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Exploring the Mind: Seven Studies

The Man

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Social and Cultural Attitudes towards Frontal Lobe Disorders
Dominic Barandica

Society is defined as the aggregate of people living in a more or less ordered community. This leads to a multitude of cases and definitions of society. There is the general understanding of society as a whole, a societal offshoot such as a cult, and even a small mental asylum can be seen as a society. In An Anthropologist On Mars Oliver Sacks relays the account of Greg F., a man with a brain tumor that caused significant frontal lobe damage. Socially and culturally the patient was accepted in as many ways as the word was defined.

Greg fit well into traditional society but as an adolescent he joined the counterculture, grew out his hair, dropped out of high school, and engaged in illicit drugs. It seems his favorite music spoke to him and he left home inspired to live in the “village” to drop acid and pursue the perfect utopia, euphoria, and a higher level of consciousness. In his new surroundings, Greg excelled. His family heard of his continual progress and great success hearing, “he is a holy one” (Sacks 43). They missed their child, but traded interaction for hopefully a better child. Eventually they did hear from their son when he complained of a persistent pain in his eyes and problems with his vision. Contact then ceased with the family only receiving written updates from the commune’s leader about their sons attaining enlightenment. When they were permitted they visited their son seeing him for the first time in roughly eighteen years; however, their child was unrecognizable. He had changed from a lean vivacious adolescent to a bald, wheelchair-bound obese, blind, man. Immediately he was whisked away to the hospital where the pretense of a large tumor was clear. It was operable, but nonetheless the damage had been done and was irreversible. He was rendered enfeebled and unable to be a functioning member in a traditional society. Culturally he was understood to be enfeebled and was treated as such. According to Neuropsychologia, a peer reviewed psychology journal, “individuals with frontal lobe lesions were compared to healthy individuals on the pit test and it was clear that the patients with left frontal lobe lesions were significantly impaired where right lobe lesions were impaired, but at a far lesser significance” (Murphy). Unfortunately the patient had more than a small quadrant lobe lesion, leaving him incredibly more impaired with total blindness and an inability to form new memories. Despite these significant detriments to his ability to communicate and function within his commune he was venerated as a god. He was seen as the embodiment of enlightenment. Where he was viewed as lesser or enfeebled by traditional society, within this commune, he assessed to a higher social standing.

After spending significant time in this social cult, he was forced to be institutionalized in a
hospital for the chronically ill where patients and staff live together for years at a time developing a small town or village form of society. Although enfeebled, he began to form and function in this new society; Sacks himself stated, “Greg seemed to adjust to Williamsbridge with remarkable ease” (50). Finally within the hospital through some sort of habitualization, Greg became able to navigate the hospital and frequent his favorite establishments within the hospital. In this society those without serious mental conditions were culturally and socially conditioned to care for Greg as “in a sort of daze (...) if he was stimulated by sound, he was awakened (55). Sacks developed a relationship with the patient seemingly always taking pity upon him especially when in a bizarre twist of fate, the duo both lost their fathers. Holding onto his hippie culture (mostly because he was forced to live in the past as his tumor rendered him incapable of forming new coherent memories) Greg was a die hard Grateful dead fan. In August perhaps conditioned to take pity, Sacks and a team of other individuals facilitated a trip for Greg to Madison Square Garden to see his favorite band one final time. He was stimulated by the sounds and smells experiencing true euphoria when his idols took the stage. He was only able to recall songs before his tumor, but sang along and loved the experience. The next day he could not remember attending the story a poignant end to a pitiful story.