Howard's Blog

Howard Dully has started his own blog about lobotomy. Very cool!
Be sure to check it out.

http://howarddully.blogspot.com/

Haaretz Mentions Us

In a review of the book "Madhouse" about Henry Cotton the Israeli newspaper Haaretz mentions us:

"Even after Cotton's death his students continued to perform tooth extractions and tonsillectomies, until 1960. Even the inception of a treatment that was thought to be innovative at the time - lobotomy, the surgical removal of part of the brain's frontal lobe by inserting an ice pick into it, which was supposed to replace other treatments - did not lead to the end of the amputations and other surgery. (Incidentally, the developer of the lobotomy, who performed hundreds of the procedures, won the Nobel Prize for Medicine and also a great deal of support, until the real results of the treatment were revealed: The destruction of the brain tissue affected the functioning of the patient, who became a kind of zombie. Recently, several lobotomy patients' families have asked that the Nobel Prize be rescinded.) The studies that pointed to the danger and stupidity of Cotton's methods were buried in the archives of Johns Hopkins and the management of the hospital in New Jersey."

CNN story on Howard

Procedure once considered legitimate medical treatment

(CNN) -- Howard Dully was 12 years old when he was told he was going to the hospital for some tests.

"I remember having big black swollen eyes one day and staying in the hospital for a few days because apparently I had an infection," recalls Dully, now 56, who lives in San Jose, California.

That's all Dully can remember of the transorbital or "ice pick" lobotomy performed on him more than 40 years ago.

Many in the medical community consider lobotomies barbaric by today's standards, but there was a time when the procedure was an accepted treatment for those suffering from severe mental illness.

Throughout the 1930s, '40s and most of the '50s, the main route of treatment for most of these patients was to keep them institutionalized in often filthy, deplorable conditions until they got better on their own. Many remained for years, even decades.

Then came the lobotomy. It was first performed in 1935 in Portugal by Dr. Egas Moniz, who later would win the Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine for the technique.

Neurologist Walter J. Freeman quickly brought the lobotomy to the United States, first performing it in 1936. A few months later the procedure made the front page of The New York Times with the headline "Surgery Used on the Soul Sick."

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Michael Musto mentions the NPR program

I'D RATHER HAVE A BOTTLE IN FRONT OF ME . . .

Barbaric Photoshopping of the brain, as it were, is spotlighted in the radio documentary My Lobotomy, whose premiere at Bellevue I gleefully went to, mainly to act all superior to the live guests who'd no doubt be screaming, slobbering, and belching the alphabet. But these survivors—who once had ice picks rammed into their heads for various un-chic reasons—were touching and well-spoken about the ramifications of their horror, though I was most attracted to the lady who said the lobotomy actually helped her resolve her schizophrenia. I hope she got two for the price of one.

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