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susanbrooks's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating and disturbing look at the early evolution of brain surgery and lobotomies, written by the grandson of a questionable practitioner. When does medical exploration become arrogance?
cmkacirek's review against another edition
4.0
What an interesting story. It's amazing to think about our brain as tissue as well as the thing that makes us who we are.
janasf26's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars An interesting investigation along the lines of Henrietta Lacks' story in terms of the use of humans for science without their consent. I thought the editing could have been tighter (I didn't find Dittrich's personal anecdotes about bull-fighting and raising his daughter particularly relevant).
kpud's review against another edition
3.0
Horrifying look at early brain surgeries (particularly lobotomies) and the history of a patient who was given amnesia from one of them.
maureenstantonwriter's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating account of the history of frontal lobotomy and other now-considered-barbaric treatments, which is both well researched and personal since the author's grandfather was a key figure in the development of this treatment.
nenenest's review against another edition
3.0
Interesting and an easy read. However there was to much waffle about the author, the book jumped around a lot and I only needed a lobotomy operation described once. Also the book could have done with more actual science - what did all the studies done on H.M. deduce.
rdgit's review against another edition
3.0
Patient HM Drowning in details
This is not a book about Patient HM (Henry G. Molaison). It is a book about the history of brain surgery to cure epilepsy, lobotomies and the study of the brain. That, in itself, could make a good book but in this case, the author’s diligent research got in the way of telling the story. Just because the research was extensive, doesn’t mean the author had to use every detail he uncovered.
I was very intrigued from the start as the story focused on Henry as a child who had a terrible accident that later, may have caused him to have frequent seizures. Henry underwent brain surgery by Dr. William Scoville, the author’s grandfather. Dr. Scoville removed portions of Henry’s brain based on a hunch that he knew the areas that were causing Henry’s seisures. I wanted to get to know Henry and also Dr. Scoville’s wife who spent time in an asylum for her mental issues. I never got to know these people. I don’t feel I ever knew Henry even though the book was supposedly about him. I never understood his personality and even though it was told he had a very high IQ, we were not told how Henry appeared to the world. There were extensive interviews where the reader could view his responses but I never felt I knew what he was like.
At one point the author told part of the story of Dr. Scoville’s wife and I got the feeling he would at some point finish her story but frankly, I was so overwhelmed in all the details, the dates, the institutions, the people, the laboratories the universities, that at times I would skim many pages at a time, so I could have missed the continuing story of Mrs. Scoville. She was in an institution where Dr. Scoville often performed lobotomies and I wanted to know if he performed surgery on her.
Another let down was that I wanted to understand how all the research on Henry Molaison throughout his life lead to a better understanding of the brain and and memory function. I’m sure that information is buried in the book somewhere.
This could have been so much better.
This is not a book about Patient HM (Henry G. Molaison). It is a book about the history of brain surgery to cure epilepsy, lobotomies and the study of the brain. That, in itself, could make a good book but in this case, the author’s diligent research got in the way of telling the story. Just because the research was extensive, doesn’t mean the author had to use every detail he uncovered.
I was very intrigued from the start as the story focused on Henry as a child who had a terrible accident that later, may have caused him to have frequent seizures. Henry underwent brain surgery by Dr. William Scoville, the author’s grandfather. Dr. Scoville removed portions of Henry’s brain based on a hunch that he knew the areas that were causing Henry’s seisures. I wanted to get to know Henry and also Dr. Scoville’s wife who spent time in an asylum for her mental issues. I never got to know these people. I don’t feel I ever knew Henry even though the book was supposedly about him. I never understood his personality and even though it was told he had a very high IQ, we were not told how Henry appeared to the world. There were extensive interviews where the reader could view his responses but I never felt I knew what he was like.
At one point the author told part of the story of Dr. Scoville’s wife and I got the feeling he would at some point finish her story but frankly, I was so overwhelmed in all the details, the dates, the institutions, the people, the laboratories the universities, that at times I would skim many pages at a time, so I could have missed the continuing story of Mrs. Scoville. She was in an institution where Dr. Scoville often performed lobotomies and I wanted to know if he performed surgery on her.
Another let down was that I wanted to understand how all the research on Henry Molaison throughout his life lead to a better understanding of the brain and and memory function. I’m sure that information is buried in the book somewhere.
This could have been so much better.
bethpeninger's review against another edition
5.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this reader's copy. In exchange, I am providing an honest review.
This was fascinating. Using Patient H.M. as the springboard for a deep dive into the history of lobotomies, Luke Dittrich has offered readers a very thorough look into the evolution of psychosurgery. In the process of his research, Dittrich discovers a family secret that makes a lot of sense of family history once known.
Why Patient H.M.? He passed away in 2008 and it was only then that his identity was revealed to the world. Henry Gustav Molaison was the most studied human in the world because of his brain. The short story is he was hit by a car as a kid and sustained a brain injury that caused him epileptic seizures which greatly affected his life as he had several a day. In 1953 W.B. Scoville offered to perform a lobotomy on him in the hopes it would cease the seizures. It didn't but what it did do is cause severe anterograde amnesia and moderate retrograde amnesia. Henry, dubbed Patient H.M. to protect his anonymity, became the focus of study for all of psychology until his death in 2008...and even then, his brain continued to be studied and still does to this day.
Dittrich has a connection, of sorts, to the story of Patient H.M. and the history of lobotomies. His grandfather was W.B. Scoville. That wasn't the secret Dittrich uncovered, however, that made sense of family history. The secret he uncovered had to do with his grandmother's experiences with mental illness. Spoiler Alert: Given what his grandfather did for a living, perhaps you can guess - as I did - what that secret was/is. But Dittrich cannot prove the heresy about what his grandfather did to his grandmother as there are no physical records confirming it. (For obvious reasons. That was a huge breach of ethics and morality to give your own wife a lobotomy.) Anyway, that wasn't the focus of the book at large.
Luke Dittrich took 6 years to write this book. He did due diligence in meeting with as many people as he could who have first-person knowledge of the early days of lobotomies and of working with people like his grandfather. He did deep research into the history of the brain and our fascination with it. He didn't try to frame his grandfather in a good light or protect any reputation that still exists for Scoville. Dittrich just simply told the story which included Scoville and happened to be his grandfather. What I'm saying is that Dittrich made it clear he had nothing to gain or lose by the story he crafted and put out there for the world to read. He's been criticized by MIT for his writing as it concerns Suzanne Corkin, a highly regarded neuroscientist who spent the bulk of her career on Patient H.M. After reading the book and the parts that include her part in the story of Patient H.M. and reading MIT's defense of her I'm Team Luke. His introduction of her into the larger story made me uneasy and as time progressed and by the end of Henry's life, it was clear Corkin was beyond interested in Patient H.M., she was obsessed in very unhealthy ways. It's a shame MIT supported that unhealthy attachment. As her mentor, Brenda Milner said to Dittrich, it was time to move on from Patient H.M., there are other people and other avenues to explore. She had a healthy perspective of what Patient H.M. offered her personal career goals. It doesn't seem Corkin did. Anyway. That was a tangent.
As someone who is fascinated by the brain and its inner workings but will never go beyond the surface study of it, I loved this book because it gave me insight and knowledge. It also disgusted me as the whole trend of lobotomies was ultimately very damaging to individuals and families. It was used as a way to force women into "better behavior" and to treat people who had homosexual tendencies. Those are two groups of people against which lobotomy was used as a weapon. Disgusting.
Thanks to Luke Dittrich for the years of research and study he put into writing this very interesting and informative book.
This was fascinating. Using Patient H.M. as the springboard for a deep dive into the history of lobotomies, Luke Dittrich has offered readers a very thorough look into the evolution of psychosurgery. In the process of his research, Dittrich discovers a family secret that makes a lot of sense of family history once known.
Why Patient H.M.? He passed away in 2008 and it was only then that his identity was revealed to the world. Henry Gustav Molaison was the most studied human in the world because of his brain. The short story is he was hit by a car as a kid and sustained a brain injury that caused him epileptic seizures which greatly affected his life as he had several a day. In 1953 W.B. Scoville offered to perform a lobotomy on him in the hopes it would cease the seizures. It didn't but what it did do is cause severe anterograde amnesia and moderate retrograde amnesia. Henry, dubbed Patient H.M. to protect his anonymity, became the focus of study for all of psychology until his death in 2008...and even then, his brain continued to be studied and still does to this day.
Dittrich has a connection, of sorts, to the story of Patient H.M. and the history of lobotomies. His grandfather was W.B. Scoville. That wasn't the secret Dittrich uncovered, however, that made sense of family history. The secret he uncovered had to do with his grandmother's experiences with mental illness. Spoiler Alert: Given what his grandfather did for a living, perhaps you can guess - as I did - what that secret was/is. But Dittrich cannot prove the heresy about what his grandfather did to his grandmother as there are no physical records confirming it. (For obvious reasons. That was a huge breach of ethics and morality to give your own wife a lobotomy.) Anyway, that wasn't the focus of the book at large.
Luke Dittrich took 6 years to write this book. He did due diligence in meeting with as many people as he could who have first-person knowledge of the early days of lobotomies and of working with people like his grandfather. He did deep research into the history of the brain and our fascination with it. He didn't try to frame his grandfather in a good light or protect any reputation that still exists for Scoville. Dittrich just simply told the story which included Scoville and happened to be his grandfather. What I'm saying is that Dittrich made it clear he had nothing to gain or lose by the story he crafted and put out there for the world to read. He's been criticized by MIT for his writing as it concerns Suzanne Corkin, a highly regarded neuroscientist who spent the bulk of her career on Patient H.M. After reading the book and the parts that include her part in the story of Patient H.M. and reading MIT's defense of her I'm Team Luke. His introduction of her into the larger story made me uneasy and as time progressed and by the end of Henry's life, it was clear Corkin was beyond interested in Patient H.M., she was obsessed in very unhealthy ways. It's a shame MIT supported that unhealthy attachment. As her mentor, Brenda Milner said to Dittrich, it was time to move on from Patient H.M., there are other people and other avenues to explore. She had a healthy perspective of what Patient H.M. offered her personal career goals. It doesn't seem Corkin did. Anyway. That was a tangent.
As someone who is fascinated by the brain and its inner workings but will never go beyond the surface study of it, I loved this book because it gave me insight and knowledge. It also disgusted me as the whole trend of lobotomies was ultimately very damaging to individuals and families. It was used as a way to force women into "better behavior" and to treat people who had homosexual tendencies. Those are two groups of people against which lobotomy was used as a weapon. Disgusting.
Thanks to Luke Dittrich for the years of research and study he put into writing this very interesting and informative book.
aantigone's review against another edition
3.0
This book doesn't come alive as a story until the very end and seems like it could have greatly benefited from better editing. As the author is the grandson of the surgeon who "made" Patient H.M., the investment in minor details and personal information is warranted by the execution is windy, confusing, and brings up personal anecdotes that never go anyway in the story.
mike_morse's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not sure why I found this book so disappointing. I know I was hoping for a different book. I wanted to know what scientists believe about the mind and memory and how it works. And in a way, this book is a history of scientists trying to figure out just that question, but the book never tells us what they found. A better subtitle would have been, "A History of the Lobotomy". Lobotomies we do learn about in graphic detail. What I want to know is how you can drill big holes in someone's skull, insert X-acto knives deep in those holes, swirl them around randomly, all while the patient is awake, yet the patient has no adverse consequences after the "surgery" except maybe some slight mellowing of their personality. Yet, Mary's Mom gets a little blood in her brain, and goes into a coma and dies?