Forty years of misery ensued, recalled by Mr. Dully in a celebrated documentary broadcast on National Public Radio in November 2005 and now, in collaboration with Charles Fleming, in the harrowing. Buy My Lobotomy: A Memoir Unabridged by Dully, Howard, Fleming, Charles, Heller, Johnny (ISBN: 361) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. This book is his legacy, and it is a powerful one.' -San Francisco Chronicle 'In My Lobotomy Howard Dully tells more of the story that so many found gripping in a National Public Radio broadcast: how his stepmother joined with a doctor willing to slice into his brain with 'ice picks' when he was all of 12 years old.' At twelve, Howard Dully was guilty of the same crimes as other boys his age: he was moody and messy, rambunctious with his brothers, contrary just to prove a point, and perpetually at odds with his parents. Yet somehow, this normal boy became one of the youngest people on whom Dr. Walter Freeman performed his barbaric transorbital—or ice pick—lobotomy. Abandoned by his family. About My Lobotomy In this heartfelt memoir from one of the youngest recipients of the transorbital lobotamy, Howard Dully shares the story of a painfully dysfunctional childhood, a misspent youth, his struggle to claim the life that was taken from him, and his redemption.
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My Lobotomy, by Howard Dully and Charles Fleming. Three Rivers Press (2008), 284 pagesIt’s hard to beat a title like this! Happily, My Lobotomy does not disappoint.
In 1960, at the age of twelve, the author was given a transorbital lobotomy, despite the fact that he had no mental illness or serious behavioral problems. This is a classic evil stepmother story: she simply hated him—really hated him—and when her physical and emotional abuse wasn’t enough, she sought more drastic measures.
The book explores, in full and graphic detail, the life of Dr. Walter Freeman, the charismatic and controversial doctor who made the lobotomy famous (he’s not the one who came up with the idea for lobotomies, but he “perfected” it by using an ice pick and entering through the eye orbit rather than the top of the skull) and who performed it on the author. Between 1946 and 1967 he performed thousands of lobotomies, and “trained” hundreds of others by conducting cross-country driving tours in which he visited mental institutions and demonstrated quick lobotomies for other people (many of whom were not even in the medical field, such as technicians, aides, or therapists) to begin doing on their own. He didn’t believe in “germ nonsense,” priding himself on his willingness to give a lobotomy anywhere, anytime. Once, when a patient changed his mind about having the surgery and locked himself in his hotel bathroom, Dr. Freeman drove to the hotel, talked the patient into opening the door, and then, “using a portable electroshock machine he had designed and built for himself, he administered a few volts to the patient to calm him down…. It then occurred to him that since the patient was already unconscious, and he had a set of leucotomes in his pocket, he might as well do the transorbital lobotomy then and there, which he did.”
Typically, however, the ten-minute procedure was performed in his office: “He stretched the patients out on a table, knocked them out using electroshock, punctured the skull using his Uline ice pick, and swung the ice pick back and forth across their frontal lobes. He waited for the bleeding to stop, then sent the patient home, sometimes in a taxi cab.”
Dr. Freeman obsessively documented every lobotomy with “before,” “during,” and “after” photos. Until he figured out that he should ask an aide to hold the picks while he took his “during” photo, numerous people died: “Freeman stopped mid-surgery to set up the camera and document the procedure. For some reason the ice pick began to slide down into the patient’s brain. He died without ever regaining consciousness.”
As I mentioned, this book is graphic. It is also a heart-wrenching autobiography of a boy who lost his devoted mother at five, was raised by a demonic stepmother, and was sent to a state mental institution not once but twice, in between stints at foster homes, juvenile hall, and a school for the learning disabled. The last quarter of the book is especially touching. The author, now sixty, flies to Washington, D.C., where all of Freeman’s prodigious files were donated to a university after his death. Only former patients are allowed access to the files—and Dully is the first person in history to request them. Here he sees his own photos for the first time—Freeman’s traditional before, during, and after shots (two of which are reproduced in the book) depicting the author at twelve:
“In the during picture, I’m lying flat on my back. The photograph was taken of my profile, from my left side. My hair is brushed back off my forehead. My mouth is open. A man’s left hand, with a hairy arm and a shiny wristwatch, is holding one end of a leucotome. The other end is sunk into my left eye socket. It looks like about three inches of the leucotome is actually in my skull.”
The author’s intent in reading his files is to find out why this was done to him. For over forty years, he just wanted to know why. Freeman kept ample notes on every patient, including Dully, and as we get closer to the why, the book is impossible to put down. Imagining the author in the archives, reading Freeman’s notes on himself and his family, is incredibly poignant, as is the author’s attempts to get an answer from his dad, the only living person who can answer his questions.
I should note that for the first twenty-five pages or so, I was a bit annoyed by the short, choppy sentences: “It was almost dark. We were alone in the car. We were in San Jose, riding down Seventh Street in my dad’s Plymouth station wagon. He told me my mother had gone away. She wasn’t coming back. I wasn’t ever going to see her again.” I was not quite annoyed enough to want to stop reading, though, and by the time I was a third of the way through the book, I didn’t mind anymore. I realized that given the subject matter, and the fact that the author had had a lobotomy, beautiful, finely crafted sentences really wouldn’t suit this book. The writing style, choppiness and all, is successful because the content provides a compelling reason for it.
My Lobotomy Pdf
Look for a copy of this book that includes “Afterword to the Paperback Edition.” After the hardcover was released, the author was invited by a team of researchers at Stanford to have a complete MRI scan of his brain, using up-to-the-minute software, to show precisely what damage was done. No such scans exist for any other lobotomy patient. Even more importantly, there is no other living patient who had no mental problems prior to the lobotomy. The results are fascinating.
Reviewed by Donna Long
For most people, it is unlikely that while searching for a new novel among the endless options lining bookstore shelves, the winning title would be My Lobotomy, a somber memoir about author Howard Dully who at age 12 had ice picks surgically inserted into his skull to scramble the frontal lobe of his brain. Most people would opt for … lighter reading.
Of course people close to me are aware that I’m not exactly most people and that I’ve always had a flare for indulging in darker, more melodramatic literature, so naturally, I purchased a copy of the 286 page New York Times Bestseller from Joe’s Place in downtown Greenville and read nearly the entire thing on my recent 10 hour plane ride back from France. The memoir recounts Dully’s early childhood, his traumatic operation, and the affects both had on his adolescence/ adult life.
It’s a surprisingly easy read considering the book’s heavy subject matter. The author’s word choice is simplistic and matter-of-fact which makes his story accessible to a widespread audience. In fact, I would place My Lobotomy on a 7th or 8th grade reading level; however, some elements of the story’s content would probably not be suitable for young adolescents.
Howard Dully
Still, as I read this book, I often found myself marveling at how applicable Dully’s memoir could be for middle-level and secondary teachers working with IEP and 504 students. Many of the author’s accounts of feeling freakish and unloved reminded me of a trauma training I attended as an inclusion English teacher and of interactions with my students who seemed desperate to fit in and be loved by someone, anyone in their lives.
My Lobotomy Book Review
Teachers and counselors reading MyLobotomy would be reminded of the vastly different mindsets held by their students and that however reckless, defiant, or self-destructive they may seem, these perspectives have been definitively shaped by unique personal histories, family dynamics, and past experiences. The book reignites a sense of compassion that can easily be eroded by long periods of managing difficult behaviors and coping with abuse.
Ask Me About My Lobotomy
It acts as an excellent and necessary reminder that these young people are most likely responding to numerous, hidden trials in their lives; they are most often unaware of how hurtfully damaging their decisions can be for others. Thus, I highly recommend any professionally working with troubled teens or young-adults to order a copy of this memoir. It offers a fresh perspective and encourages readers to take a relaxation break from the stresses of everyday life through daily reading breaks.
Additionally, educators might consider using excerpts from My Lobotomy as reading passages for students. Several chapters of the book touch on important ideas surrounding self-discovery, love, and recovery. Dully’s book is a classic coming of age story laced with historical details related to the lobotomy as a surgical procedure and society’s understanding of mental health issues. It’s packed full of important life lessons and relatable experiences. Honestly, forming lesson plans around this text would be a breeze thanks to its affiliation with an award winning NPR radio broadcast and its relatively short page length. Upcoming stuff the pivot corner!. I don’t suspect finding support texts or classic, canonized works with parallel themes would be difficult either.
My Lobotomy Book
All that to say, I enjoyed reading Howard Dully’s memoir My Lobotomy more than I had even anticipated I would. Although the author’s retelling of his life contains some troubling, heart wrenching, and even tear jerking elements, it is overall a story of redemption and perseverance. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, especially those people making a career of working with young people from difficult backgrounds. It is easy to read, inspiring, and most of all memorable. You won’t regret taking a chance on this unlikely selection; it’s about so much more than insane asylums and gruesome medical malpractices. Although those things are included, they are far from being Dully’s focal point.