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Claire Prentice

Doctor Ice Pick Kindle Edition

by Claire Prentice (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

609 ratings

in Historical Essays, Journals, Letters & True Accounts

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A haunting and true short story of the lobotomist who cut a brutal swathe through the lives of thousands of vulnerable Americans from the author of Miracle at Coney Island.

In July 1952, Dr. Walter Freeman arrived at the gates of a West Virginia asylum. In his medical bag he carried two metal picks and a surgical hammer. He had invented a “cheap, easy” ten-minute lobotomy. The press described it as a miracle cure, a new frontier in psychosurgery.

That summer, in just twelve days, Freeman lobotomized 228 men, women, and children in West Virginia’s public mental hospitals. His blitzkrieg of brain surgery became known as “Operation Ice Pick,” named after the tools he wielded.

To some, the doctor was a hero, solving the crisis facing the nation’s underfunded and overcrowded psychiatric institutions. But many who watched him operate saw a dangerous risk-taker, a showman and a charlatan. This is the true story of a scientific pioneer whose misguided quest created one of the biggest tragedies in American medical history.

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About the Author

Claire Prentice is an award-winning writer and journalist who has contributed to the BBC, NPR, ABC, the Washington Post, the Times of London, the Sydney Morning Herald, and the Guardian, among others. Her Amazon bestsellers The Lost Tribe of Coney Island and Miracle at Coney Island speak to her fascination with hidden histories and the compelling figures at the center of them.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09X6QV51N
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Amazon Original Stories (31 May 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 6477 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: 9,058 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 1 in Historical Essays, Journals, Letters & True Accounts
- 11 in Medical Biographies & Memoirs
- 11 in Biographies & Memoirs (Kindle Store)

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609 ratings

About the author

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Claire Prentice

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Claire Prentice is an award-winning writer, broadcaster and journalist who has contributed to the BBC, NPR, ABC, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Times, HuffPost, and the Sydney Morning Herald, among others. Her Amazon best-sellers The Lost Tribe of Coney Island, and Miracle at Coney Island, speak to her fascination with hidden histories and the compelling figures at the centre of them. She has made critically acclaimed radio documentaries for the BBC including Easier Than Curing a Toothache?, and Life Under Glass. She has a non-fiction Amazon Original Story, Doctor Ice Pick, out on May 31, 2022, and Curse of Riches, coming out in Summer 2022. Instagram: @claireprenticewriter Twitter: @ClairePrent

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5 star		40%
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3 star		22%
2 star		6%
1 star		3%

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A short story?

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 June 2022

It’s not clear exactly what this is – fiction or non-fiction. It’s billed as a short story but if indeed that is what it is, I would expect some fictional elements, perhaps an attempt at insight into Dr Freeman’s character, his thoughts and motivations, imagined meetings and so on. However, what we get is a non-fiction account of an already well-documented history of Freeman and the lobotomies he popularised. There is some invented dialogue, but not more than you would expect in creative non-fiction. I didn’t feel the author added anything to the known facts, and there didn’t seem to be anything new here that isn’t readily available for free online or in other publications. And because it’s such a scandalous and chilling tale, there is an enormous amount already available. This short account is readable and accessible and for those who are new to the subject, it’s a useful introduction. But short story? I don’t think so.

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