Very interesting read. In the very end he speaks about some MRI scans they took to study his brain now since most lobotomy patients aren't able to be interviewed . I'd be curious to learn what they learned from their study aside from the fact that his brain was damaged and he beat some pretty significant odds. ( )

If you want to be in a good mood on a Tuesday, don't read My Lobotomy the night before. I was sickened by Howard's family and depressed at how this was allowed to happen. ( )

One of the most even handed memoirs I've ever read. Tells of the damage that can be done to people that are too young or naive to be properly consulted about the treatment they would prefer. Hard to read at parts, but honest looks back at the past can be. ( )

Literally the most horrifying book I've ever read. ( )

When I was a Freshman in high school, we had an assembly where an ex-pro football player came to speak to us about his experiences on the team. The catch was that he had also become addicted to drugs and alcohol, so the gist of his message was supposed to be something like "This is what I did, but I could have been so much more if I hadn't gotten hooked on drugs."

Unfortunately, the message that came across was more along the lines of "I did all these drugs and drank all this booze, but look! I was still third string on the Eagles!"

I got the same feeling after reading this book, as though it missed the point somewhere. It could have been a book about the horrors of lobotomies, or it could have been a book about Dully's struggle after having had one, or it could have been about searching for an answer, but it wasn't, really. It tried to be all of them, but didn't end up satisfactorily being about any of them.

I didn't feel particularly inspired after reading this book. It was interesting, but not interesting enough for me to actually recommend it to someone else. It's also pretty universal, I believe, that lobotomies are considered a bad practice, so it's not controversial in its warnings. I guess I'm pretty much left wondering what the point of the book was. ( )