HISTSCI 1770: Broken Brains: A Patient-Centered History

Thursday - 12:00-2:45 PM with Professor Anne Harrington

An exploration of the complex relationship between doctors and scientists who study and treat different kinds of “broken brains,” the patients they study and treat, and larger public conversations about being human in today’s neurological society. Topics include iconic cases of brain damage that catalyze new scientific understandings (like the case of H.M.), the study of brain damage in war, the emergence of writings (including memoirs and novels) that attempt to describe "what it is like" to suffer from disorders like autism and Alzheimer’s, and controversies over recent efforts to see psychiatric disorders like depression as simple products of a chemically “broken brain.”