Hello!
I am writing a research essay for a undergraduate history course in university. This is my first humanities paper I've ever had to write at the university level (double majoring in sciences) so I'm struggling a bit with the unfamiliarity of everything.
When developing my research topic (Lobotomy), I landed on the working thesis question of examining how the ongoing crisis of mental health played a role in Freeman eventually performing this radical procedure. However, this essay is to be based primarily off of secondary sources, not primary sources. In our assignment outline, it asks us to write an essay based on the critical analysis of a historical problem based on our reading the work of other scholars
I have a few fantastic sources already for my essay (including Freeman, Valenstein, El-Hai and Whitaker), but I'm not quite sure how I need to rework my prospective thesis question given my sources are secondary sources.
Any pointers or advice would be greatly appreciated, as well as any related feedback to my proposed thesis question!
The way I'm reading this, it sounds as though you're being asked to write something that's more historiography based than pure research. If that's the case, and what interests you is how Freeman came to the point where he chose to perform lobotomies, then one way to approach it would be search out arguments others have made about what led him to that point and analyze them. Once you've done your analysis of the various sources, your essay could focus on comparing the strengths and shortcomings of each author's argument. The primary source materials you've got could be put to use in your own arguments about what those pluses and minuses are. ("Author A argued X, which is supported by Freeman's writing Y." - for instance.)
Essentially for literature study type essays you don't need a question you're trying to answer other than, "What have other people said about this?"