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The Organism

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Kurt Goldstein was a highly experienced and respected neurologist in the earlier years of the twentieth century who after a lifetime of experince with patients of all walks of life, but especially brain damaged soldiers of World War I, came to the conclusion that the working of the human body is far more than just independently functioning mechanisms which make a kind of slapdash whole from the sum of these "parts".

Goldstein explores many kinds of brain disorders he met along the way involving damage to the cortex and other parts of the brain often associated with structures which control certain aspects of behaviour such as reflex actions. Goldstein analyses in great detail and without prejudice each particular case describing the standard approaches on the subject and what he actually observes directly rather than just using the theory to define what is happening. Through this method he is able to obtain a far richer description of the neurological aspects of man than is usually given. He does not speculate arbitrarily but rather convinces by objective analysis. This is a hardnosed scientific approach although he still gives himself time to consider the wholeness of the body and its repair and "coming to terms" with its situation. In the last chapters he discusses approaches to the wholeness of the body and how important and relevant they are to a truer experience of the world as such. He nonetheless maintains a strong contact throughout with real patients never once releasing his touch to reality.

An essential read for any practising scientist who wants to understand.