Bibliograph

Patient H.M., a story of memory, madness, and family secrets, Luke Dittrich

Type

Label

Patient H.M., a story of memory, madness, and family secrets, Luke Dittrich

Language

eng

resource.biographical

contains biographical information

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Patient H.M.

Oclc number

932587790

Responsibility statement

Luke Dittrich

Sub title

a story of memory, madness, and family secrets

Summary

"In the late 1930s, in asylums and hospitals across America, a group of renowned neurosurgeons worked to develop and refine a new class of brain operation--the lobotomy--that they hoped would eradicate everything from schizophrenia to homosexuality...The most important test subject to emerge from this largely untold chapter was a 27-year-old factory worker named Henry Molaison...Journalist Luke Dittrich uses his case as a starting point for a kaleidoscopic journey, from the first recorded brain surgeries in ancient Egypt to the cutting-edge laboratories of MIT...It is also, at times, a deeply personal journey: Dittrich's grandfather was the brilliant, morally complex surgeon who operated on Molaison--and thousands of other patients..."--From dust jacket

Classification