This reading was terrifying for me. Not because I was surprised, necessarily, to read that brain injuries can change personalities-- I read too many sports magazines to be surprised by that-- but the details of Phineas Gage's and Elliot's lives falling apart while the men were completely oblivious were horrifying. It's one thing to read a report, however sad, in a sports magazine; it's another thing altogether to read the details printed so clinically.
Elliot's wife and children "could not understand why a knowledgeable person who was properly forewarned could act so foolishly... There was a first divorce" (37). This is the part where I would normally mutter, "I would never..." about Elliot's wife giving up on him. And to a large extent, I would plan not to... but I also hope that as medical science progresses, anyone who is faced with this situation could get more help. It's understandable that people around Phineas Gage would be so uncomprehending of his personality shift, but for modern-day brain injury patients, it feels like there is a lot less excuse for family and friends to not have some understanding that the patient is not at fault.
Of course, the reason that this is so terrifying is that all the knowledge in the world doesn't help when faced with the reality of a changed person. The thought of my husband having no emotion, of him being completely detached, is unthinkable; it would really be a complete personality shift for him to never have the shifts of happy or sad, or excitement, or frustration, or other normal emotional responses. And it's just as bad considering that Elliot's sibling had custody of him, because I would hate to see my brother or sister in this situation just as much as I'd hate for my husband to be in it.
I'm finding it a lot harder to imagine it happening to me, though. Damasio writes, "Try to imagine yourself forever robbed of that possibility and yet aware of the intellectual contents of the visual or musical stimulus, and also aware that once it did give you pleasure" (45). But I can't imagine it at all, because I find it really depressing to think about, except that Elliot was incapable of feeling depression. No, the scary thing to me in this reading is imagining someone I care about losing the ability to have emotion, not the thought of losing it myself.
The future is a very scary place, where the advertisements talk to you, and Google can sell your memory. It's odd to think how far fetched this novel is, but... not. For instance, when we watched that documentary in class about the future of technology (which isn't too far out in the future), I never realized there was going to be a market for memories. It is scary how Google, amongst other big internet companies, are literally controlling just about everything.
ReplyDeleteThat is scary. I quite like Google products, and I joke that I'm okay with them taking over the world, but of course I'm not really okay with that. But we are pretty much going along willingly, at least for now.
ReplyDeleteI think you're worrying about this a bit too much. The only real difference between losing a love for something you once liked naturally and losing it due to a shift in personality is that you will lack the nostalgia of the former should it be caused by brain damage. People learn to like and dislike things naturally, this is just a less natural way of it occurring. Losing emotion is certainly a bit scary, but according to Star Trek, it didn't really hurt the Vulcans all that much. It's abnormal, sure, but not really the end of the world.
ReplyDeleteThen again, I think that many people these days are too reliant on their irrational emotions for their own good, so what do I know?
Yeah, which is why it's scarier for me to see it happen to a loved one than for it to happen to me.
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