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

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

â€œOliver Sacks meets Stephen Kingâ€* 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 â€¢ Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner

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

In 1953, a twenty-seven-year-old factory worker named Henry Molaisonâ€”who suffered from severe epilepsyâ€”received a radical new version of the then-common lobotomy, targeting the most mysterious structures in the brain. The operation failed to eliminate Henryâ€™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. Dittrichâ€™s grandfather was the brilliant, morally complex surgeon who operated on Molaisonâ€”and thousands of other patients. The authorâ€™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 grandfatherâ€™s relentless experimentationâ€”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.

â€œAn exciting, artful blend of family and medical history.â€â€”The New York Times

*Kirkus ReviewsÂ (starred review)
Country USA
Brand Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer Random House Trade Paperbacks
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber Illustrated
Color Silver
ReleaseDate 2017-05-02
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780812982527

Country	USA
Brand	Random House Trade Paperbacks
Manufacturer	Random House Trade Paperbacks
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	Illustrated
Color	Silver
ReleaseDate	2017-05-02
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780812982527

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

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