Phineas Gage, L'enfant Sauvage, And Selfish-Idiots

Via: Neurophilosophy Blog. Four representations of Phineas Gage, from Macmillan, M. (2006). Restoring Phineas Gage: A 150th Retrospective. J. Hist. Neurosci. 9: 46-66. [Abstract]

As always, over yonder at Neurophlosophy, Mo finds the best stuff to feed my fascination with the Psycho-Sciences, Neuroscience, and any unusual studies and cases of the same. Particularly fascinating is the history of all of it, and how we have generally found answers in those cases. I have long been captivated by these stories, and this brings me back to learning about the mind and it's complexity at a very young age. When I think of these stories, The Wild Child is most enthralling. Sure, the fact that Phineas Gage "survived", (relative) , having a huge blasting bit driven through his skull is fascinating stuff, along with how it may directly relate to the unprecedented survival, and so-called "functioning" of military personnel who have suffered TBI's. (Traumatic Brain Injury). But then I discovered L'enfant Sauvage in the 70's at a small theater near my home, and I was hooked. To my good fortune, this place screened documentaries, foreign, and independent films on an off-night of the week. I saw Truffaut's L'enfant Sauvage, Harold and Maude,(Ashby), a series of Chaplin films and many more. That little place opened a lot of doors for my mind.