Teenage Lobotomy
Howard Dully during his transorbital lobotomy, Dec. 16, 1960. George Washington University Gelman Library
For fear of being one of those bloggers who write “Guess what I heard on NPR today,” I still need to recommend this remarkable story. Howard Dully, a 56-year old man, spent two years researching the circumstances behind his lobotomy at age 12 and recorded his progress along the way.
In the face of the 1950s post-war malaise and Cold War dread, psychology and psychiatry arrived in the American cultural mainstream. The science of the brain was seen as a cure-all for its time, treating everything from depression to truancy, and many looking for quick fixes for everyday depression and headaches fell into the care of quacks.
Take Walter Freeman, for example, the doctor who gave Dully his lobotomy and a pied piper of this primitive psychosurgery: “Freeman was a showman and liked to shock his audience of doctors and nurses by performing two-handed lobotomies: hammering ice picks into both eyes at once. In 1952, he performed 228 lobotomies in a two-week period in West Virginia alone. (He lobotomized 25 women in a single day.)”
Add to this milieu a 12-year old who wouldn’t go to bed when asked (imagine that!), an evil stepmother, a fall-guy father and you have the makings of a Greek tragedy.
NPR : ‘My Lobotomy’: Howard Dully’s Journey
Thank you for listening and for the kind words !
at least you didn’t use “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than” that is so old
Howard
REALLY enjoyed this story tremendously. Thanks for drawing attention to it.
BTW: I actually have a bunch of photographs of 444 Grove, took ‘em last August when I was in SF. (My fiancee and I even stayed at the Days Inn Civic Center). What I DON’T have are pics of the building when Ralph was in it. Perhaps we can chat about what the building looked like in those days? Drop me an email.