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. 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.
Author: Jack El-Hai
Publisher: Wiley
Published: 02/09/2007
Pages: 372
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.81lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.56w x 1.01d
ISBN13: 9780470098301
ISBN10: 0470098309
BISAC Categories:
- Biography & Autobiography | Medical (Incl. Patients)
- Medical | History
- Psychology | History
About the Author
JACK EL-HAI is the President of the American Society of Journalists and a contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post Magazine, American Heritage, and other publications. He is a past winner of the Minnesota Book Award and the June Roth Memorial Award for Medical Journalism.
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