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

Prologue. 1. September 1936. 2. Rittenhouse Square. 3. The Education of a Lobotomist. 4. In the Hospital Wards. 5. A Perfect Partner. 6 Refining Lobotomy. 7. The Lines of Battle. 8. Advance and Retreat. 9. Waterfall. 10. Fame. 11. Road Warrior. 12. Leaving Home. 13. Decline. 14. Ghost. Acknowledgments. Notes. Bibliography. Index.

JACK EL-HAI is the Executive Vice President of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and a winner of the June Roth Memorial Award for Medical Journalism. A contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post Magazine, American Heritage, and numerous other publications, he lives in Minneapolis with his wife and two daughters.

"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)