Article ID: CBB000773663

The Strange Case of Phineas Gage (2007)

unapi

The 19th-century story of Phineas Gage is much quoted in neuroscientific literature as the first recorded case in which personality change (from polite and sociable to psychopathic) occurred after damage to the brain. In this article I contest this interpretation. From a close examination of the story of Gage I have come to conclude that first of all there was nothing psychopathic in Gage's behavior and that changes in his life are more coherently explained by seeing them as his way of dealing with disfigurement that he suffered after the accident. This is not just a matter of reinterpreting a case. The way Gage has been presented and discussed in neuroscientific literature suggests that the new paradigm of neuroscientifically oriented psychiatry may lead to an erosion of clinical knowledge.

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Authors & Contributors
Macmillan, Malcolm
Sonja Boos
Hlade, Josef
Maria Angela Veronese
Zaidi, Hasan A.
Wassmann, Claudia
Concepts
Brain
Neurosciences
Medicine
Psychology
Injuries
Psychiatry
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
Places
Germany
United States
Switzerland
Italy
Austria
Australia
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