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Producers' Notes from Piya Kochhar and Dave Isay

"My Lobotomy" is Howard Dully’s deeply personal journey to uncover the secrets of his past. Like many Sound Portraits documentaries, "My Lobotomy" is told from the point of view of the subject. In this case, the narrator is Howard Dully, a 56 year old bus driver who received a lobotomy when he was 12.  As producers, our job entailed verifying the historical and factual accuracy of the documentary, while at the same time enabling Howard to share his experience in his own words.

During the two years we spent working on this documentary, we conducted dozens of in-person and telephone interviews. By the end we had recorded nearly 100 hours of tape.  Distilling all of this into a 22 minute radio documentary (the longest segment possible for broadcast on All Things Considered) was a challenging task. The guiding principle behind all of our editorial decisions was to uphold the essential truth and integrity of Howard’s story.

We’d like to share with you the thinking behind a few of those decisions:

1)    Howard’s Medical Records

2)    Rebecca Welch/Anita Johnson McGee

3)    Portrayal of Walter Freeman

4)    Interviews not included in "My Lobotomy"

Medical Records:

There were several allegations in Howard Dully’s medical records that we did not address in the documentary because of time limitations  and because experts and witnesses we interviewed determined that they were unfounded and inaccurate.  However, there are two issues we feel it is important to address here:

1) According to his medical records, Dr. Freeman diagnosed Howard as schizophrenic.  Independent analysis of his records indicate that this was an unfounded and incorrect diagnosis. 

2) In a medical paper published after Howard’s operation, Dr. Freeman wrote that he’d operated on a 12-year-old patient (identified as "H.D.") because the patient had severely injured his infant brother. This allegation is incorrect; Howard never severely injured his younger brother.  Moreover, Dr. Freeman learned about this alleged assault after he had already decided to perform a lobotomy. (According to his records, Dr. Freeman recommended the procedure on November 30, 1960, then heard about the alleged assault on December 7, 1960. Howard’s stepmother told Dr. Freeman that Howard had attacked his infant brother, but our interviews with other family members, including his father, revealed that this incident never occurred.)

Rebecca Welch/ Anita Johnson McGee:

Rebecca Welch’s mother, Anita Johnson McGee, was Walter Freeman’s patient.  She received three lobotomies.  Freeman performed the first one;  the other two lobotomies were performed by doctors he recommended. While it’s impossible to pinpoint exactly what caused her current condition (whether it was her three lobotomies or years of electroshock treatment and drugs), her daughter holds Walter Freeman responsible.  After speaking with Rebecca Welch, reading her mother’s medical records, and interviewing  other family members of lobotomy patients, we felt her story expressed a common sentiment.  We believe it was important to include it in the documentary.

Portrayal of Walter Freeman

Opinions on Walter Freeman vary enormously.  In "My Lobotomy" we portrayed Walter Freeman through Howard Dully’s eyes after considering all of the evidence we together uncovered. By the end, we saw him as a physician who started out with good intentions, but whose ego and hubris caused him to lose direction. This opinion was verified by numerous other sources.

Interviews not included in "My Lobotomy"

Distilling 22 minutes from nearly 100 hours of tape meant that we couldn’t include everyone we interviewed. Below is a list of all the interviews we conducted.  Even though some were not included in "My Lobotomy," they were all essential to the shaping of the final documentary.

Recorded Interviews:

• Patricia Derian: witnessed Walter Freeman operating when she was a student nurse in 1948.
• Dr. Karl Pribram: friend and colleague of Walter Freeman.
• Helen Culmer: a nurse at Laikin State Hospital in West Virginia. Read her oral history
• Dr. Wolhard Baumgartel: a doctor at Athens State Hospital in Ohio. Read his oral history
• Larry: a psychiatric ward attendant at Herrick Memorial Hospital in Berkeley, CA in the 1960s, who requested that his last name not be used
• Dr. Paul Chodoff: one of Walter Freeman’s four student interns in 1946.  He is a psychologist.
• Ann Krubsack: was lobotomized by Walter Freeman in January, 1961 at Doctor’s General Hospital in San Jose, California.
• Dr. Paul Freeman: one of Walter Freeman’s three sons.  He is a psychologist.
• Dr. Walter Freeman III: a professor of neurobiology at the University of California.  Frank Freeman’s twin brother.
• Patricia and Glen Moen: she was lobotomized, and her husband, Glen, signed the release.
• Barbara Dully: Howard Dully’s wife.
• Kathleen: a relative of one of Walter Freeman’s lobotomy patients, who requested her full name not be used.
• Dr. Gary Cordingley: neurologist at Athens State Hospital
• Dr. Robert Lichtenstein: nerologist who was in the operating room during Howard's "ice pick" lobotomy.

Interviewed by phone:

• Joel Braslow: author, "Mental Ills, Bodily Cures-Psychiatric Treatment in the First Half of the Twentieth Century," University of California Press, 1997
• Robert Whitaker: author, "Mad In America-Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill," Perseus Publishing, 2002.
• Edward M. Opton: author, "The Mind Manipulators: a non-fiction account," Paddigton Press, 1978.
• Donald Diefenbach: author, professor of media studies, University of North Carolina: "Portrayal of Lobotomy in the Popular Press: 1935-1960"
• Dr. Gerald Grob: author, "The Transformation of Mental Health Policy in Twentieth-Century America"
• Vanessa Jackson: author, "In Our Own Voices: African American Stories of Oppression, Survival and  Recovery in the Mental Health System"
• Christine Johnson: founder of www.psychosurgery.org
• Richard Ledes: director/writer of "A Hole In One"
• Dr. Allan F. Mirsky: research psychologist at National Institute of Mental Health 1954-1961.  Former president of International Nueropsychological Society.
• Dr. Maressa Orzack: worked with Dr. Mirsky on a study commissioned by Congress in 1976 on the affects of psychosurgery.
• Dr. Janet Colaizzi: author, "Predicting Dangerousness: Psychiatric Ideas in the United States, 1800-1983," Ohio State University, 1983.
• Shirley Smoyak: president of The Journal of Psychiatric Nurses Association
• Grayce Sills: Head of nursing at Ohio State hospital in the 1950s.
• Meredith Fulton: daughter of Jonathan Williams, who was Freeman’s partner after James Watts.
• Ann Dillard & E.N. Jr Dillard: daughter & husband of one of Freeman’s patients
• W.K.: one of Freeman’s patients who shared his story off-the-record
• C.B.: wife of one of Freeman’s patients who shared her husband's story off-the-record

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This piece is available in the following audio formats [22:00 min]:
		28.8 kbps Real Audio
		T1 kbps Real Audio

		Transcript
		Intro
		Transorbital Lobotomy
		Howard Dully
		"My Lobotomy"

		Learn about Howard Dully's memoir, published in 2007 by Random House
		Howard's memoir on Amazon.com
		An interactive lobotomy timeline
		FAQ about lobotomies
		A childhood photo of Howard Dully
		A photo of Howard's step-mother, Lou
		More information about the "ice pick" lobotomy
		Audio extras from "My Lobotomy"
		Oral histories from patients and witnesses
		Photographs from Howard's journey
		Producers' Notes

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