Brain Games

Patient H.M.:  A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets

By Luke Dittrich

3.5 stars

 

The author’s grandfather was a well-known neurosurgeon during the time when lobotomies were at the leading edge of the field.  One of his grandfather’s most famous patients was Patient H.M., a man whose childhood injuries lead to epilepsy and later to a lobotomy that affected his short term memory for the rest of his life.  Interspersed with his grandfather’s life, his grandmother’s mental illness and the case of H.M. is a complex history of the field of neurosurgery and the lobotomy.  I can see why this was all thrown together but it did make for a disjointed and somewhat repetitive book.  The sections with detailed descriptions of the brain surgeries all started to sound the same (besides being fairly gruesome), however, I did enjoy the family history and felt that these were the stronger portions of the writing.   Even though I do think that portions could have been culled, I did find the history of the lobotomy equally fascinating and horrifying.  I received a digital ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.