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Doctor Ice Pick
A haunting and true short story of the lobotomist who cut a brutal swathe through the lives of thousands of vulnerable Americans from the author of Miracle at Coney Island.
In July 1952, Dr. Walter Freeman arrived at the gates of a West Virginia asylum. In his medical bag he carried two metal picks and a surgical hammer. He had invented a “cheap, easy” ten-minute lobotomy. The press described it as a miracle cure, a new frontier in psychosurgery.
That summer, in just twelve days, Freeman lobotomized 228 men, women, and children in West Virginia’s public mental hospitals. His blitzkrieg of brain surgery became known as “Operation Ice Pick,” named after the tools he wielded.
To some, the doctor was a hero, solving the crisis facing the nation’s underfunded and overcrowded psychiatric institutions. But many who watched him operate saw a dangerous risk-taker, a showman and a charlatan. This is the true story of a scientific pioneer whose misguided quest created one of the biggest tragedies in American medical history.
In July 1952, Dr. Walter Freeman arrived at the gates of a West Virginia asylum. In his medical bag he carried two metal picks and a surgical hammer. He had invented a “cheap, easy” ten-minute lobotomy. The press described it as a miracle cure, a new frontier in psychosurgery.
That summer, in just twelve days, Freeman lobotomized 228 men, women, and children in West Virginia’s public mental hospitals. His blitzkrieg of brain surgery became known as “Operation Ice Pick,” named after the tools he wielded.
To some, the doctor was a hero, solving the crisis facing the nation’s underfunded and overcrowded psychiatric institutions. But many who watched him operate saw a dangerous risk-taker, a showman and a charlatan. This is the true story of a scientific pioneer whose misguided quest created one of the biggest tragedies in American medical history.
85 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 31, 2022
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August 15, 2024
Dr. Freeman introduces an audacious new approach to lobotomies, showcasing his technique on a staggering number of patients. He exudes a mad scientist vibe, reveling in the grim theatrics of his method.
The first 20 pages are a thrilling ride, brimming with excitement and intrigue. However, as the book progresses, it shifts gears into more of a history lesson. While it’s not bad, and some operations are indeed quite gory, I found myself hoping for a deeper dive into the darker aspects of his work.
Overall, it’s an interesting read, just not quite as thrilling as I’d expected!
The first 20 pages are a thrilling ride, brimming with excitement and intrigue. However, as the book progresses, it shifts gears into more of a history lesson. While it’s not bad, and some operations are indeed quite gory, I found myself hoping for a deeper dive into the darker aspects of his work.
Overall, it’s an interesting read, just not quite as thrilling as I’d expected!
January 24, 2024
In a Nutshell: A medical true-crime narration focussing on a lobotomist who affected hundreds of lives in the USA from the mid-1950s onwards. Somewhat dry in narration. Might work better for those who know nothing of the case.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Walter Freeman was a man with great credentials: a neurology professor, a private practice owner, former president of American board of psychiatry and neurology. He was also a man with great plans: he wanted to use his “cheap and easy” 10-minute lobotomy technique to *help* asylum inmates get rid of their mental afflictions, by which they could be discharged and the overburdened and underfunded public psychiatric institutions could focus only on the worst of cases.
While Freeman started off with a declared intention of using lobotomy only on those patients who could benefit from it, he was so determined to make his technique the most effective solution to the asylum crisis that after a point, he focussed only on the quantum of patients instead of their qualification for the treatment. Conducting “surgeries” within just a few minutes, he launched a blitzkrieg of lobotomies, beginning with the state of West Virginia, as it was among the poorer regions and hence, in most need of clearing out its overcapacity hospitals to whatever extent possible. Such was Freeman’s focus on just getting the numbers that his youngest patient was just four years old. Needless to say, most of his patients were women.
I shall not delve into the details of his procedure here. The title and the cover give a clue of what tool and technique he used. But if I reveal further details of his actual modus operandi, some of you might not be able to stomach the thought of how such a gruesome “surgery” became so widely implemented, especially considering that the patients were given only local anaesthesia and were told to walk out of the operating theatre (if at all a theatre was used) immediately after the process.
Was Freeman a genuine believer in the benefits of his treatment? Or was he so blinded by the prospect of fame that he bent over backwards to twist the stats in his favour? Who can tell! It is said that a story always has two sides, but when one side of the story is more like horror in reality, do we really want to know the other?
As I wasn’t aware of Freeman and his wrongdoings, I found this true crime story morbidly fascinating. I can’t even fathom how such a technique was used for ailments ranging from schizophrenia to tuberculosis to even cancer! How did other medical professionals not suspect anything sooner? After all, we aren’t even talking of the dark ages here. All these surgeries happened just about seven decades ago, within the period we call “modern medicine.’ Unbelievable!
However, to anyone who might already be familiar with this case, the content will seem boring. It is written in a very dry style. Even the Wikipedia page has a teeny bit more emotion than this essay. I suppose the dispassionate tone of the writing helps a little as anything more fervent might have felt too dramatized and also more traumatic to read. But I wish there was a little more life to the writing. I kept reading mainly because I wanted to know what happened next.
A part of the content reminded me of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. (You can read more about this in a brilliant book called 'Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup.') After all, when success and fortune are placed before ethics and welfare, the result is a business where people are nothing but sacrificial pawns in the larger game. Both Freeman and Holmes had grand dreams, and probably well-meaning intent as well, but their approach of cutting corners in their hurry to reach the top compromised any good they could have done had they been more moral.
All in all, this is an informative read for those who might not know too many details of Freeman’s lobotomy drive. It gets quite horrifying, so if you have a queasy stomach about grisly medical procedures, better stay away.
3.5 stars. (4 stars for the content, 3 stars for the writing style. Averaged.)
The true crime nonfiction is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr. Walter Freeman was a man with great credentials: a neurology professor, a private practice owner, former president of American board of psychiatry and neurology. He was also a man with great plans: he wanted to use his “cheap and easy” 10-minute lobotomy technique to *help* asylum inmates get rid of their mental afflictions, by which they could be discharged and the overburdened and underfunded public psychiatric institutions could focus only on the worst of cases.
While Freeman started off with a declared intention of using lobotomy only on those patients who could benefit from it, he was so determined to make his technique the most effective solution to the asylum crisis that after a point, he focussed only on the quantum of patients instead of their qualification for the treatment. Conducting “surgeries” within just a few minutes, he launched a blitzkrieg of lobotomies, beginning with the state of West Virginia, as it was among the poorer regions and hence, in most need of clearing out its overcapacity hospitals to whatever extent possible. Such was Freeman’s focus on just getting the numbers that his youngest patient was just four years old. Needless to say, most of his patients were women.
I shall not delve into the details of his procedure here. The title and the cover give a clue of what tool and technique he used. But if I reveal further details of his actual modus operandi, some of you might not be able to stomach the thought of how such a gruesome “surgery” became so widely implemented, especially considering that the patients were given only local anaesthesia and were told to walk out of the operating theatre (if at all a theatre was used) immediately after the process.
Was Freeman a genuine believer in the benefits of his treatment? Or was he so blinded by the prospect of fame that he bent over backwards to twist the stats in his favour? Who can tell! It is said that a story always has two sides, but when one side of the story is more like horror in reality, do we really want to know the other?
As I wasn’t aware of Freeman and his wrongdoings, I found this true crime story morbidly fascinating. I can’t even fathom how such a technique was used for ailments ranging from schizophrenia to tuberculosis to even cancer! How did other medical professionals not suspect anything sooner? After all, we aren’t even talking of the dark ages here. All these surgeries happened just about seven decades ago, within the period we call “modern medicine.’ Unbelievable!
However, to anyone who might already be familiar with this case, the content will seem boring. It is written in a very dry style. Even the Wikipedia page has a teeny bit more emotion than this essay. I suppose the dispassionate tone of the writing helps a little as anything more fervent might have felt too dramatized and also more traumatic to read. But I wish there was a little more life to the writing. I kept reading mainly because I wanted to know what happened next.
A part of the content reminded me of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. (You can read more about this in a brilliant book called 'Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup.') After all, when success and fortune are placed before ethics and welfare, the result is a business where people are nothing but sacrificial pawns in the larger game. Both Freeman and Holmes had grand dreams, and probably well-meaning intent as well, but their approach of cutting corners in their hurry to reach the top compromised any good they could have done had they been more moral.
All in all, this is an informative read for those who might not know too many details of Freeman’s lobotomy drive. It gets quite horrifying, so if you have a queasy stomach about grisly medical procedures, better stay away.
3.5 stars. (4 stars for the content, 3 stars for the writing style. Averaged.)
The true crime nonfiction is currently available free to Amazon Prime subscribers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || X/Twitter || Facebook ||
July 31, 2022
3★
“Freeman was a natural showman, and from the start, he had aggressively courted the press, taking them out to lunch, feeding them pithy sound bites, and inviting them and their wives to sit in on operations.”
That’s not what I’d be looking for in a brain surgeon, but then he wasn’t one, technically. He was a doctor who made a name for himself in the middle of the 20th century by performing lobotomies through the eye socket, near the tear ducts, one eye at a time.
He liked to time himself, see how fast he could tap in and cut through the connection in the brain, and when he had a good audience, he liked to do both eyes at the same time, one with each hand, like some kind of circus performer.
The author says procedure was “described in the pages of the New York Times as ‘history-making . . . a shining example of therapeutic courage’ that ‘cuts away sick parts of the human personality.’
The reality could be very different.”
I’m old enough that I remember hearing about some of this. Freeman lived in a well-to-do part of the country, but he was next door to one of the poorest states in America, West Virginia. The hospitals sound Dickensian.
“If a patient was incontinent, they were tied to the toilet or left naked in a room with a cement floor where they sat in pools of urine and feces. There weren’t enough staff to keep everyone clean.
. . .
Far from unique, the desperate conditions at Huntington were replicated in hospitals across America.”
Hospitals overwhelmed by the numbers of extremely difficult patients were keen to take up Freeman’s offer to make people well enough to leave, “his catchphrase, ‘Lobotomy gets them home.’”
This is not for the faint-hearted but it is an excellent account of the man and some of the famous patients who underwent this treatment, such as Rosemary Kennedy, JFK’s sister, who was made worse and hidden away forever. Some were improved, some became like children, some were badly damaged, or even died.
When I looked up one of the footnotes to a 2008 ‘Guardian’ article, I realised the quote I was double-checking may not have been from Freeman, but from one of his former patients who wrote a book (with a journalist) that the newspaper article was about.
I don’t know how much original research the author did, but the article covers much of the same ground.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2...
Wikipedia has extensive information on Freeman, as well, but I did appreciate that if I’d not seen this Amazon offering, I might never have stumbled across his story – and it IS both fascinating and terrifying.
Incidentally, the Kindle version is very messy reading since the footnotes all appear in the same typeface right in the middle of pages, depending on the size font you use. The PDF version is spaced out properly with footnotes at the bottom. I don’t know if you can download PDFs from Amazon or not, but NetGalley has the option.
UPDATE - the good news! In a comment below, Amy said that the footnotes in her real Kindle version are fine and where they should be, so perhaps my problem was because it was a preview copy.
Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the copy for review.
“Freeman was a natural showman, and from the start, he had aggressively courted the press, taking them out to lunch, feeding them pithy sound bites, and inviting them and their wives to sit in on operations.”
That’s not what I’d be looking for in a brain surgeon, but then he wasn’t one, technically. He was a doctor who made a name for himself in the middle of the 20th century by performing lobotomies through the eye socket, near the tear ducts, one eye at a time.
He liked to time himself, see how fast he could tap in and cut through the connection in the brain, and when he had a good audience, he liked to do both eyes at the same time, one with each hand, like some kind of circus performer.
The author says procedure was “described in the pages of the New York Times as ‘history-making . . . a shining example of therapeutic courage’ that ‘cuts away sick parts of the human personality.’
The reality could be very different.”
I’m old enough that I remember hearing about some of this. Freeman lived in a well-to-do part of the country, but he was next door to one of the poorest states in America, West Virginia. The hospitals sound Dickensian.
“If a patient was incontinent, they were tied to the toilet or left naked in a room with a cement floor where they sat in pools of urine and feces. There weren’t enough staff to keep everyone clean.
. . .
Far from unique, the desperate conditions at Huntington were replicated in hospitals across America.”
Hospitals overwhelmed by the numbers of extremely difficult patients were keen to take up Freeman’s offer to make people well enough to leave, “his catchphrase, ‘Lobotomy gets them home.’”
This is not for the faint-hearted but it is an excellent account of the man and some of the famous patients who underwent this treatment, such as Rosemary Kennedy, JFK’s sister, who was made worse and hidden away forever. Some were improved, some became like children, some were badly damaged, or even died.
When I looked up one of the footnotes to a 2008 ‘Guardian’ article, I realised the quote I was double-checking may not have been from Freeman, but from one of his former patients who wrote a book (with a journalist) that the newspaper article was about.
I don’t know how much original research the author did, but the article covers much of the same ground.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2...
Wikipedia has extensive information on Freeman, as well, but I did appreciate that if I’d not seen this Amazon offering, I might never have stumbled across his story – and it IS both fascinating and terrifying.
Incidentally, the Kindle version is very messy reading since the footnotes all appear in the same typeface right in the middle of pages, depending on the size font you use. The PDF version is spaced out properly with footnotes at the bottom. I don’t know if you can download PDFs from Amazon or not, but NetGalley has the option.
UPDATE - the good news! In a comment below, Amy said that the footnotes in her real Kindle version are fine and where they should be, so perhaps my problem was because it was a preview copy.
Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the copy for review.
March 30, 2023
Operation Ice Pick, when political power, medical orthodoxy, and an unquestioning press aligned behind a flawed man with a zealous belief in a dangerous and unproven medical procedure, should be remembered as a terrible parable of misplaced certainty and lax oversight.
What a challenging read, but I'm glad that I read it. I knew a little bit about the history of lobotomies in North American psychiatric hospitals, but I had no idea that so much of the horror of the procedure as we frequently think of it was attributed to one man's desperate need for power and fame.
I thought at first that Freeman's actions could partially be blamed on very misplaced intentions and a desire to help, but reading this take on his life and career makes it evident that the majority of the damage he caused was simply due to his own greedy, over-inflated ego.
On a happier note, Prentice's writing is engaging and quick to read through, and I appreciate the emphasis placed not only on how tragic it is that these people's lives were forever changed or cut short, but also the attention to how misogynistic and racist Freeman's preferences for women and/or Black patients were. The end of the book wonders aloud if we could ever see such grand-scale medical malpractice as the likes of widespread lobotomies, and I'm genuinely chilled to imagine it.
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August 25, 2024
5/5
Trumpas pasakojimas apie ilgą lobotomijos tėvo karjerą. Ilgą, grįstą kančiomis moterų, vyrų ir vaikų. Dažnai – negalinčių pasipriešinti, dar dažniau – nes jie dar ir palankios rasės. Socialines paribes šukuojant ir bandant lobotomijos stebuklą pritempti prie visko ir bet ko. Epilepsija? Prašom, sėskitės. Nerimas? Op jum ledo kirtiklį į akį. Atsikalbinėja vaikas? Žmona neatlieka savo pareigų? Truputį liūdna? Važiuojam. Bičas, per gyvenimą atlikęs daugiau nei 4 tūkst. lobotomijų (pats atsisakęs savosios, kai jau kaip ir prireikė pagal paties diagnozes), šiaip yra tobula istorija filmui ar net serialui. O skaitant sunku patikėti, kaip lengva žmones įtikinti kad kažkas tokio barbariško ir tokio mažai mokslu ar logika pagrįsto yra panacėja.
Autorė ne tik per maždaug 100 puslapių papasakoja neįtikėtiną istoriją, bet ir pateikia gausybę faktų, kurių nežinojau. Pavyzdžiui, kad lobotomija buvo atlikta ir garsiajai Evitai – po jos ji tiesiog atsisakė valgyti ir numirė. Vėžys, aišku, irgi nepadėjo, tačiau šioji informacija paaiškėjo tik sąlyginai neseniai. Ir į miuziklą, žinoma, nepateko. O ir kiek daug istorijų, tokių kaip jos, o ir baisesnių, buvo nuslėpta, nutylėta – nuo įtakingiausių Amerikos šeimų iki tų, kurių tikrai niekas neklausė. Autorė paliečia ir lobotomijos literatūroje temą, o ir parekomenduoja visokių šaltinių, kuriuos galima skaityti toliau. Tai eisiu skaityti. Ir jums rekomenduoju.
Trumpas pasakojimas apie ilgą lobotomijos tėvo karjerą. Ilgą, grįstą kančiomis moterų, vyrų ir vaikų. Dažnai – negalinčių pasipriešinti, dar dažniau – nes jie dar ir palankios rasės. Socialines paribes šukuojant ir bandant lobotomijos stebuklą pritempti prie visko ir bet ko. Epilepsija? Prašom, sėskitės. Nerimas? Op jum ledo kirtiklį į akį. Atsikalbinėja vaikas? Žmona neatlieka savo pareigų? Truputį liūdna? Važiuojam. Bičas, per gyvenimą atlikęs daugiau nei 4 tūkst. lobotomijų (pats atsisakęs savosios, kai jau kaip ir prireikė pagal paties diagnozes), šiaip yra tobula istorija filmui ar net serialui. O skaitant sunku patikėti, kaip lengva žmones įtikinti kad kažkas tokio barbariško ir tokio mažai mokslu ar logika pagrįsto yra panacėja.
Autorė ne tik per maždaug 100 puslapių papasakoja neįtikėtiną istoriją, bet ir pateikia gausybę faktų, kurių nežinojau. Pavyzdžiui, kad lobotomija buvo atlikta ir garsiajai Evitai – po jos ji tiesiog atsisakė valgyti ir numirė. Vėžys, aišku, irgi nepadėjo, tačiau šioji informacija paaiškėjo tik sąlyginai neseniai. Ir į miuziklą, žinoma, nepateko. O ir kiek daug istorijų, tokių kaip jos, o ir baisesnių, buvo nuslėpta, nutylėta – nuo įtakingiausių Amerikos šeimų iki tų, kurių tikrai niekas neklausė. Autorė paliečia ir lobotomijos literatūroje temą, o ir parekomenduoja visokių šaltinių, kuriuos galima skaityti toliau. Tai eisiu skaityti. Ir jums rekomenduoju.
June 15, 2022
A Human Plague
Review of the Amazon Original Kindle eBook edition (May 31, 2022)
I had previously run across the story of Walter Freeman (1895-1972) and his American lobotomy crusade when it was an odd chapter in Jennifer Wright's pre-COVID Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them (2017) i.e. a human induced disabling doesn't seem to count as a plague in the conventional sense.
Having the story expanded to novella length in Doctor Ice Pick just makes it all the more shocking that a barbaric procedure such as lobotomy (where the frontal lobe of the brain is severed from the rest in order to induce passivity in the patient) was ever a common medical practice. That this was done with instruments as crude as ice picks and hammers through the sides of the head or through the tops of the eye sockets is even more disturbing. That it was disproportionately used on women makes it infuriating.
That Freeman turned this into a sort of performance art with bizarre displays such as speed lobotomies, two-at-a-time lobotomies, his lobotomobile etc. just makes it even more grotesque and disgusting. Thankfully the invention of anti-psychotic drugs such as Chlorpromazine in the 1950s gradually led to lobotomization being phased out.
Author Claire Prentice seems to have done a very thorough research job here with 20% of the Kindle eBook being her citing of references. I did note that there was a dissenting review about the extent of the research.
Trivia and Links
See author Claire Prentice's website for further background here.
Review of the Amazon Original Kindle eBook edition (May 31, 2022)
I had previously run across the story of Walter Freeman (1895-1972) and his American lobotomy crusade when it was an odd chapter in Jennifer Wright's pre-COVID Get Well Soon: History's Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them (2017) i.e. a human induced disabling doesn't seem to count as a plague in the conventional sense.
Having the story expanded to novella length in Doctor Ice Pick just makes it all the more shocking that a barbaric procedure such as lobotomy (where the frontal lobe of the brain is severed from the rest in order to induce passivity in the patient) was ever a common medical practice. That this was done with instruments as crude as ice picks and hammers through the sides of the head or through the tops of the eye sockets is even more disturbing. That it was disproportionately used on women makes it infuriating.
That Freeman turned this into a sort of performance art with bizarre displays such as speed lobotomies, two-at-a-time lobotomies, his lobotomobile etc. just makes it even more grotesque and disgusting. Thankfully the invention of anti-psychotic drugs such as Chlorpromazine in the 1950s gradually led to lobotomization being phased out.
Author Claire Prentice seems to have done a very thorough research job here with 20% of the Kindle eBook being her citing of references. I did note that there was a dissenting review about the extent of the research.
Trivia and Links
See author Claire Prentice's website for further background here.
May 24, 2022
This was a short, disturbing nonfiction book about a horrific man named Walter Freeman, the American "pioneer" of prefrontal and transorbital lobotomies. Freeman was a neuroscientist (NOT a doctor or surgeon), who learned of lobotomies after watching its founder, Antonio Moniz, perform them. When he saw the results, he was determined to bring it to the US. Although he claimed to do it for the good of the patients, it was obvious that he had ulterior motives. He always aspired towards greatness and celebrity, and he saw lobotomies as an obvious way to get there.
Freeman approached the West Virginia state government and mental health system with a simple value proposition. At the time, their mental hospitals and asylums were overcrowded, underfunded, disgusting, inhumane hellholes of "medical facilities" - the stereotypical kind of place that you see in old movies or American Horror Story, with unqualified people treating patients horrifically, patients chained to toilets or kept in rooms surrounded by urine and feces, dozens and dozens of patients to a room. Freeman said he had a simple way to make this situation better and save the state a lot of money: he would go into these hospitals, lobotomize dozens of people in a day, and, according to his research, a good percentage of them would be well enough to go back to their families after the operation. Enticed by the economic proposition, Freeman's utterly charming persona, and the numbers that Freeman brought with him on success rates, the state government agreed to fund Operation Ice Pick. (Lobotomies were initially done by drilling holes into the patient's skull, but Freeman found an easier way to do it: he modified the instrument used after being inspired by an ice pick he found in his house, and began inserting that device into patients' eye sockets to perform the operation.)
Freeman lobotomized over 900 men, women, and children in West Virginia state hospitals, and could have performed as many as 4,000 lobotomies in 23 states in his career. According to Freeman, Operation Ice Pick was a success: he said around 40-50% of patients were able to go home, and that means everything worked out. But what he leaves out is that several patients died on the operating table, some lost all motor function or impulse control, and the vast majority of "success stories" came away with no personality, no spark, no soul, and no joy for life.
We now consider lobotomies to be an inhumane form of mental health treatment, but at the time, they were common - at first, as a last resort for when other treatments failed, but Freeman began using them somewhat arbitrarily to cure anything from cancer to anxiety to schizophrenia.
The book is short, but packs a punch. It describes Freeman and his cult of personality, the history and science of lobotomies, the dangers and aftereffects of the procedure, how lobotomies slowly phased out, and Freeman's legacy. There are many patient stories that stick with you, but I was shocked at the story of Howard Dully. He was a young boy whose stepmother approached Freeman complaining that he wouldn't listen to her, he wouldn't go to sleep even when he was tired, he would wear a sweater outside on sunny days, and he refused to take a shower. (Sounds like any other young boy, right?) In response to this behavior, Freeman lobotomized this twelve-year-old boy (instead of recommending any other treatment) - and it didn't fix his behavior at all, in fact, his behavior became worse because lobotomies are known to destroy impulse control. His parents ultimately gave him up to be a ward of the state. Now, Dully is 70 years old, married, and has a career in computer science - but it took him more than 30 years to get his life back on track after his lobotomy. He even wrote a book about it, which I'm now interested in reading: My Lobotomy: A Memoir.
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley! Highly recommend this book for anyone interested in disturbing nonfiction, medical history, and lessons learned from history.
Freeman approached the West Virginia state government and mental health system with a simple value proposition. At the time, their mental hospitals and asylums were overcrowded, underfunded, disgusting, inhumane hellholes of "medical facilities" - the stereotypical kind of place that you see in old movies or American Horror Story, with unqualified people treating patients horrifically, patients chained to toilets or kept in rooms surrounded by urine and feces, dozens and dozens of patients to a room. Freeman said he had a simple way to make this situation better and save the state a lot of money: he would go into these hospitals, lobotomize dozens of people in a day, and, according to his research, a good percentage of them would be well enough to go back to their families after the operation. Enticed by the economic proposition, Freeman's utterly charming persona, and the numbers that Freeman brought with him on success rates, the state government agreed to fund Operation Ice Pick. (Lobotomies were initially done by drilling holes into the patient's skull, but Freeman found an easier way to do it: he modified the instrument used after being inspired by an ice pick he found in his house, and began inserting that device into patients' eye sockets to perform the operation.)
Freeman lobotomized over 900 men, women, and children in West Virginia state hospitals, and could have performed as many as 4,000 lobotomies in 23 states in his career. According to Freeman, Operation Ice Pick was a success: he said around 40-50% of patients were able to go home, and that means everything worked out. But what he leaves out is that several patients died on the operating table, some lost all motor function or impulse control, and the vast majority of "success stories" came away with no personality, no spark, no soul, and no joy for life.
We now consider lobotomies to be an inhumane form of mental health treatment, but at the time, they were common - at first, as a last resort for when other treatments failed, but Freeman began using them somewhat arbitrarily to cure anything from cancer to anxiety to schizophrenia.
The book is short, but packs a punch. It describes Freeman and his cult of personality, the history and science of lobotomies, the dangers and aftereffects of the procedure, how lobotomies slowly phased out, and Freeman's legacy. There are many patient stories that stick with you, but I was shocked at the story of Howard Dully. He was a young boy whose stepmother approached Freeman complaining that he wouldn't listen to her, he wouldn't go to sleep even when he was tired, he would wear a sweater outside on sunny days, and he refused to take a shower. (Sounds like any other young boy, right?) In response to this behavior, Freeman lobotomized this twelve-year-old boy (instead of recommending any other treatment) - and it didn't fix his behavior at all, in fact, his behavior became worse because lobotomies are known to destroy impulse control. His parents ultimately gave him up to be a ward of the state. Now, Dully is 70 years old, married, and has a career in computer science - but it took him more than 30 years to get his life back on track after his lobotomy. He even wrote a book about it, which I'm now interested in reading: My Lobotomy: A Memoir.
Thank you to the publisher for the ARC via Netgalley! Highly recommend this book for anyone interested in disturbing nonfiction, medical history, and lessons learned from history.
July 3, 2022
Interesting and Appalling.
Eva Perón, “Evita,” wife of the Argentinian dictator Juan Perón, died in 1952, soon after a secret operation.
Lobotomy, a very bad idea for anyone.
Eva Perón, “Evita,” wife of the Argentinian dictator Juan Perón, died in 1952, soon after a secret operation.
Lobotomy, a very bad idea for anyone.
May 20, 2022
This short non-fiction story details some of the history of Walter Freeman, who popularized the lobotomy in the United States.
Full disclosure: I am an archivist and librarian at George Washington University, where Freeman worked. We also have the Freeman Watts archival collection, which is quite massive. A large portion of this collection is closed due to researchers because these are patient records and are covered by DC mental health laws. The only people able to view those records are patients themselves or those with power of attorney.
That said, there are still many many boxes that could have been researched from, both the perspective of Freeman, Watts, and GW. The author did not do this. I feel this was a great disservice to this story - the author kind of focused on the West Virginia part of Freeman's work, but there would have been much greater depth of information had the author used the actual archives at GW. There is one reference to GW archives, but the quotes are from others published books and articles and not new research. If they did do research here, they did not do citations.
Many more citations were also needed in general. For example, the author mentions that Freeman had a nervous breakdown but this is not cited. Where was this info from? Other details of Freeman's activities are very lacking in citations and proof. The book also made the case that Freeman focused on women who were in institutions. This is also not fully true - people not institutionalized were lobotomized. Men would bring in their wives because the wives were unhappy, and would have a lobotomy done on them. Really the women should have just gotten a divorce.
If you have a slight interest in this history, I guess this is somewhere to start. But there is a LOT lacking and unproven statements. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
Full disclosure: I am an archivist and librarian at George Washington University, where Freeman worked. We also have the Freeman Watts archival collection, which is quite massive. A large portion of this collection is closed due to researchers because these are patient records and are covered by DC mental health laws. The only people able to view those records are patients themselves or those with power of attorney.
That said, there are still many many boxes that could have been researched from, both the perspective of Freeman, Watts, and GW. The author did not do this. I feel this was a great disservice to this story - the author kind of focused on the West Virginia part of Freeman's work, but there would have been much greater depth of information had the author used the actual archives at GW. There is one reference to GW archives, but the quotes are from others published books and articles and not new research. If they did do research here, they did not do citations.
Many more citations were also needed in general. For example, the author mentions that Freeman had a nervous breakdown but this is not cited. Where was this info from? Other details of Freeman's activities are very lacking in citations and proof. The book also made the case that Freeman focused on women who were in institutions. This is also not fully true - people not institutionalized were lobotomized. Men would bring in their wives because the wives were unhappy, and would have a lobotomy done on them. Really the women should have just gotten a divorce.
If you have a slight interest in this history, I guess this is somewhere to start. But there is a LOT lacking and unproven statements. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.
December 12, 2022
Holly crap! So, this is nonfiction and yet it's unbelievable. Dr. Freeman lobotimized America in 1950s and it was horrific! In four freaking years the man had done over nine hundred lobotomies. And the ripple effect that had for generations was unfathomable. The man was nothing short of a monster.
I was shocked chapter after chapter. The writing was excellent--informative, factual, and entertaining. Freeman's terrorizing will shock you. I'm still stunned and appalled. I read this book in one sitting. I couldn't put it down.
I was shocked chapter after chapter. The writing was excellent--informative, factual, and entertaining. Freeman's terrorizing will shock you. I'm still stunned and appalled. I read this book in one sitting. I couldn't put it down.
May 18, 2022
Wow! To think this happened during the lifetime of some members of my family!! Crazy!
This was clearly well-researched by the author. The author noted where stats are found (love that, we don't have to just trust they're fact, as it appeared Freeman did, lol). It is a short but still tells the story of Freeman and his decades of work (abuse), and hits on what I'd guess are the important aspects. Of course with a short story, there will always be room to expand (like I'd want more of the survivor's stories) but I felt this was kept to a good length.
Thank you to Amazon Originals and NetGalley for the advance copy to read and review.
This was clearly well-researched by the author. The author noted where stats are found (love that, we don't have to just trust they're fact, as it appeared Freeman did, lol). It is a short but still tells the story of Freeman and his decades of work (abuse), and hits on what I'd guess are the important aspects. Of course with a short story, there will always be room to expand (like I'd want more of the survivor's stories) but I felt this was kept to a good length.
Thank you to Amazon Originals and NetGalley for the advance copy to read and review.
November 1, 2023
lobotomijos šauklys
‘Doctor Ice Pick’ yra labai vaizdingas vikipedijos straipsnis. Tekstas labai įtraukiantis, puikiai supažindina su bepročiu, kažkaip gavusiu gydytojo diplomą ir ėmusiu pardavinėtu lobotomiją kaip ledus, tačiau paklydus tarp visokių vaizdingų epitetų, kažkiek gal nukentėjo publicistinė teksto kokybė, nes kartais gal kokio vieno ar kito skaičiuko teiginiam pagrįsti ir pritrūko.
Aš likau su daug klausimų perskaičiusi, kas, aišku, gerai, bet nežinau ar bent dalis tų klausimų neturėjo būti pabandyti atsakyti šiame ilgokame straipsnyje. Pati autorė paskutinėje pastraipoje sako, kad daug klausimų lieka neatsakyti - vienas jų kaip šis lobotomistas galėjo veikti neprižiūrimas tris dešimtmečius? Ir nors tai tikrai nėra klausimas, į kurį lengva atsakyti, man atrodo, kad kažkiek įžvalgos šia tema tekstas turėjo pateikti. O galų gale tai man kilo klausimas - o kaip kiti? Gal ir nebuvo tokie stačiai nupušę, bet ne jis tą nesąmonę išrado ir ne jis vienas ją vykdė, o apie juos nėra kalbama. Nesuvokiama, kaip XX amžiaus viduryje įmanoma buvo ne smegenų chirurgui atlikinėti tūkstančius smegenų operacijų (kuo priėjimas per akiduobę kažką pakeičia taip ir nesupratau) ir tęsti visa tai be jokių moksliškų vertinimų - kiek tai naudinga ir kiek žalinga - su daugiau konteksto gal man būtų buvę lengviau patikėti ta žiauria realybe.
Suprantu, kad greičiausiai į tai, kaip neįtikėtinai lengva tai buvo, ir norėta atkreipti dėmesį šitu tekstu, bet man kartais susidarydavo įspūdis, kad skaitytojas irgi turi tiesiog tikėti, kad taip buvo, nebandydamas suprasti. Negaliu sakyti, kad kažkada išvis apie tai susimąsčiau, bet mane nustebino tai, kad lobotomijos tėvas turi Nobelio premiją ir komitetas ramiu veidu gali ją ginti, atsisakydamas atimti garbę, todėl vertinų autorės misiją atnešti supratimo į temą, kuri atrodo jau turėtų būti vakarykštės naujienos, o deja nėra, bet man norėjosi kažkiek tiksliau, o gal ir ilgiau.
‘Doctor Ice Pick’ yra labai vaizdingas vikipedijos straipsnis. Tekstas labai įtraukiantis, puikiai supažindina su bepročiu, kažkaip gavusiu gydytojo diplomą ir ėmusiu pardavinėtu lobotomiją kaip ledus, tačiau paklydus tarp visokių vaizdingų epitetų, kažkiek gal nukentėjo publicistinė teksto kokybė, nes kartais gal kokio vieno ar kito skaičiuko teiginiam pagrįsti ir pritrūko.
Aš likau su daug klausimų perskaičiusi, kas, aišku, gerai, bet nežinau ar bent dalis tų klausimų neturėjo būti pabandyti atsakyti šiame ilgokame straipsnyje. Pati autorė paskutinėje pastraipoje sako, kad daug klausimų lieka neatsakyti - vienas jų kaip šis lobotomistas galėjo veikti neprižiūrimas tris dešimtmečius? Ir nors tai tikrai nėra klausimas, į kurį lengva atsakyti, man atrodo, kad kažkiek įžvalgos šia tema tekstas turėjo pateikti. O galų gale tai man kilo klausimas - o kaip kiti? Gal ir nebuvo tokie stačiai nupušę, bet ne jis tą nesąmonę išrado ir ne jis vienas ją vykdė, o apie juos nėra kalbama. Nesuvokiama, kaip XX amžiaus viduryje įmanoma buvo ne smegenų chirurgui atlikinėti tūkstančius smegenų operacijų (kuo priėjimas per akiduobę kažką pakeičia taip ir nesupratau) ir tęsti visa tai be jokių moksliškų vertinimų - kiek tai naudinga ir kiek žalinga - su daugiau konteksto gal man būtų buvę lengviau patikėti ta žiauria realybe.
Suprantu, kad greičiausiai į tai, kaip neįtikėtinai lengva tai buvo, ir norėta atkreipti dėmesį šitu tekstu, bet man kartais susidarydavo įspūdis, kad skaitytojas irgi turi tiesiog tikėti, kad taip buvo, nebandydamas suprasti. Negaliu sakyti, kad kažkada išvis apie tai susimąsčiau, bet mane nustebino tai, kad lobotomijos tėvas turi Nobelio premiją ir komitetas ramiu veidu gali ją ginti, atsisakydamas atimti garbę, todėl vertinų autorės misiją atnešti supratimo į temą, kuri atrodo jau turėtų būti vakarykštės naujienos, o deja nėra, bet man norėjosi kažkiek tiksliau, o gal ir ilgiau.
October 2, 2022
I'm not likely to change. I picked this Amazon Audible Original because it's October and Halloween, and seriously how could I pass up Doctor Ice Pick? Are you thinking read the synopses? I should have. I would have still picked up this book. I would not have put it on my October TBR.
Doctor Ice Pick is a true story, and in my opinion should be true crime. The book is absolutely not a novel, nor does it read like one. The author has done extensive research and shares her findings on a physician performing lobotomies in the United States. She points out his record keeping is flawed at best when there are notes and updates.
While this is a true story written like a textbook with room for questions in your mind. The audiobook is less than an hour, and I stopped roughly three times to grasp what she was delivering. It is just incredibly heart breaking. I thought I might be physically ill upon finding out the youngest victim was 4 years old.
This is a nightmare that is not leaving me anytime.
Doctor Ice Pick is a true story, and in my opinion should be true crime. The book is absolutely not a novel, nor does it read like one. The author has done extensive research and shares her findings on a physician performing lobotomies in the United States. She points out his record keeping is flawed at best when there are notes and updates.
While this is a true story written like a textbook with room for questions in your mind. The audiobook is less than an hour, and I stopped roughly three times to grasp what she was delivering. It is just incredibly heart breaking. I thought I might be physically ill upon finding out the youngest victim was 4 years old.
This is a nightmare that is not leaving me anytime.
June 1, 2022
A horrifying true story of the doctor who "invented" the lobotomy and performed thousands of them across the US, particularly in the rural, poor state of West Virginia. This was a tough read, I'm glad it was a short story, but it is part of America's history that must be told and known. Interestingly, as Freeman shared his "miraculous cure" with several countries, the Soviet Union, China and Japan were the first to ban it as inhumane. It took the US far longer to come to that conclusion and, even more shocking, the procedure never has been banned in the US. So much for being a nation interested human rights.
June 13, 2022
Very interesting read. I knew somewhat about lobotomies being done in the past and how horrible the results were. I was always kind of amazed that this ever really happened.
October 2, 2022
3.5 rounded up
We've always put money ahead of care in the medical field.
We've always subjected the poor, women and people of color to experimental procedures.
Frightening, and still going on today...
We've always put money ahead of care in the medical field.
We've always subjected the poor, women and people of color to experimental procedures.
Frightening, and still going on today...
Read
November 6, 2025I don't rate nonfiction.
Interesting little snippet of medical history, looking at lobotomies within America and the man who utilised the procedure. It never fails to amaze me how people with mental illness have been abused by the medical profession throughout history and particularly those who are especially vulnerable - women and people of colour. This covered just enough of the subject to keep me intrigued and seek out some further reading.
Interesting little snippet of medical history, looking at lobotomies within America and the man who utilised the procedure. It never fails to amaze me how people with mental illness have been abused by the medical profession throughout history and particularly those who are especially vulnerable - women and people of colour. This covered just enough of the subject to keep me intrigued and seek out some further reading.
June 21, 2022
Rating: I liked it a lot
This was a very interesting story of the doctor that popularized the lobotomy in the USA.
This was a very interesting story of the doctor that popularized the lobotomy in the USA.
November 19, 2022
Dr. Walter Freeman was a neurologist, and the man who invented the transorbital lobotomy, performed with surgical picks and a medical hammer. The picks looked like ice picks.
It's not the equipment used, of course, that makes the procedure horrific.
This is a short audiobook, about two hours, but it packs a punch. Freeman began actively, even aggressively, promoting and performing lobotomies in the 1950s in the overcrowded, underfunded mental hospitals of West Virginia.
The hospitals were seriously underfunded, and West Virginia was a poor state, and conditions in the hospitals were horrific. Psychiatric drugs weren't available yet, or rather, were just in the early stages of being developed. But even once they became available, they take time to work.
The transorbital lobotomy was a ten-minute procedure that had immediate efflect.
Initially, the lobotomies were being performed mostly on violent, difficult to control patients, and many of them were "improved" by the lobotomy. About one third, and that's Freeman's own estimate, not an independent estimate, were well enough to go home.
While some did well when they returned home after lobotomies, others became passive, lost all initiative, had difficulty with simple tasks. Some became unable to even take basic care of themselves--needing to be fed, cleaned, and helped to toilet.
Some died of the procedure, because the smallest slip could cause far more brain damage than intended.
It was disproportionately performed on women, minorities, and the poor. The list of conditions for which Freeman eagerly recommended it kept growing, and minor anxiety in women, or teenage defiance of parents, were included.
Freeman was a showman, who liked to be watched performing, courted the media, and never acknowledged the damage his beloved procedure did to so many of his patients. Opposition to lobotomy grew in the medical community throughout the 1950s, as the consequences became clear and the first effective psychiatric drugs became available, but Freeman kept promoting lobotomy, and performing lobotomies, until 1967, when a long-term patient on whom he had performed two previous lobotomies, died following a third.
This is truly a horrifying story. I'm old enough that I'd heard a good bit of this before, but this book is a fuller story than what I knew, and quite shocking.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
It's not the equipment used, of course, that makes the procedure horrific.
This is a short audiobook, about two hours, but it packs a punch. Freeman began actively, even aggressively, promoting and performing lobotomies in the 1950s in the overcrowded, underfunded mental hospitals of West Virginia.
The hospitals were seriously underfunded, and West Virginia was a poor state, and conditions in the hospitals were horrific. Psychiatric drugs weren't available yet, or rather, were just in the early stages of being developed. But even once they became available, they take time to work.
The transorbital lobotomy was a ten-minute procedure that had immediate efflect.
Initially, the lobotomies were being performed mostly on violent, difficult to control patients, and many of them were "improved" by the lobotomy. About one third, and that's Freeman's own estimate, not an independent estimate, were well enough to go home.
While some did well when they returned home after lobotomies, others became passive, lost all initiative, had difficulty with simple tasks. Some became unable to even take basic care of themselves--needing to be fed, cleaned, and helped to toilet.
Some died of the procedure, because the smallest slip could cause far more brain damage than intended.
It was disproportionately performed on women, minorities, and the poor. The list of conditions for which Freeman eagerly recommended it kept growing, and minor anxiety in women, or teenage defiance of parents, were included.
Freeman was a showman, who liked to be watched performing, courted the media, and never acknowledged the damage his beloved procedure did to so many of his patients. Opposition to lobotomy grew in the medical community throughout the 1950s, as the consequences became clear and the first effective psychiatric drugs became available, but Freeman kept promoting lobotomy, and performing lobotomies, until 1967, when a long-term patient on whom he had performed two previous lobotomies, died following a third.
This is truly a horrifying story. I'm old enough that I'd heard a good bit of this before, but this book is a fuller story than what I knew, and quite shocking.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
December 20, 2022
“Freeman was a natural showman.”
While this story was short, it packed a HUGE punch. This story follows Walter Freeman who was determined to “prove that lobotomies could cure mental illness.” However, the tragedy that followed these lobotomies is something that can never be forgotten. Walter Freeman was an untrained surgeon that performed hundreds of lobotomies HIMSELF, often doing so in crude ways. He also targeted women and individuals from a low socioeconomic status as candidates for this HORRIBLE surgery that had lifelong side effects.
This short story was insanely impactful. I had heard of Walter Freeman before, but never this much. This is a story that everyone needs to read to learn about the history of mental health and mental health treatment. This history is heart breaking and gut wrenching, but extremely important to be aware of nonetheless. Definitely check trigger warnings!
While this story was short, it packed a HUGE punch. This story follows Walter Freeman who was determined to “prove that lobotomies could cure mental illness.” However, the tragedy that followed these lobotomies is something that can never be forgotten. Walter Freeman was an untrained surgeon that performed hundreds of lobotomies HIMSELF, often doing so in crude ways. He also targeted women and individuals from a low socioeconomic status as candidates for this HORRIBLE surgery that had lifelong side effects.
This short story was insanely impactful. I had heard of Walter Freeman before, but never this much. This is a story that everyone needs to read to learn about the history of mental health and mental health treatment. This history is heart breaking and gut wrenching, but extremely important to be aware of nonetheless. Definitely check trigger warnings!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2022
Reading this book and researching this book is crazy. I cannot believe the medical industry let this go on as long as it did. So sad to think about what he did to these people…and for the reason…making a house wife docile? Headaches? OCD? …the reason are horrible to more you read.
October 14, 2022
Wow. I knew about lobotomy, but I never truly understood it until I read this book. Now I not only understand it, but I see how horrible it was and how it affected so many peoples lives. Can you just imagine someone drilling into your head and then picking around at your brain with AN ICE PICK?! Thats just insane. I can’t believe how far we’ve come in the medical field and I’m so pleased we have. It can definitely only continue to get better.
December 16, 2023
Interesting little book - not much fluff or hype, but it covered the history of lobotomies well. Definitely makes one realize that just because a medical practice is widely accepted and done does NOT mean it is safe or in the patients’ best interest.
May 23, 2022
"Doctor Ice Pick" was a horrifying read: learning about how easily doctors were allowed to perform life-altering surgeries during the early 20th century without having to provide scientific and unreprovable evidence of their method's success was horrifying and I (probably futilely) hope that something like this can't happen today.
May 26, 2022
Dr. Walter Freeman literally is THE WORST- the most arrogant, stubborn, sexist and infuriating man.
Doctor Ice Pick is the disgusting and engrossing journey into the life of Dr. Walter Freeman as he beguiles, enchants and hammers his way into the brains of hundreds of men, women and children in the 1950s.
It's been a LONG time since I was thoroughly livid about a book, but reading Doctor Ice Pick had steam coming out of my ears. I'm absolutely fascinated by non-fiction centered around science and medicine, especially when it dives back into some of the archaic procedures used in the past.
I LOVED this and felt that even though it was non-fiction it was really fast-paced and it's the perfect length! Claire doesn't bog you down with too much technical detail and therefore the storyline flows nicely into soooo many WHAT THE HECKO moments you'll have to pick your jaw up from the floor.
I cannot wait to look into all the books and articles referenced within. As horrific as this TRUE short story as, it's fascinating to a science junkie like myself!
Thanks to Netgalley, Claire Prentice and the publisher for the DRC!
Doctor Ice Pick is the disgusting and engrossing journey into the life of Dr. Walter Freeman as he beguiles, enchants and hammers his way into the brains of hundreds of men, women and children in the 1950s.
It's been a LONG time since I was thoroughly livid about a book, but reading Doctor Ice Pick had steam coming out of my ears. I'm absolutely fascinated by non-fiction centered around science and medicine, especially when it dives back into some of the archaic procedures used in the past.
I LOVED this and felt that even though it was non-fiction it was really fast-paced and it's the perfect length! Claire doesn't bog you down with too much technical detail and therefore the storyline flows nicely into soooo many WHAT THE HECKO moments you'll have to pick your jaw up from the floor.
I cannot wait to look into all the books and articles referenced within. As horrific as this TRUE short story as, it's fascinating to a science junkie like myself!
Thanks to Netgalley, Claire Prentice and the publisher for the DRC!
February 6, 2024
Frightening. Not just the procedure, which was unsanitary and unscientific, but the way this man deceived the most vulnerable. Maybe deceive is not the right word. I think he thought he was doing the right thing. AND, between 60 to 80% (depending on who you ask) were woman. Including, and I didn't know this, Ava Duarte Peron, who died after the procedure. I thought she died of uterine cancer. I can only assume they did it for pain relief. Very well written.
June 15, 2022
This is not a long read and can be consumed in a single day. I am one that reads an hour here, an hour or 2 there, in this case, I was unable to put the book down out of the horror of what was actually allowed to go on in state mental hospitals in the 1920s and '30s. This man (mind you that he has no surgical training) conducted 9,000 lobotomies over his 30 years in practice. I do believe he had a general desire to help the patients and decrease the financial burden on these hospitals by giving them an opportunity to send the patients home. Many of them are now no more than Zombies. The whole time I am reading I am left wondering how can a single man have so much latitude to perform these barbaric procedure assembly-line style on so many people? I think the answer was well laid out in the book when it was written that "when political power, medical orthodoxy, and an unquestioning press aligned behind a flawed man with a zealous belief in a dangerous and unproven medical procedure, should be remembered as a terrible parable of misplaced certainty and lax oversight."
To me, this reads that the media behind the man performing the surgeries were so aligned with his procedure that only glowing reports surfaced. Politicians supported it for the tremendous savings they could find by emptying their hospitals. None of this in my mind was about the patient well being. Then the most poignant question is, "Why was the lobotomist allowed to proceed unchecked for three decades? Could a dangerous and relatively untested procedure or treatment be used on a mass scale again? Have sufficient safeguards been put in place to prevent this?
I would have to answer with a resounding no. Look at what has happened with the opioid epidemic in America. You can say that it was the greed of the companies, Which I believe is a big part of it. But these studies and then approvals for these drugs come from the government. Was this again a quick fix to solve a perceived problem. One with an outcome that is far more damaging than the original ailment that was being treated. Like with the lobotomy craze this too is taking too long to resolve.
My last comment, knowing that this goes on in our country at various levels, is it a wonder that people voice concerns about a COVID Vaccine? If we all believed that the doctors, the pharmaceutical companies and the government had (we the people) best interests at heart it would be a different story. I general "we the people" do not, they care more about the almighty dollar and how they look in the "toe-the-line-press" than they do about us. This is a perfect example of what not to do and I for one hope that many eyes see this and ask the above questions for themselves.
The call for psycitric care is growing in America. Let's not run down the same foolish roads. Let's embrace those who are earnestly trying to help and back those who have a true desire to better peoples lives not their personal wallets.
To me, this reads that the media behind the man performing the surgeries were so aligned with his procedure that only glowing reports surfaced. Politicians supported it for the tremendous savings they could find by emptying their hospitals. None of this in my mind was about the patient well being. Then the most poignant question is, "Why was the lobotomist allowed to proceed unchecked for three decades? Could a dangerous and relatively untested procedure or treatment be used on a mass scale again? Have sufficient safeguards been put in place to prevent this?
I would have to answer with a resounding no. Look at what has happened with the opioid epidemic in America. You can say that it was the greed of the companies, Which I believe is a big part of it. But these studies and then approvals for these drugs come from the government. Was this again a quick fix to solve a perceived problem. One with an outcome that is far more damaging than the original ailment that was being treated. Like with the lobotomy craze this too is taking too long to resolve.
My last comment, knowing that this goes on in our country at various levels, is it a wonder that people voice concerns about a COVID Vaccine? If we all believed that the doctors, the pharmaceutical companies and the government had (we the people) best interests at heart it would be a different story. I general "we the people" do not, they care more about the almighty dollar and how they look in the "toe-the-line-press" than they do about us. This is a perfect example of what not to do and I for one hope that many eyes see this and ask the above questions for themselves.
The call for psycitric care is growing in America. Let's not run down the same foolish roads. Let's embrace those who are earnestly trying to help and back those who have a true desire to better peoples lives not their personal wallets.
May 9, 2023
Wow, what a read. This was a disturbing, short nonfiction book about Walter Freeman. Walter Freeman is best known as "Doctor Ice Pick" and was the one of the forefathers and pioneer of preforming prefrontal and transorbital lobotomies. What is the most appalling thing of all is that Freeman was a neuroscientist, and not a licensed doctor or surgeon who learned of lobotomies after watching, Antonio Moniz, perform lobotomies overseas. Mr. Freeman made it his mission and goal to bring lobotomy to the United States.
Freeman somehow managed to convince the West Virginia State Government to allow him to preform lobotomies. During this time period, the mental hospitals and the local asylums were bursting at the seams where patients were treated more like experiments and anything less than human. Mr. Freeman plead his case to the state and advised that preforming these lobotomies would save the State money and would help with decreasing the population in the institutions as patients should be well enough after the procedure to return to their family and home. Combined with all this information, the State bit and began funding Operation Ice Pick.
Mr. Freeman lobotomized over 900 men, women, and children in West Virginia state hospitals, and is said that he may have performed as many as 4,000 lobotomies in 23 states in his career leaving many paralyzed, immobile, and paralyzed. This book really outlined all the details surrounding Mr. Freeman and his career. What a wild and interesting read this book was.
5/5 Stars: As horrific as the book is, this book was very well written and very intriguing to me. To be completely transparent, I had no idea who Mr. Freeman even was until I picked up this book. Fast-paced read packed with tons of information. Highly recommend to any reader interested in medical history.
Freeman somehow managed to convince the West Virginia State Government to allow him to preform lobotomies. During this time period, the mental hospitals and the local asylums were bursting at the seams where patients were treated more like experiments and anything less than human. Mr. Freeman plead his case to the state and advised that preforming these lobotomies would save the State money and would help with decreasing the population in the institutions as patients should be well enough after the procedure to return to their family and home. Combined with all this information, the State bit and began funding Operation Ice Pick.
Mr. Freeman lobotomized over 900 men, women, and children in West Virginia state hospitals, and is said that he may have performed as many as 4,000 lobotomies in 23 states in his career leaving many paralyzed, immobile, and paralyzed. This book really outlined all the details surrounding Mr. Freeman and his career. What a wild and interesting read this book was.
5/5 Stars: As horrific as the book is, this book was very well written and very intriguing to me. To be completely transparent, I had no idea who Mr. Freeman even was until I picked up this book. Fast-paced read packed with tons of information. Highly recommend to any reader interested in medical history.
June 1, 2022
“Doctor Ice Pick” is the true story about one of medicine’s most horrific “advancements” in psychiatry and a doctor who pioneered the procedure.
As a former President of the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, Dr. Walter Freeman was famous, of sorts, even before his world renowned lobotomy procedures came to the forefront of marginally accepted medical practice. He was an arrogant, very well educated and had worked with and been motivated by the leaders in this field: Pavlov, Moniz, Fulton.
Because he wasn’t a surgeon, Freeman needed a partner to follow the example of Pavlov’s “leucotomy” or lobotomy and sought the assistance of John Watts. They worked in tandem until Freeman found a way to get around the medical rules and proceed on his own at a pace that bordered on insanity: 228 persons in 12 days - ABSURD!
Author, Claire Prentice, has done a tremendous amount of research for this short book and the information is really shocking. I’d read much of it in other books but not anything devoted singularly to this topic. One of the most interesting parts, for me, is her brief accounting of a conversation with Howard Dully. Howard was 12 years old when lobotomized and had survived the ordeal, after 30 years of trying. He graduated college, married and speaks of his experiences.
Because I have rare and compounded medical conditions, I’ve participated in medical research and trials - NOTHING like this, unless years from now I find out that medications I took have done otherworldly things to me; time will tell. Human trials and animal testing are always a topic of heated contention. Reading accounts like this can go along way to helping people become educated in their thinking📚
As a former President of the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, Dr. Walter Freeman was famous, of sorts, even before his world renowned lobotomy procedures came to the forefront of marginally accepted medical practice. He was an arrogant, very well educated and had worked with and been motivated by the leaders in this field: Pavlov, Moniz, Fulton.
Because he wasn’t a surgeon, Freeman needed a partner to follow the example of Pavlov’s “leucotomy” or lobotomy and sought the assistance of John Watts. They worked in tandem until Freeman found a way to get around the medical rules and proceed on his own at a pace that bordered on insanity: 228 persons in 12 days - ABSURD!
Author, Claire Prentice, has done a tremendous amount of research for this short book and the information is really shocking. I’d read much of it in other books but not anything devoted singularly to this topic. One of the most interesting parts, for me, is her brief accounting of a conversation with Howard Dully. Howard was 12 years old when lobotomized and had survived the ordeal, after 30 years of trying. He graduated college, married and speaks of his experiences.
Because I have rare and compounded medical conditions, I’ve participated in medical research and trials - NOTHING like this, unless years from now I find out that medications I took have done otherworldly things to me; time will tell. Human trials and animal testing are always a topic of heated contention. Reading accounts like this can go along way to helping people become educated in their thinking📚
October 12, 2023
a great book on a terrible part of medical history
This book I found to be incredibly informative and detailed on the subject of lobotomies. What’s even more amazing is that the author could get those details into a book that was less than 100 pages long. I’m sure that there are many people who are not familiar with the term. According to the book the first lobotomy was performed in the 1930s. In the ensuing 30 years of these operations being conducted, they’re conducted in the most barbaric and crude manner possible. So the question is, what is a lobotomy? A lobotomy is in its most basic form brain surgery. But the conduction of this surgery as I said was quite barbaric and largely unnecessary. The person responsible for the widespread use of lobotomies,Walter Freeman, conducted these on a very large scale. The barbarity comes in how the surgeries were conducted, basically with an ice pick. Although they’re pitched to psychiatric hospital patients, Freeman advocated for the use of lobotomies for literally any medical ailment. For example, something as common as arthritis.
This book I found to be incredibly informative and detailed on the subject of lobotomies. What’s even more amazing is that the author could get those details into a book that was less than 100 pages long. I’m sure that there are many people who are not familiar with the term. According to the book the first lobotomy was performed in the 1930s. In the ensuing 30 years of these operations being conducted, they’re conducted in the most barbaric and crude manner possible. So the question is, what is a lobotomy? A lobotomy is in its most basic form brain surgery. But the conduction of this surgery as I said was quite barbaric and largely unnecessary. The person responsible for the widespread use of lobotomies,Walter Freeman, conducted these on a very large scale. The barbarity comes in how the surgeries were conducted, basically with an ice pick. Although they’re pitched to psychiatric hospital patients, Freeman advocated for the use of lobotomies for literally any medical ailment. For example, something as common as arthritis.
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