Patient H.M.: A Story Of Memory, Madness, And Family Secrets

"In 1953, Luke Dittrich’s grandfather performed a lobotomy on a man who was having seizures. Those “devastating and enlightening cuts” destroyed Patient H.M.’s ability to form new memories — and subsequent studies of H.M. illuminated much of what we know about how memory works. Luke Dittrich’s new book asks: How many lives does a medical breakthrough cost? Dittrich writes a vivid and painful story of the dark tension between desire for knowledge and that most basic tenet: First, do no harm."