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Gage Was No Longer Gage |
I am totally obsessed and amazed with the idea that our brains control the way in which we emotionally engage with the world around us. As individuals, we need to be responsible and accountable for our own behavior. Our social rules and mores depend on this important tenant. However, with this said, how should we deal with the knowledge that our emotional interface with the rest of the world may be largely a function of the physiological and biological make-up of our brain?
One very famous neurological case study is that of Phineas P. Gage. In 1848, Phineas Gage was a 25 year old foreman of a railroad dynamite crew. He was apparently described by his co-workers as a very affable and responsible individual. On September 13th, 1848, an accidental explosion occurred (forgetting to first pour sand into the hole, Gage begins to use a tamping rod to pack down gun powder and a spark ignites an explosion) which drives the 13 lb., 3 ½ foot, 1 ¼ inch-diameter rod through his skull which then lands some thirty yards behind him.
Remarkably Gage shortly gains consciousness, is in apparently little pain, and reportedly is talkative and cheerfully explaining how the accident occurred. Gage is driven to his boarding house, where he waits to be treated by the doctor. Months later Gage returns to his work however according to his physician, Dr. John M. Harlow, Gage, once hard-working, responsible, and popular with his men, demonstrates a much altered personality. According to Dr. Harlow: Gage was fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting but little difference for his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts with his desires, at times pertinaciously obstinate, yet capricious and vacillating, devising many plans of future operations, which are no sooner arranged than they are abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible. A child in his intellectual capacity and manifestations, he has the animal passions of a strong man. Previously to his injury, although untrained in the schools, he possessed a well-balanced mind, and was looked upon by those who knew him as a shrewd businessman, very energetic and persistent in executing all his plans of operation. In this regard his mind was radically changed, so decidedly that his friends an acquaintances said he was "no longer Gage".
Gage's life is somewhat tragic in the years following his accident. He is unable to hold onto his job with the railroad and in 1850 spends about a year as a sideshow attraction for P.T. Barnum's New York Museum. He moves to Chile and there works as a coach driver until about 1859 when failing heath causes him to return to San Francisco to live with his mother and father. In 1860 he begins to have epileptic seizures and dies a few months later.
Today we believe that an area of the brain called the orbitofrontal cortex (located slightly above and in back of the eye) was traumatically damaged in Phineas Gage's brain. This area plays a critical role in the abstraction of societal rules and the inculcation of cultural mores. This, it is surmised, was the primary reason for Gage's severe change in personality as noted by Dr. Harlow. There remains criticism of these case conclusions. Dr. Harlow's above statement concerning Gage was written many years after the accident, and Gage's pre-accident personality is not well-documented. However, it is generally believed that the physiological damage to Phineas Gage's brain altered his ability to successfully interact with his world; Gage indeed, was no longer Gage.
Who we are, and how we relate to others in the world, serves to define us as individuals. However millions of individuals suffer with clinical depression. |
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