Medicine, Mind, and the Double Brain: A Study in Nineteenth-Century Thought [Hardcover]

Anne Harrington (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1987 | ISBN-10: 0691084653 | ISBN-13: 978-0691084657

The study concentrates on, without being strictly limited to, the years 1860-1900 and encompasses explorations into the concepts of symmetry and asymmetry in early nineteenth-century neurology.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This work is an example of conceptual history at its best. The author concentrates on the neurological sciences in the period 1860-1900, principally in France and other European countries. Theories of cognition have roots in Cartesian philosophy, and Harrington carefully prepares the reader for developments in the latter half of the 19th century, when philosophical concepts and scientific rigor were combined. The many significant developments of this period include Broca's localization of function in the brain, and the writings of Charcot and Freud. A final chapter follows through to the present. Serious students in the history of medicine and science will delight in this book. Frances Groen, McGill Univ. Lib., Montreal
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

Surely the rising star of body parts in the 1980 . . . Be right brain. Bookstores are well-stocked with guides to using the right brain in activities ranging from drawing business Techniques for brain training include talking with the telephone at the left ear, putting the right arm in a sting for a week, banning the use of the word 'no' and drawing the 'negative space' around the object instead of the object itself. Such exercises allegedly help us regain what some call 'wbole-brain thinking,' especially those creative capacities ('R-modes') of the right hemisphere of the brain that have been neglected in favor of left-brain logic. . . . Anyone tempted to invest in R-modes will profit from Anne Harrington's enlightening history of the concept of the double brain. . . . Her book serves as a timely warning that the functions of the brain's hemispheres, like other kinds of division of labor, are likely to be far more complicated than the simple, seductive division into left and right can explain. -- Elaine Showalter, New York Times Book Review

Anne Harrington . . . . An account of the emergence of our understanding of our own inner dissymmetry. It sets the striving towards comprehension amid the social prejudices and pressures of the nineteenth century and shows how the expectations of the time moulded scientific opinion. -- P. W. Atkins, London Review of Books --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 354 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr (October 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0691084653
• ISBN-13: 978-0691084657
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #534,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Detailed philosophical account, November 11, 2003

By 

Erika Mitchell (E. Calais, VT USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Medicine, Mind, and the Double Brain (Paperback)

This book is a detailed account of the development of neuroanatomy during the nineteenth century, particularly in France and Germany. Harrington delves into dust-covered scientific literature to discover the original speculations and discussions about why the brain is divided in two.

Most medical or scientific history books trace how modern theories developed from one experiment or observation to another. They don't give much space to tracing wrong turns, unless the wrong turn eventually led to some worthwhile insight. In contrast, Harrington spends relatively little time in this book describing how various facets of our modern understanding of brain structures and functions were deduced. Instead, most of her focus is on the scientific process itself, with a great deal of material about the wrong turns and why they were taken. Early in the book, Harrington states explicitly that "one might begin to understand this wider phenomenon in neurology by looking at the way scientific and medical concepts can function in a society as metaphorical resources and by looking again at the specific social and cultural context that informed neurological research in different European countries at this time." She compares the political atmosphere in France and Germany at the time, and traces how this atmosphere may have affected interpretations of observations concerning hemispheric functions. Harrington describes how hypotheses about the purposes of the two hemispheres changed, and how this seemed to affect observations of symptoms. She points out that "one is struck by how theoretical expectations appear actually to change what people perceive."

The book includes an appendix with diagrams of brain structures that can be useful for readers who are not familiar with standard brain terminology. Since so much of the focus of the book is on the philosophy of science rather than on the development of our understanding of how the brain works, the book may be of interest more to philosophers than to those interested in neuroanatomy.