The Lobotomist

After reading Howard Dully's memoir detailing his life before and after the lobotomy performed on him at age 12, I felt like I should read more about the infamous Dr. Walter Freeman. To learn more about him I read Jack El-Hai's "Lobotomist" a study of Dr. Freeman and his quest to rid people of crippling mental illness.

Jack El-Hai did a great job discussing Dr. Freeman's drive to suceed and make waves in the medical field, but the book itself is very dry. Dr. Freeman was interesting and unusual on his own, but El-Hai often interupts a chapter to discuss someone else in the medical or psyciatry field who may had some minor role in Dr. Freeman's development. While this would be good information to have in a text about the history of lobotomy, it takes up too much space in what is supposed to be a biography about Walter Freeman. El-Hai also would repeat information, often within the same chapter, I would often pick up the book to read and within a few sentences I would think I was rereading something I had read the previous time. I don't understand why El-Hai felt the need to do this, Dr. Freeman was known for keeping extensive records on everything he did - personal and professional.

What I did take away from the book was that Dr. Walter Freeman was a man driven to become an inovator in his field. He trully did want to help those with mental illness, but somewhere along the line he gave up on trying to find better therapy for mental illness and instead focused on what is now seen as a brutal and imprecise method.

If you are interested in reading Lobotomist, by Jack El-Hai, you can find it at your local library or at Barnes and Noble.