On Apr 15, 5:10 pm, "Dark Phoenix" <dark_phoe...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> My Lobotomy: A Memoir, by Howard Dully. Random House, 2007
>
> This is a horror story. There are no vampires or ghouls, but there is an
> evil stepmother, a mad scientist, a child who can do nothing right and a
> father who doesn=92t care.
>
> The mad scientist is Dr. Walter Freeman, the man who invented the =91ice
p=
ick=92
> lobotomy, the brain scrambling operation made famous in =91One Flew Over
T=
he
> Cuckoo=92s Next=92. The child who cannot seem to do anything right- at
lea=
st in
> the eyes of his family- is Howard Dully, who at the age of 12 became the
> youngest victim, er, patient to be given a transorbital lobotomy. His
> stepmother, a woman who would have benefited from psychiatry care
herself=
,
> hates Howard with an irrational passion that is obvious even to her own
> sons. His father works three jobs, in part, I suspect, to avoid being at
> home.
>
> Howard is not the ideal little boy, but his main faults seem to have
been
> laziness and an inability to apply himself at school. No one will ever
kno=
w
> why he attracted his stepmother=92s hatred, but she set out on a
campaign =
to
> have him declared insane and removed from the home. After several
> psychiatrists tell her that there is nothing wrong with Howard- and is
tol=
d
> by a couple that she, not the boy, is the problem- she finally lands on
> Freeman. At first, Freeman seems to agree with the other doctors that
Howa=
rd
> is fine. Then the stepmother turns on the lies- do***ented in
Freeman=92s
> papers and refuted 40 years later by Howard=92s family- and Freeman is
una=
ble
> to resist destroying the front of Howard=92s brain with his tools, the
> glorified ice picks.
>
> Unlike the 15%, and the other large percent who are left unable to care
fo=
r
> themselves, of Freeman=92s patients who die from the operation, Howard
> recovers, albeit slowly, and he is returned to his home. Of course this
> makes his stepmother unhappy, and after a great many more lies, he is
sent=
> to a mental institution. Finally he is turned out onto the streets to
fend=
> for himself. The next 40 years of his life is spent drifting, drinking,
> doing short stints of work, living on welfare and pursuing petty crime.
Wh=
en
> he gains custody of his son, however, he is motivated to quit drinking
and=
> doing drugs and gets a degree in computer science. A heart attack makes
hi=
m
> quit smoking. He gets a full time job driving a bus. In just a few
years, =
he
> turns his life completely around. Then he begins a search to find out
what=
,
> and why, was done to him when he was a child. Aided by re****ters from
> National Public Radio, he obtains Freeman=92s records, the notes that
the
> doctor wrote when he met with Howard, his father and his stepmother.
Howar=
d
> finds himself vindicated, but he still doesn=92t know why it happened.
His=
> father is the only one alive who knows, and the re****ters push Howard to
> meet him and ask him. It=92s an unsatisfactory meeting, with the senior
Du=
lly
> claiming total ignorance of what his wife did to his son. This is the
poin=
t
> in the book where I became angriest- this man obviously knew what was
goin=
g
> on in his own home and let his wife torture his son because he was
afraid
> she would leave him. He refuses to say he=92s sorry it happened. He
=91ref=
uses
> to think about negative things=92. This, the man who would beat Howard
wit=
h
> wooden boards on his wife=92s say.
>
> The NPR broadcast of Howard opening Freeman=92s records and interviewing
h=
is
> father and other victims of Freeman affected many people. The NPR email
> server crashed from the overload when the show aired and all the people
wh=
o=92s
> lives had been affected by Freeman=92s barbaric surgeries sent their
thank=
s
> for the show.
>
> The book is not the best written one in the world. It=92s repetitious
and
> plodding. But the emotional impact is tremendous. The horrors that
Howard
> went through as a child, and the fact that no one stepped in to help
him-
> and his was in 1960, not the dark ages- is appalling. No one ever uses
the=
> words =91child abuse=92. This is a very dark chapter in psychiatric
histor=
y.
>
> --
> Laurie Brown, Dark Phoenix
>
dark_phoe...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "To destroy the Western tradition of independent thought, it is not
> necessary to burn books. All we have to do is leave them unread for a
coup=
le
> of generations."
> --Robert Maynard Hutchens.
Thanks for the review and for reading my book.......
|
