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Patients' Stories: Howard Dully

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• "With the benefit of hindsight, it's easy to see that lobotomy is a barbaric procedure that shouldn't be done today." -- Jack El-Hai, author

In 1960 Howard Dully's stepmother brought him to see Walter Freeman. She explained that her stepson had become disrespectful and occasionally violent at home. After numerous evaluation sessions, Freeman performed a transorbital lobotomy on the twelve-year old Dully.

Howard Dully (2:10)

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Portrait of Howard Dully with his birth mother, father and brother. Courtesy Howard Dully

Howard Dully, approximately 11 years old. Courtesy Howard Dully

Howard Dully, a few weeks after transorbital lobotomy, 1961. Courtesy Howard Dully

Find out what doctors today would advise.

Transcript

Before
"When my stepmother first entered the picture I was probably five, six years old, some place in that area. My dislike and my problem with her was that I felt she was trying to replace my mom, which I would feel to be a natural reaction for a kid whose mom died. And I resented that. So acting up is the only way I could feel my resentment. I don't remember exactly when things went awry, whether it was an immediate thing or not, but it built over a period of time from 'I'll do this, you'll do that.'... and you know, it just got bigger and bigger and went out of control. "

After
"I was taken to the hospital under the pretense that I was getting tests. The doctor said that I was getting tests. And I was not to know what they were doing. I didn't know what had been done when I was there. I didn't know it was going to be done. I didn't know it was done until three weeks afterwards when I was told by Freeman that I had a transorbital lobotomy. I don't remember that time because basically when you wake up from one of these you're like in a fog, a mental fog."

Looking Back
"I've always felt that something was taken from me, that there was a piece missing because my life has never gone well. I've had trouble almost all my life either in relationships or almost anything I did: work, relationships, money... Day after day after day, 'What has this done to me? Why am I not in management? Why am I not in a suit and tie? Why am I not making a decent living?' You know I'm constantly struggling and fighting to get up to what other people have and just not seeming to be able to make it. You get close to it and you just don't get there."

-- Howard Dully

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