Luke Dittrich

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Rhode Island

A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets

"Oliver Sacks meets Stephen King"* in this propulsive, haunting journey into the life of the most studied human research subject of all time, the amnesic known as Patient H.M. For readers of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks comes a story that has much to teach us about our relentless pursuit of knowledge.

Winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award * Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Washington Post * New York Post * NPR * The Economist * New York * Wired * Kirkus Reviews * BookPage

In 1953, a twenty-seven-year-old factory worker named Henry Molaison--who suffered from severe epilepsy--received a radical new version of the then-common lobotomy, targeting the most mysterious structures in the brain. The operation failed to eliminate Henry's seizures, but it did have an unintended effect: Henry was left profoundly amnesic, unable to create long-term memories. Over the next sixty years, Patient H.M., as Henry was known, became the most studied individual in the history of neuroscience, a human guinea pig who would teach us much of what we know about memory today.

Patient H.M. is, at times, a deeply personal journey. Dittrich's grandfather was the brilliant, morally complex surgeon who operated on Molaison--and thousands of other patients. The author's investigation into the dark roots of modern memory science ultimately forces him to confront unsettling secrets in his own family history, and to reveal the tragedy that fueled his grandfather's relentless experimentation--experimentation that would revolutionize our understanding of ourselves.

Dittrich uses the case of Patient H.M. as a starting point for a kaleidoscopic journey, one that moves from the first recorded brain surgeries in ancient Egypt to the cutting-edge laboratories of MIT. He takes readers inside the old asylums and operating theaters where psychosurgeons, as they called themselves, conducted their human experiments, and behind the scenes of a bitter custody battle over the ownership of the most important brain in the world.

Patient H.M. combines the best of biography, memoir, and science journalism to create a haunting, endlessly fascinating story, one that reveals the wondrous and devastating things that can happen when hubris, ambition, and human imperfection collide.

"An exciting, artful blend of family and medical history."--The New York Times

*Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Patient H. M.

e59eab1b-425b-47eb-a40e-a8e8f3ce8400

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Michigan

"In the summer of 1953, a renowned Yale neurosurgeon named William Beecher Scoville performed a novel operation on a 27-year-old epileptic patient named Henry Molaison, drilling two silver-dollar sized holes in his forehead and suctioning out a few teaspoons of tissue from a mysterious region deep inside his brain. The operation helped control Molaison's intractable seizures, but it also did something else: it left Molaison amnesic for the rest of his life, with a short term memory of just thirty seconds. Patient H.M., as he came to be known, would emerge as the most important human research subject in history"--Provided by publisher.

Category - Non Fiction / History

Format - Paperback

Condition - Excellent

Listed - A year ago

Views - 7

Ships From - Rhode Island

Est. Publication Date - May 2017

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

ISBN: 9780812982527

Publisher Description

Patient H. M.

By:

$9.00 $10.00

Meet the seller

Discover more

Patient H. M.

By: Luke Dittrich

Pango Buyer Protection

More from this seller

Additional titles by Luke Dittrich

'Patient H. M.' readers also enjoyed:

Recently Viewed

Browse by categories

Category - Non Fiction / History

Format - Paperback

Condition - Excellent

Listed - A year ago

Views - 7

Ships From - Rhode Island

Est. Publication Date - May 2017

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

ISBN: 9780812982527

Publisher Description

Patient H. M.

By:

$9.00 $10.00

Meet the seller

Discover more

Patient H. M.

By: Luke Dittrich

Pango Buyer Protection

More from this seller

Additional titles by Luke Dittrich

'Patient H. M.' readers also enjoyed:

Recently Viewed