The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness - Tapa dura

"Written with such clarity and engaging detail that a reader has difficulty in putting it down." (The New York Review of Books, August 11, 2005) "a lively biography of a much maligned and misunderstood practitioner..." (Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, August 2005) "...a well researched account of psychosurgery in the mid 20th century..." (The Guardian, June 11, 2005) "...fascinating book...an important and disturbing contribution to the history of psychiatry..." (New Statesman, June 17, 2005) "...meticulously researched account..." (British Medical Journal, 28 May 2005) "El-Hai gives his readers a first-class biography and, without saying so, a tutorial in the sober need for professional humility." (Karen R. Long, Cleveland Plain Dealer) "One of the many virtues of El-Hai's text is the rich detail he provides about Freeman's life and ideas." (Andrew Scull, The Los Angeles Times, April 24, 2005) "Walter Jackson Freeman is a man worth getting to know, a classic American archetype of genius whose one crucial idea is wielded over and over again." (Sam Stowe, California Literary Review, April 3, 2005) "For anyone interested in the science of mind and body, The Lobotomist is surely a reading must." (Louis C. Martin, Science and Theology News) "...a worthy purchase" (Library Journal, January 15, 2005) "In The Lobotomist, Jack El-Hai's lively biography, Freeman comes across as a classic American type, a do-gooder and a go-getter with a bit of the huckster thrown in." (William Grimes, The New York Times) "Driven, egotistical, brilliant, and focused, Freeman is as fascinating as the chronicle of twentieth-century psychiatry in which El-Hai sets his story." (Donna Chavez, Booklist) "There are more curious characters than Freeman in the annals of medical history, but few are so curiously American." (Verlyn Klinkenborg, Discover Magazine) "In this first biography, El-Hai deftly chronicles the rise and fall of Freeman and the procedure he championed." (Library Journal) "Good biographers must keep an open mind, to avoid stereotyping and reductionism. Fortunately, El-Hai turns out to be a good biographer." (Steve Weinberg, The Philadelphia Inquirer)

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. Drawing on Freeman's documents and interviews with Freeman's family, Jack El-Hai takes a penetrating look at the life and work of this complex scientific genius. 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.