Howard Dully's Journey: 'My Lobotomy'
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/bonus-video/lobotomist-howard-dully/
Following up from last week, this is an interview with Howard Dully, one of the youngest recipients of the ice- pick lobotomy. He was 12 years old at the time. Now, he is a 61 year old bus driver who went on a quest to find out details of what happened to him. He gives details in his critically well- received memoir "My Lobotomy".
In an interview, Howard Dully says: "I'll never know what I lost in those 10 minutes with Dr. Freeman and his ice pick. By some miracle it didn't turn me into a zombie, crush my spirit or kill me. But it did affect me. Deeply. Walter Freeman's operation was supposed to relieve suffering. In my case it did just the opposite..."
Several physicians have said that because Howard was so young when the operation occurred, it is possible that his brain had a better capacity to repair or compensate, compared to older patients who were operated on.
Here is a website detailing some other interesting cases, including Howard Dully's:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014080
2 comments:
Freeman believed that mental illness was related to overactive emotions, and that by cutting the brain he cut away these feelings.
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wow...
hmm, the pbs does not work in my computer. I should try again. Thanks for the article!
Yeah, by doing that, Freeman changed the person! He changed their personality!
It should be noted that not all lobotomies turned people into zombies. If you look at the PBS site, you'll see some success stories too. Not sure if it was just a stroke of luck, or Freeman actually knew what he was doing.
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