raven_morgan's review against another edition
4.0
Fascinating biography of Freeman and his campaign to make lobotomy a common practice for the cure of mental illness, especially mood disorders.
Reading this, it's kind of horrifying to think that Freeman's transorbital lobotomy was such a common practice - especially given that he didn't always work in aseptic conditions, and didn't hesitate to lobotomise young children, or to lobotomise some patients two or three times. Especially given that there was so little actual evidence that it did anything at all. He claimed that his patients were mostly helped, and you have to admire how much he tried to follow up with them, but there was little actual data on the befores and afters (except Freeman's portraits).
This left me with the possible idea that maybe Freeman was as il as some of his patients. He was certainly an obsessive, and the level of showmanship he incorporated into his displays just boggles the mind.
I do wonder what a world would be like where psychiatric drugs didn't come into common use, though, since it was their rise, in part, that led to the downfall of lobotomy.
Reading this, it's kind of horrifying to think that Freeman's transorbital lobotomy was such a common practice - especially given that he didn't always work in aseptic conditions, and didn't hesitate to lobotomise young children, or to lobotomise some patients two or three times. Especially given that there was so little actual evidence that it did anything at all. He claimed that his patients were mostly helped, and you have to admire how much he tried to follow up with them, but there was little actual data on the befores and afters (except Freeman's portraits).
This left me with the possible idea that maybe Freeman was as il as some of his patients. He was certainly an obsessive, and the level of showmanship he incorporated into his displays just boggles the mind.
I do wonder what a world would be like where psychiatric drugs didn't come into common use, though, since it was their rise, in part, that led to the downfall of lobotomy.
paulataua's review against another edition
2.0
I came into contact with numerous failed lobotomy patients in the big mental hospitals of the 1970s, some were in a vegetated state, others displaying little or no emotion. For this reason alone, I read this critically. Initially, I became aware of what was not being said. The author pointed out that Freeman became aware that the answer lay in severing connections that lead to detrimental emotional responses, and yet didn’t point out that they are actually the same connections that lead to beneficial and necessary emotional responses. I tried to accept, as one reviewer suggested, that this was the ‘dispassionate reserve of a trained journalist’. Certainly, nothing was left hidden. Freeman lobotomized subjects as young as four years old, and at times saw it as an answer to social as well as medical problems, Freeman, it was also noted, lined the patients one after the other, caring little about hygiene. The author noted that someone claimed him to be the Henry Ford of assembly line brain surgery. To be fair, Freeman did seem to care for his patients and did follow them up over the years. It is near the end that the author reveals his true colors. He appears to accept that Freeman was a maverick, but that he was also a genius that paved the way for more precise psycho-surgery of today. I agree with the maverick claim but not the genius claim. There is little of value in the final chapters and much of debatable accuracy. I doubt that the practice of lobotomizing patients disappeared as a result of the anti-psychiatry movement of the 60s and 70s. Its demise is more likely due to the growing recognition of its brutality, to the unconvincing results of the operation, and to the arrival of anti-psychotic medication. Sadly, rather than a completely new approach to the treatment of mental illness, Thorazine and its buddies remain little more than a form of chemical lobotomy. Read, yes, but please read critically.
shelfimprovement's review against another edition
3.0
I'm having a hard time getting into this one. It's a little drier than I was expecting. It doesn't hold my attention at all, which is strange considering how fascinated I am by the topic.
jackalope84's review against another edition
3.0
First I listen to this as an audiobook. The narrators voice made it especially difficult to finish this so I had to deduct a star for that. Another star was deducted in how they kind of “rushed” over the part of history where anyone and everyone were using lobotomies to control “non conformist” people and also I feel like the book glossed over the insane death rate of the procedure. Would you get a surgery that had a 50% success rate?
However I did enjoy the thouroghness of the biography and how Frieman was portrayed-not as a saint or a sinner, just a doctor trying to figure out how to help those with mental ill ness.
However I did enjoy the thouroghness of the biography and how Frieman was portrayed-not as a saint or a sinner, just a doctor trying to figure out how to help those with mental ill ness.
larasam's review
2.0
A good look at the history of lobotomy, but at times it was difficult to get through this book.
captainuxa's review
4.0
Walter Freeman is a polarizing character. He popularized and promoted the more traditional lobotomy, developed a new one (the ice pick lobotomy), and performed them on thousands of the mentally impaired (and sometimes not so impaired) throughout a relatively short time span. But the man did it to try and alleviate their suffering. He felt that if most of his patients were able to be released from their asylums, then he did good work.
I was particularly aggressive towards Freeman’s ideas, especially after reading My Lobotomy. After reading this book, I realized that I would have a really good time hanging out with Freeman. He was a showboating, witty, and brilliant guy. Like everything else in this world, our choices are colored by the times we live in, and Freeman was no different. He was looking for a solution and the evidence he had pointed to the lobotomy’s direction. It certainly helped some, but not entirely for the reasons Freeman identified. Our knowledge today allows us to perform better and more precise brain surgery, and I’m certain there are more Freeman’s today, just with more restrictions.
When Freeman died, he left behind many of his letters, journals, and other writings. His children were willing and happy to talk to El-Hai, and provided many of the colorful stories of their father. El-Hai does a fantastic job of following Freeman’s thought process and merging it with By following Freeman’s thought process, he becomes a more sympathetic individual.
There were some points in the book that felt disjointed, particularly near the end. I understand that El-Hai had to describe the changing climate that lead to the downfall of the lobotomy (and Walter Freeman), but it felt shoe-horned into the narrative. Other than those awkward history lessons, the book was a great read, especially for those already interested in psychology and history.
I wanted to include one of my favorite anecdotes from the book, but it is mildly inappropriate, so I have placed it behind the cut:
Soon another patient commanded Freeman’s curiosity: a young man who arrived at the hospital with his penis in dire shape. Inflamed and dark, the organ was encircled by a ring that the patient’s girlfriend had thrust over it but was unable to remove. Freeman ended the patient’s agony by filing through the ring and twisting it free with foreceps. ‘The book asked for the ring but I told him it was a specimen and that I would have to keep it,’ Freeman wrote. ‘I had the ring repaired and the Freeman crest engraved on it.’ For years afterward, Freeman wore the specimen on a gold chain.
I was particularly aggressive towards Freeman’s ideas, especially after reading My Lobotomy. After reading this book, I realized that I would have a really good time hanging out with Freeman. He was a showboating, witty, and brilliant guy. Like everything else in this world, our choices are colored by the times we live in, and Freeman was no different. He was looking for a solution and the evidence he had pointed to the lobotomy’s direction. It certainly helped some, but not entirely for the reasons Freeman identified. Our knowledge today allows us to perform better and more precise brain surgery, and I’m certain there are more Freeman’s today, just with more restrictions.
When Freeman died, he left behind many of his letters, journals, and other writings. His children were willing and happy to talk to El-Hai, and provided many of the colorful stories of their father. El-Hai does a fantastic job of following Freeman’s thought process and merging it with By following Freeman’s thought process, he becomes a more sympathetic individual.
There were some points in the book that felt disjointed, particularly near the end. I understand that El-Hai had to describe the changing climate that lead to the downfall of the lobotomy (and Walter Freeman), but it felt shoe-horned into the narrative. Other than those awkward history lessons, the book was a great read, especially for those already interested in psychology and history.
I wanted to include one of my favorite anecdotes from the book, but it is mildly inappropriate, so I have placed it behind the cut:
Soon another patient commanded Freeman’s curiosity: a young man who arrived at the hospital with his penis in dire shape. Inflamed and dark, the organ was encircled by a ring that the patient’s girlfriend had thrust over it but was unable to remove. Freeman ended the patient’s agony by filing through the ring and twisting it free with foreceps. ‘The book asked for the ring but I told him it was a specimen and that I would have to keep it,’ Freeman wrote. ‘I had the ring repaired and the Freeman crest engraved on it.’ For years afterward, Freeman wore the specimen on a gold chain.
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