Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and Its AftermathHead Cases takes us into the dark side of the brain in an astonishing sequence of stories, at once true and strange, from the world of brain damage. Michael Paul Mason is one of an elite group of experts who coordinate care in the complicated aftermath of tragic injuries that can last a lifetime. On the road with Mason, we encounter survivors of brain injuries as they struggle to map and make sense of the new worlds they inhabit. Underlying each of these survivors' stories is an exploration of the brain and its mysteries. When injured, the brain must figure out how to heal itself, reorganizing its physiology in order to do the job. Mason gives us a series of vivid glimpses into brain science, the last frontier of medicine, and we come away in awe of the miracles of the brain's workings and astonished at the fragility of the brain and the sense of self, life, and order that resides there. Head Cases "[achieves] through sympathy and curiosity insight like that which pulses through genuine literature" (The New York Sun); it is at once illuminating and deeply affecting. |
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LibraryThing Review
User Review - tjsjohanna - LibraryThingMr. Mason captures a glimpse into the world of disability by way of head injury in his book. The cases are no more than a dozen, but the author manages to give the reader a look at the wide ranging ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - CandaceVan - LibraryThingWell-written and very moving book, which is more likely to make you better protect your noggin than any amount of chiding from your Mom. Interestingly, this book contains a case in which a man, after ... Read full review
Contents
| 3 | |
THE HERMIT OF HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD | 12 |
A PRISONER OF THE PRESENT | 43 |
AN INSULT TO THE BRAIN | 65 |
ROB RABE CANNOT CRY | 73 |
PORTRAIT OF AN INJURY | 97 |
THE ONLY THING THAT WORKS | 110 |
THE RESURRECTION OF DOUG BEARDEN | 119 |
IN ALL EARNESTNESS | 205 |
THE HOSPITAL IN THE DESERT | 224 |
WOOD OF THE SUICIDES | 245 |
CONCLUSION | 274 |
MY BREAKFAST WITH MARILYN | 283 |
NOTES AND SOURCES | 287 |
RESOURCES FOR THE CARE AND MANAGEMENT OF BRAIN INJURIES | 297 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 299 |
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Bibliographic information
| Title | Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and Its Aftermath |
| Author | Michael Paul Mason |
| Publisher | Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008 |
| ISBN | 1429953748, 9781429953740 |
| Length | 320 pages |
| Subjects | › › Science / Life Sciences / Human Anatomy & Physiology |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |