Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and Its Aftermath

Michael Paul Mason

Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Apr 1, 2008 - Science - 320 pages

Head 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.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - tjsjohanna - LibraryThing

Mr. 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 ...

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - CandaceVan - LibraryThing

Well-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 ...

Contents

• INTRODUCTION: 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
• ULTRAVIOLENT BRYAN: 147
• FUGUE OF THE PONY SOLDIER: 176
• 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
• INDEX: 303

About the author

MICHAEL MASON (born 1971) is a brain injury case manager based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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