num_pages: 368
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.
language: English
title: The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness
titlecomplete: The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness
genres: Medicine, Biography, History, Science, Mental Illness, Mental Health, Psychology, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Medical
ratings_count: 804
awards: awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Minnesota Book Award
category: History & Biography
publisher: Wiley