Patient H.M.
A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets
Ratings10
Average rating3.7
15
A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets
Ratings10
Average rating3.7
In the summer of 1953, maverick neurosurgeon William Beecher Scoville performed a groundbreaking operation on an epileptic patient named Henry Molaison. But it was a catastrophic failure, leaving Henry unable to create long-term memories. Scoville's grandson, Luke Dittrich, takes us on an astonishing journey through the history of neuroscience, from the first brain surgeries in ancient Egypt to the New England asylum where his grandfather developed a taste for human experimentation. Dittrich's investigation confronts unsettling family secrets and reveals the dark roots of modern neuroscience, raising troubling questions that echo into the present day.
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The term “scope creep” may as well have been invented for this book. The core concept is fascinating: Luke Dittrich, the grandson of Dr. William Scoville, the neurosurgeon who performed the temporal lobotomy on patient H.M., who inspired the movie Memento writes a book about all of that. The problem seems to be that Dittrich couldn't decide which book to write.
Therefore, he includes fascinating bits like the admission of his own grandmother – Scoville's wife – to the inpatient psychiatric facility were Scoville performed lobotomies. He departs into memoir at times. He explores the entire history of frontal lobotomy (at some length) and digresses into this history of psychiatry. These subjects come with no form of organization and many of them don't really reach a satisfying conclusion as they get discarded for something else. I found myself anxious to finish but disinterested in actually picking up the book. Frustratingly, Dittrich concludes the book with a brief synopsis of the ways that H.M.'s brain was anatomically different than expected – a fascinating topic that he left basically untouched.
Also, usually an author's closeness to a subject makes it an ideal topic, but in this case I felt very uncomfortable with Dittrich's relationships to the scientists in this story. He is profoundly unhappy with his grandfather's work, calling his surgery on H.M. unforgivable and rash despite quoting experts who disagree. I think that there's a lot more nuance to performing a surgery on a patient with intractable epilepsy before the invention of modern antiepileptics. Similarly, Dittrich's mother's best friend, the psychiatrist who had scientific custody of H.M. in his later life, is painted as a territorial and vindictive villain.
The parts that are there, that are reflective and that are relevant are fascinating. So, three stars for content and concept.
This book is full of science; both wondrous and extremely gruesome. The author portrays each of the professional's perspective with honesty and without taking sides. Considering my reactions to parts of the story, I think he did a masterful job.
While this book had interesting information about the history of lobotomy and mental health treatment over the past 150 years, it jumped around quite a bit and felt a bit jumbled. The attempts to weave together Henry M.'s story and the history of the surgeon who performed his lobotomy was not entirely successful. There were too many other patients and other surgeons muddled the story and made it hard to follow.
(Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
