The Lobotomist's Wife - Samantha Greene Woodruff

I had this book on my to be read list for quite a while and since we had not read any historical fiction recently, it seemed to be a perfect fit. I added it to my holds list at the library and waited and waited and waited.....five copies in the city and four of those were overdue. Eventually I gave up on the library and ordered the book. I do love that our library is fee free, but this was a frustrating situation! So, friendly reminder, return your library books on time people! Jen also tried to get the book from her library and they didn't even have a copy, so she also ordered the book.

The Lobotomist's Wife is based on the story of how lobotomies became a miracle cure for people in the 1940's and 1950's suffering from mental health problems. Initially lobotomies were used for people with serious conditions where there seemed to be no other treatment available. But as the procedure changed to the "ice pick" method, it began to be touted as a miracle cure. It was used on women with the "baby blues", people with mild cases of depression, "hysterical" people. And as the author explains at the end of the book, lobotomies were used on more women than men. I found myself wondering how many women were deemed hysterical, or how many cases of postpartum depression were being misdiagnosed or misunderstood.

The book follows Ruth Emeraldine. She comes from a very wealthy family, think along the lines of the Vanderbilts. Her brother came back from WWI and was suffering from PTSD, though in those days, that wasn't well understood. The family tried to help him, but in the end he took his own life. Ruth's father donated a significant amount of money to a hospital for mental health, Emeraldine Hospital. Ruth worked as the assistant superintendent. She was excellent at her job and truly cared about the patients at the hospital. At a time when women were supposed to get married and have children, Ruth focused on her career and helping people.

Ruth's life changes when she hires Robert Apter, a psychologist who has big dreams and ideas to help the patients in the hospital. Robert meets Dr. Moniz at the Second International Neurological Congress and learns more about the leucotomy, a procedure Dr. Moniz has created to sever the connections in the frontal lobe to help combat unpredictable and aggressive behaviour. Robert hires a neurologist, Edward, at the hospital who can be trained on the technique and they begin practicing on cadavers to perfect the procedure. Eventually, despite Ruth's father's objections they begin performing the procedure on patients. It seems that the surgeries are a great success.

Soon Robert develops another method dubbed the "ice pick" technique. This targets the pre-frontal cortex and is so simple to do that Robert decides to start operating on patients himself. Anesthesia is no longer required, just a quick electric shock, and the patient can walk out of the office shortly after the procedure. Edward is horrified to learn Robert has begun operating on patients and soon breaks ties with Robert and the hospital. Ruth still firmly believes her husband is a genius and supports him unconditionally.

Around this time, Ruth is promoted to the position of superintendent when her boss retires. Her workload increases and her time with patients decreases. She believes everything is going great and Robert is helping people. When she does get out to see the patients she starts to notice that most of the lobotomy patients are still in the hospital and in many cases it doesn't seem that they are better at all. Ruth asks her trusted assistant to complete a report on the success of the procedure. Once she reads it, she realizes that the procedure is not what they hoped and she is sure she can convince Robert that there is a better way forward. Unfortunately, Robert's ego has taken over and he will not be reasoned with. This forces Ruth to take drastic measures and she works to get Robert's medical license revoked.

There is a side story about a woman named Margaret that plays out between sections of the novel. Margaret is suffering from postpartum depression, though at the time it was known as the "baby blues" and was expected to clear up quickly. She begins seeing Robert weekly. One day she meets Ruth and they quickly form a friendship. Margaret has a very supportive husband who would do anything to help her get better, but when Robert suggests a lobotomy, he balks. Margaret believes it is the only thing that will help her, but her husband and Ruth disagree. And I'll let you read the book to find out what happens!

Both Jen and I enjoyed the novel. It was slow to start with a lot of character build up and explanation on how doctors discovered the connection in the brain to behaviour and depression. This was important for the story, but at times was a bit too long. I had moments where I felt uncomfortable with what was happening in the book. Of course, we know now that lobotomy was not the miracle cure doctors claimed it was, so that probably made reading about it all the more uncomfortable. I was really surprised it took so long for doctors to realize that this was not the right way to treat mentally ill people.

The relationship between Ruth and Margaret was one of the highlights of the book. Ruth knew there was nothing truly wrong with Margaret. She needed someone to talk to, and someone to understand what she was feeling. Ruth even took time to do some research into postpartum depression so she could understand the latest treatments.

Overall, this was a good book. I was truly shocked to learn how much of the book was based on people that had lobotomies. And I am very thankful that we know so much more about the brain and have better ways of helping people!