyone who wants my copy, get in touch and I'll mail it to you.

Howard mid-surgery in 1960.

Recent picture holding an ice-pick used by Dr. Freeman