OK, some people go through the most horrific things, and still come out okay.
This book, My Lobotomy, A Memoir, was written by Howard Dully. When Howard was twelve years old, his VERY evil stepmother recommended that he get a lobotomy, because he was hard for her to handle, and she had always seemed to have it in for him. His father agreed to this procedure after only thinking about it for two days, after this step-mother had taken the kid to numerous psychiatrists, "looking" for someone to say he was crazy. The lobotomy was performed using "ice picks" inserted behind the eyes. ~shudder~
Following this horror, the poor kid spent the rest of his childhood in various mental institutions and halfway houses, wondering what the heck was wrong with him. Why his family deserted him. Several doctors told him that there was nothing wrong with him, but this evil woman did not want him in her home, so he was made a ward of the state. He got in trouble with the law, got into trouble with alcohol and drugs.
Eventually, he met and married a woman, went to school, had a son, and got a stable job, but not until he was close to 40 years old. It was at this point in time that he went on a quest to find out what had happened to him. He got to read the doctor's notes who performed the lobotomy, he interviewed his father (who is equally to blame for everything...what parent lets a person decide to lobotomize their son?????), and eventually came to peace with it all.
I listened to an interview he did on NPR about 4 years ago, and he is a very well-spoken man. You would never know he had this horrific procedure done to him. He actually had an MRI so that doctors could see the damage that was done, and they told him that if he had had this same procedure done as an adult he would have been a vegetable, there was THAT much brain damage. But since he was so young when he had the lobotomy, his brain compensated for the damage.
This was a good book. It is unbelievable how much someone can go through and still end up having a good life.
I think I saw Mr. Dully in the PBS American Experience show "The Lobotomist." The whole thing is gruesome. The way lobotomies were performed blithely in assembly line fashion.
ReplyDelete(I must say, when I saw the title of your posting, I had a moment of panic.)
Yep, he was on that show. It is so sick what that doctor did. Dr. Freeman. I feel so bad for Howard...and the others that had that procedure. All I can say is it is sick..it leaves me speechless!
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