13: Yes, Father-Sister

Imagine your best friend started to become a completely different person. The genuine, reserved person you have known your entire life is now superficial, impulsive and is always cracking jokes. While it may be just that friend has come to their own, showing their true colors but in the case of Mrs. B a research chemist the reasoning behind her drastic change in personality was much more serious. Mrs. B’s case was described by Dr. Oliver Sacks in his book, “The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales.” Dr. Sacks described that a tumor, a large mass of cells, located on both frontal lobes of her brain was what caused this drastic change. The tumor made up of cancer cells and is very hard to remove, even if removed even one left over cell can proliferate and form a new tumor (Sacks, 2010).

What made Mrs. B's case so interesting was her apparent lack of being able to integrate different characteristics of a person together. It was as she was seeing a person as different pieces of a puzzle and when asked to describe the overall person, she only used one of the pieces in her judgment. The apparent loss of integration seemed to affect her ability to obtain meaning to things. This negatively affected her life severely with her friends and family explaining as she has been "desouled" in a way (Sacks, 2010).

What caused Mrs. B to act this way was the effect of the tumor. The brain is separated into different areas or lobes, with each lobe has a characteristic set of functions. Being located on the frontal lobes of her brain the tumor effected the lobe that has that has to deal with many aspects of a person’s identity, including personality, emotions, conscious thought, and decision making. The damage done by the tumor clearly effected the frontal lobe’s function and altered her overall identity (Brain Injury Institute).

Based on Dr. Sacks presentation of Mrs. B’s case, it was not made clear if she was able to be treated for her condition or not. Not being the person you once were can be very stressful for both the individual and the people around them. Due to this, treatment for her tumor would be of great importance but due to the location and makeup of the tumor treatment may pose too much of a risk. Alternative treatments to tumor removal can be psychological intervention with the patient, attempting to correct the problem of integrating multiple aspects of things and bring meaning back into her life. Dr. Sacks describes this condition as not uncommon, with many of the patients falling further into the “dissolution” as their condition worsens (Sacks, 2010).

Work Cited:

Sacks, Oliver (2010-07-21). The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales. Odyssey Editions. Kindle Edition.

Brain Injury Types. Brain Injury Institute, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2015. <http://www.braininjuryinstitute.org/Brain-Injury-Types/Frontal-Lobe-Damage.html>.