by Howard Dully
First published 2007
Howard Dully was twelve when he displayed typical boyhood behaviors: moodiness, messiness, fights with his brothers, and defiance toward his parents. These normal actions led his stepmother Lou to bring him to Dr. Walter Freeman, who performed a transorbital lobotomy on the boy. His family abandoned him within a year. Howard spent his teenage years in mental institutions, his twenties in jail, and his thirties drinking heavily. In his forties, he finally stabilized his life and began searching for answers about what happened to him. Only three people knew the full story: Freeman the doctor, Lou his stepmother, and his father Rodney. Freeman and Lou had died, leaving only Rodney alive. Howard researched the procedure, met other lobotomy patients and their families, and spoke with Freeman's son about the controversial work. He confronted his father about his failure to protect him and examined Freeman's archived files. Through this investigation, Howard uncovers the truth about a shameful period in mental health treatment while recounting his journey from a destroyed childhood through decades of struggle toward eventual redemption.
Genres: mental-health, abuse, mental-illness, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: redemption, unreliable-narrator
Period: 20th-Century
288 pages · Kindle Edition · Broadway Books
Content warnings: abuse, mental-illness