Injured Brains of Medical Minds: Views from Within [Hardcover]

Narinder Kapur (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0198521448 | ISBN-13: 978-0198521440 | Publication Date: January 15, 1997 | Edition: 1

This volume offers a unique look at the effects of brain damage seen through the eyes of physicians and neuroscientists who have suffered a brain injury or illness. More than 50 personal stories cover a wide range of conditions, including memory, language, and visual disorders, Parkinson's disease, stroke, brain tumor, head injury and epilepsy. An introduction to each of these sections provides background information. Each of the personal accounts, written over the past 120 years, is accompanied by commentary by the author which critically examines the experiences of the sufferer, relating them to current issues in clinical neurology and cognitive neuroscience. An overview chapter summarizes the lessons learned from the various sections. Injured Brains of Medical Minds: Views from Within presents extraordinary stories and provides a highly original introduction to neurology and neuropsychology. It is also an invaluable resource for anyone involved in neurological or neuropsychological research.

Editorial Reviews

From The New England Journal of Medicine

This book is a collection of papers that report the experiences of physicians and other health care professionals as patients who have had neurologic illnesses. All but four papers were written by the afflicted professionals. The oldest paper, the famous description by Lordat of his own aphasia, was originally published in French in 1843. All the other accounts were originally published in English between 1870 and 1996, the majority in the past two decades.

The papers are grouped in two parts, one dealing with cognitive disorders (sections on memory, language, and visual disorders) and the other with clinical conditions (sections on Parkinson's disease, brain tumor, stroke, head injury, and epilepsy). The editor, Narinder Kapur, a psychologist, provides a brief introduction to each section that is aimed at nonspecialist readers, as well as commentaries after individual papers and sections and an overview at the end of the book. The introductions are generally concise, well-organized, and informative in the sections dealing with cognitive disorders but are much less so in the sections on neurologic illnesses. The commentaries emphasize intellectual and behavioral impairment but largely neglect other neurologic deficits. Neurologists will be disturbed by some statements, such as the classification of seizures as either partial or grand mal and the suggestion that emotional lability in patients with brain injuries, manifested by tearfulness in happy situations, is an epileptic phenomenon. Little or no information is provided about the authors of the individual articles, where they practice, or the dates of the reports. Although some of this information can be obtained from the articles themselves or the references, a brief biographical sketch situating the author in place and time and a summary of the knowledge and care of the illness at that time would have greatly enhanced the value of the papers.

Since many laypeople have described their experiences as patients, one may ask whether clinicians who become patients provide unique insights into their illnesses and medical care. One area in which the clinician turned patient may provide a unique perspective is in judging the physician-patient relationship and the quality of care. Some reports in this book provide specific insight into deficiencies in medical care that have a strong negative effect on patients, such as lack of empathy on the part of the physician, inappropriate comments made in the presence of a patient who is assumed to be unable to understand, poor rehabilitation practices, and lack of adequate speech therapy. A physician turned patient may additionally have a unique perspective on the nature and character of his or her neurologic symptoms, which may shed light on their pathophysiology, depending on the particular knowledge and experience of the patient as well as on the nature of the illness. Extraordinary examples in this area are K.S. Lashley's account of migrainous scotomas and A. Brodal's self-observations and neuroanatomical considerations after a stroke. When one considers the effects of illness on everyday life, however, some compelling accounts written by laypeople remain unsurpassed. An outstanding example is the recent book by Jean-Dominique Bauby, a 45-year-old journalist who had a massive brain-stem stroke that left him completely paralyzed except for his left eyelid, but with intact intellect. His account (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Translated from the French by Jeremy Leggatt. New York: Knopf, 1997), "dictated" by signaling with the eyelid, is an extraordinary testimony to human courage and dignity.

Regardless of the particular emphasis given by the editor in his commentaries, the original papers speak for themselves. Physicians, psychologists, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, and others engaged in the care of patients with neurologic disorders are bound to improve their understanding of doctor-patient relations and further their ability to care for such patients by reading the articles compiled in this book. Dr. Kapur has provided a great service by making reports originally published in scattered sources and at various times available in a single book.

Reviewed by Vicente Iragui, M.D., Ph.D.
Copyright © 1998 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.

Review

`This is an unusual book. ... This eclectic collection is unique and is worth consulting for its more informal insights into the 'Injured Brains of Medical Minds'.' World Neurology, vol.12, no.2

`the work is beautifully presented, and the occasional illustrations pertinent throughout. ... What is impressive is the personal narrative, and the great courage shown by these authors.' British Medical Journal, vol.315, August 1997

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 426 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (January 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198521448
• ISBN-13: 978-0198521440
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,003,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN EXTRAORDINARY INSIGHT INTO BRAIN DAMAGE, January 25, 1999

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[e-mail] (University of Magdeburg, Germany) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Injured Brains of Medical Minds: Views from Within (Hardcover)

The book „Injured Brains of Medical Minds", compiled and edited by Narinder Kapur, gives an extraordinary insight into how brain damage affects the individual life. The book is very interesting and sometimes even amusing to read. For instance, Karl Lashley, one of the outstanding neuropsychologists of this century, reports in a chapter that his own migraine attack brought about blind spots, elementary visual hallucinations that included scintillating scotoma. Bryan Kolb, a well-known neuropsychologist and author of a standard textbook of neuropsychology describes in another self-report the consequences of his visual field defect due to a stroke as following: „I still miss capital letters when reading text ... and I am puzzled by the odd spellings or messages. For example a sign stating `women' can be misread as `men' or one saying `telephone' may be misread as `lephone'(...) I also decided to try skiing that week. I was able to ski without difficulty, although I tended to overcompensate for my field defect and actually ran into a tree in my good field whilst trying to avoid a bush several meters away on the left!" In another book-chapter, Prof. Harold Klawans tells us about his colleague, a general surgeon, who suffered from an attack of transient global amnesia during a resection of a gallbladder. Again and again the surgeon asked the nurse: „Did I take out the gallbladder?" In contrast to this severe memory deficits he was able to continue in his work without any problems. But, by the time he successfully had finished the operation, he added another fundamental question: „Where am I?". Lawrence Freedman, professor of medicine, suffered a cerebral concussion due to a bicycle accident. He tells us about his anxiety to leave his home and go for a simple walk around the block with his little daughter. Halfway around the block he tried to turn into the wrong direction. He was so absolutely sure to be right, that he bets a million dollar: He still owes this money to his daughter. Stories like this lead the reader to see not only the cognitive deficits, but also the difficulties in activities of daily living and the emotional problems of patients after brain damage. „Injured Brains of Medical Minds" is not a simple case book. An introduction to each section of the book provides background information to the topic of concern. A commentary accompanying each of the personal accounts puts the papers into the context of current theory and clinical practice, thereby making Narinder Kapur's book a highly recommendable textbook introducing the field of neuropsychology to specialists as well as to non-specialist readers. It is important for everybody who would like to understand not only the theory of a brain lesions but to get an additional touch of the „feeling" how it is to be a brain damaged patient.