Anthonares

Last night on All Things Considered, I stood transfixed for almost 25 minutes listening to the story of a procedure: the transorbital, or “ice-pick” lobotomy. It was used between 1946 and 1967 on over 2,500 victims-cum-patients to treat certain mental illnesses, and was invented by a man named Walter Freeman. The narrator of the story, Mr. Howard Dully, has an enchantingly deep voice and a slow manner of speaking that one can’t help but think was probably partly due to the lobotomy that his step-mother forced him to receive when he was only 12 years old.

A lobotomy, in case you’re not familiar with the procedure, is the removal of parts of the brain deemed to be causing “mental illness”. Before 1932 it was done by sawing through the skull, or drilling holes, and then severing connections or removing material. Then, a revolutionary new procedure was invented whereby ice-picks were shoved through the eye sockets into the brain and moved so “as to sever connections in the cortex.” Howard, the narrator was basically just a rambunctious kid whose domineering stepmother was unhappy with his behavior. They also speak to a woman whose mother was lobotomized after suffering from post-partum depression. That’s why I say “mental illness.”

Listen to the story at NPR.org (Real Media), or download it in MP3 format, or pick it up on NPR’s “Story of the Day Podcast” from iTunes. It’s 23 minutes and 22 seconds you won’t soon forget.