Product Description
The Lobotomist explores one of the darkest chapters of American medicine: the desperate attempt to treat the hundreds of thousands of psychiatric patients in need of help during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Into this crisis stepped Walter Freeman, M.D., who saw a solution in lobotomy, a brain operation intended to reduce the severity of psychotic symptoms. Drawing on Freeman’s documents and interviews with Freeman's family, Jack El-Hai takes a penetrating look at the life and work of this complex scientific genius.

The Lobotomist explores one of the darkest chapters of American medicine: the desperate attempt to treat the hundreds of thousands of psychiatric patients in need of help during the middle decades of the twentieth century. Into this crisis stepped Walter Freeman, M.D., who saw a solution in lobotomy, a brain operation intended to reduce the severity of psychotic symptoms. Although many patients did not benefit from the thousands of lobotomies Freeman performed, others believed their lobotomies changed them for the better. Drawing on a rich collection of documents Freeman left behind and interviews with Freeman's family, Jack El-Hai takes a penetrating look into the life of this complex scientific genius and traces the physician's fascinating life and work.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 24 reviews)

A Little Known Tragidy

This is a fascinating look inside the mind and career of on of medicine's most controversial figures. Jack El-Hai does an excellent job not only showing you the horrible events that surround one of the most notorious medical procedures of the twentieth, but depicts a man driven by a need to greatness. That assent, and subsequent fall are what really make this book excellent. Even once you are done, it is hard to label Dr. Freeman a monster or a misguided man wanting to help the mentally ill.
December 21, 2008

Thorough and informative -- but take it with a huge grain of salt

Author Jack El-Hai makes it clear in the prologue that he does not wish to demonize Walter Freeman. That wish is admirable, but the author puts so much effort into humanizing Freeman he glosses over the incalculable suffering he caused.
September 21, 2008

Where did the lobotomy come from?

Excellent book. If history is your interest, you will not be able to put the book down. It puts a scary spin on what we allowed to transpire in the name of science when in reality we knew so little about the brain.
November 26, 2007

Captivating: A Look into Chipping Away at the Mind

El-hai's The Lobotomist is an engaging read. He brings into light the grim world of psychiatrics and neurosurgery during the twentieth century. A vivid look into the disturbing mind of Walter Freeman, the man on a mission to chip away at insanity through experimental lobotomies. El-hai's book is a definite read for medical school students, as a reminder of what medicine used to mean and as a way to not repeat the mistakes done in the past. The Lobotomist is very well written, and is scary enough to make one forget that it is non-fiction.
November 25, 2007

Very interesting but....

I had never heard of Dr. Freeman before and therefore was very interested in reading about him. However, this book does go on for a while. It tends to be quite repetitive in some places and just when you think you are going to go into another phase of his life, it backtracks. It is taking me a little to get thru it but, it is interesting all the same.
October 12, 2007

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

My Lobotomy
by Howard Dully, Charles Fleming

The Lives They Left Behind: Suitcases from a State Hospital Attic
by Darby Penney, Peter Stastny
by Lisa Rinzler

Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America's Premier Mental Hospital
by Alex Beam

American Experience: The Lobotomist
Directed by Barak Goodman and John Maggio
Starring Narrated by Campbell Scott
PBS (Direct)

Madhouse: A Tragic Tale of Megalomania and Modern Medicine
by Andrew Scull