Howard Dully

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Howard Dully was in December 1960, at 12 years of age, one of the youngest recipients of the transorbital or "ice-pick" lobotomy. This was a radical treatment for mental illness performed in the United States and practiced primarily by neurologist Walter Freeman. Walter Freeman believed that mental illness could be cured by severing the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that he believed was the cause of overactive emotions.

Dully has taken over 40 years to recover from the surgery; he was institutionalized, incarcerated, and was eventually homeless and an alcoholic. After sobering up and getting a college degree in Computer Information Systems, he became a State Certified Behind the Wheel Instructor for a school bus company in San Jose, California. In his 50s, he started to research what had happened to him as a child, speaking with his family, relatives of other lobotomy patients, and relatives of Dr. Freeman, and gaining access to Freeman's archives.

Dully has written a book about his experience called My Lobotomy, with the assistance of journalist Charles Fleming.

The industrial rock band Filter chose to have one of Howard's childhood photos placed on the cover of their 1995 debut album, Short Bus.