My Lobotomy: Author Details Life Before and After an Ice Pick Lobotomy

First imagine being four years old and your mother gone, with no one telling you she had died. All you knew was she was not coming home - ever. All you think is she abandoned you. Had someone told you she had died maybe you would have understood.

Fast forward to being twelve years old. Your father marries a wicked stepmother. Your stepmother cannot stand you. Any little thing you do as a little boy you are punished for. She mentally and physically abuses you. Your brothers do the same antic and no punishment to them. After your stepmother punishes you, you wait for the wrath of your father when he comes home from work.

You are a "normal" boy. You get into trouble here and there doing "boy" antics. Nothing serious.

Seeing as your stepmother hates you, she starts speaking to your father about having you kicked out of the house. She tries numerous times to get you to live with someone else. You don't know why she hates you so.

Finally, your stepmother starts talking to doctors. She wants to "fix" you. You go through tests with doctors and they all come to the conclusion you are "normal." Your stepmother does not give up.

She has an appointment with Dr. Walter Freeman. Dr. Freeman is the notorious doctor that gave lobotomies. Dr. Freeman is the physician that gave Rosemary Kennedy a prefrontal lobotomy in 1941. Rosemary Kennedy is the sister of John F. Kennedy. Rosemary was born slightly retarded and lived a normal life. At the age of twenty three she had her prefrontal lobotomy. She lived the rest of her life at St. Coletta, Jefferson, Wisconsin. St. Coletta is a mental hospital. Rosemary spent sixty years living there. My husband and I live close to St. Coletta and see the people walking around the grounds and sidewalks of the mental hospital.

Going into the hospital you are not too scared as no one told you what was going to happen to you. You craved attention and you were happy getting it from anyone and anywhere.

After the quick operation of having an ice pick poked into your brain and "scrambled" you are put in the recovery room. Over 2,500 lobotomies have been done. Many of the folks ended up worse than before or dead.

For years you wonder what you did to deserve this. You go searching when you reach your fifties. You do a documentary. It ends of giving you the answers you needed to know and you end up helping so many others.

My Lobotomy is a phenomenal book written by Howard Dully and Charles Fleming. You are taken through the life of Howard Dully. You will feel his pain as a child being abused. You will wish you can rescue this tortured innocent little soul.

You will wonder how any "mother" can be so cruel to a child. Why would anyone do this to another human being?

You will go on his quest with him for the answer of "why me?"

Howard Dully does find the answers to why his stepmother and father put him through the lobotomy. The lobotomy changed his life.

You will hear the details of what a lobotomy is and how Dr. Freeman performed them. You will see that Dr. Freeman was on a mission to do as many lobotomies as possible not giving much thought to the human being.

When I first read the title of this book "My Lobotomy A Memoir" I was puzzled. I thought "How does anyone have recollection of what happened after a lobotomy?"

Howard Dully remembers parts of his life. The rest he did a lot of research with the help of other people. There are quotes of his medical records taken by Dr. Freeman. Notes on what his stepmother and father said at the doctor's meetings.

You are taken through the many homes and institutions Howard lived at. You are taken to his adult life. Jobs he had. Women he was with.

Photos of Howard and his family are throughout the book.

I will not give the ending to the story but I will let you know it is worth reading and it will give you a sense of life and worth.