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Why Fly Over the Cuckoo's Nest? Psychosurgery in my Brain Please!
“Why Fly Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?” Psychosurgery in My Brain please! This riveting science fiction thriller brings love, loyalty, friendship, perseverance, sports, and fame to disclose the depth of human knowledge of brain function. The ethical dilemma of surgical modification of the human brain is discussed taking advantage of the racial diverse environment of Southern California, enlightening our understanding of the complexity of addiction, anger and human aggression. Strong love unites these bright and promising high school sweet hearts. Jill is a petit Asian brain surgeon training in a major medical center. Charles is a nationally recognized volatile Latino athlete. His volatility, while an asset for his aggressiveness as a center forward in soccer, mines his love and social life. Amidst the challenging and grueling workload required from a brain surgeon in training, Jill faces the progressive demise of her admiration and love for Charles, who may end up with criminal charges. Jill’s dedication to family and medicine allied to her deep respect to animal and human subjects in research lead her path. Her scientific discoveries while working with the functional intricacies of the non-human primate brain in drug addiction and natural aggressive behavior may bring light to her desperation. She depends, however, on Charles, also a mathematic and engineer wiz, to complete the bioengineering portion of the therapy that can rescue him from captivity. Stakes increase when Jill’s baby has a febrile seizure fit. He went on to grow as a smart and talented 8 year-old who knocks unconscious his schoolmate in a violence attack. Charged again with love, Jill has to use all her assets, charm, intelligence, and endurance in a male dominated environment to fight outdated societal rules and regulations interposing between her, mentors, doctors and scientists trying to unveil the function of the brain in the state of addiction, anger and depression. Her chance to save her family is the development of an effective therapy for a psychiatric illness handicapping her husband and son, also impacting in the life of countless humans. The author, Antonio DeSalles, is a Neurosurgeon living in Southern California.
414 pages, Paperback
First published July 5, 2011
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October 28, 2020
The history of psychosurgery has seen more oops than wow moments. Dating back to pre historic trephinations to modern deep brain stimulations, several surgeons faced humiliating ostracization and innumerable patients faced social stigmas, penalties, and untimely deaths. The final nail in the psychosurgery attempts was Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest". The motion picture by the same name in 1975, is one of the only three movies in the history of world cinema to win the big five Oscars in a year. Brilliantly portrayed by Jack Nicholson, the film viciously thread-bared the dark side of the moon. No doubt, the complications of infamous surgeries such as ‘ice-pick lobotomy’ and over enthusiastic personalities such as Walter Freeman were now on silver screen and the world suddenly shifted away from a promising field, which was struggling in an era of primitive radiologies, limited medications, sceptical environments, and growing medicolegal troubles. This is a science fiction novel, which highlights the legal, medical and ethical issues of psychosurgery in a very legally restrictive environment.
Over the course of time, the misery did not change much but the world then witnessed an increasing role of stimulation techniques in the 90s. The spectrum of the benefitted disorders was predominantly neurologic such as in Parkinson’s. The same enthusiasm was not witnessed with psychological disorders as the level of evidence could not be found in the absence of the cases and the psychologists were not as enthusiastic as the neurologists.
“Why Fly Over The Cuckoos’ Nest? Psychosurgery In My Brain Please!” is an enthralling tale of this dilemma. Authored by Antonio de Salles, a noted Brazilian neurosurgeon, is a riveting tale of a promising personality that goes hay-ware because of his failure to control anger and rage attacks. The novel's protagonist is Jill, an anthropologist and aspiring neurobehavioral researcher who happens to be the girlfriend of Charles, a Latin American football player and mathematician. Charles is a gifted player but gets enraged and impulsive after getting bullied or attacked. His aggressive behaviour remains a unique selling proposition on the field but overwhelms his social and personal lives. He finds solace and love in the company of his girlfriend, Jill. His soccer teammate Roberto attempts to provide him a cover to keep him under control. He somehow manages to continue on field and gets a place as main striker in the World Cup US soccer team. His attack on a shrewd opponent after getting physically hurt during the game prematurely terminates his career as a player.
Jill longs for his love. A strong love and respect towards other’s work brings these tender hearts together. They get married and work in the same neuro surgical team, which is trying to find out the neurobehavioral reasons of rage attacks in primates. A gifted craftsman and computer expert, Charles also helps her in decoding the complex arrays of imaging science. Both continue in their grad school while Jill works extra for her doctorate thesis. Her accidental pregnancy mounts the pressure on already overstretched family and they gradually get financially, emotionally and physically insecure. The story takes an ugly turn when their infant son throws a seizure and on the same day a provoked Charles kills a drug dealer in a violent attack and later attempts a suicide in police custody. He survives but ends up semi-comatose in a psychiatry ward. On his recovery, they find him further deteriorated with frequent rage attacks making him unfit for the society. Finding herself unable to handle so much pressure, Jill loses her faith and admiration of Charles’s persona and starts cursing her fate for choosing him as a life partner. But the love in her heart and her perseverance to find some answers to the apparent life changing questions kept her going. Finally with the help from her support system, which include their family and neuroscientist fraternity, she gets a breakthrough in identifying the responsible foci in the brain for controlling the rage attacks. Charles gets treated with DBS implantation in Vicq d’Azyr. Life takes a full circle when her son gets diagnosed with a small hypothalamic hamartoma and knocks down his schoolmate at a tender age of seven.
On one hand, the book challenges the human knowledge of the brain function while on the another hand, its description of experimental results in primates brings forth the hope in the desperate families, who are unable to find any listening ear. The book has highlighted a neurosurgeon’s frustration in handling bureaucracy, ethics committee, and politics in medical science while taking care of the patient. However, the emotional upheavals have been addressed in a very rational way through the wisdom, patience and compassion of the senior neurosurgeons in the story. The book is humanely candid in depicting the problems of a young female neurosurgeon in an environment dominated by alpha males. She has used her intelligence, wit, charm, and endurance while maintaining the driving force of her love to unveil the hopeful propositions of neurosurgery in psychiatric disorders. Author is able to beautifully illustrate the role of family, society, and colleagues in dealing with sensitive yet gruelling environment of neurosurgical training. The personal sacrifices made by the team members is elegantly presented in the book. The zeal to achieve success in their mission in order to bring a positive change in the acceptable treatment of psychological patients is utmost palpable. The stakes are still high but special attention should be given to the advancements in neurosciences in last three decades which includes cutting edge techniques of brain mapping and growing experience with stimulation techniques. This book is worth reading not only for neuroscientists but also to lay persons. It gives a brief but honest insight into the lives and plights of the psychological patients and their families. It points out how the caregiver-doctor interaction, sharing of knowledge and ideas and mutual admiration is paramount for bringing out the best possible outcome in the patients. The author Dr. Antonio de Salles is a noted functional neurosurgeon practising at UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles, USA. His vision exudes his enthusiasm on this delicate subject, “A problem without a solution is no longer a problem. It is however a challenge and an opportunity for the unsettled mind to conquer the seemingly impossible.”
@manjulneuro
#benevolenthippie
gammaknife.pgimer@gmail.com
You can read the Hindi translation titled "Krodh".
Over the course of time, the misery did not change much but the world then witnessed an increasing role of stimulation techniques in the 90s. The spectrum of the benefitted disorders was predominantly neurologic such as in Parkinson’s. The same enthusiasm was not witnessed with psychological disorders as the level of evidence could not be found in the absence of the cases and the psychologists were not as enthusiastic as the neurologists.
“Why Fly Over The Cuckoos’ Nest? Psychosurgery In My Brain Please!” is an enthralling tale of this dilemma. Authored by Antonio de Salles, a noted Brazilian neurosurgeon, is a riveting tale of a promising personality that goes hay-ware because of his failure to control anger and rage attacks. The novel's protagonist is Jill, an anthropologist and aspiring neurobehavioral researcher who happens to be the girlfriend of Charles, a Latin American football player and mathematician. Charles is a gifted player but gets enraged and impulsive after getting bullied or attacked. His aggressive behaviour remains a unique selling proposition on the field but overwhelms his social and personal lives. He finds solace and love in the company of his girlfriend, Jill. His soccer teammate Roberto attempts to provide him a cover to keep him under control. He somehow manages to continue on field and gets a place as main striker in the World Cup US soccer team. His attack on a shrewd opponent after getting physically hurt during the game prematurely terminates his career as a player.
Jill longs for his love. A strong love and respect towards other’s work brings these tender hearts together. They get married and work in the same neuro surgical team, which is trying to find out the neurobehavioral reasons of rage attacks in primates. A gifted craftsman and computer expert, Charles also helps her in decoding the complex arrays of imaging science. Both continue in their grad school while Jill works extra for her doctorate thesis. Her accidental pregnancy mounts the pressure on already overstretched family and they gradually get financially, emotionally and physically insecure. The story takes an ugly turn when their infant son throws a seizure and on the same day a provoked Charles kills a drug dealer in a violent attack and later attempts a suicide in police custody. He survives but ends up semi-comatose in a psychiatry ward. On his recovery, they find him further deteriorated with frequent rage attacks making him unfit for the society. Finding herself unable to handle so much pressure, Jill loses her faith and admiration of Charles’s persona and starts cursing her fate for choosing him as a life partner. But the love in her heart and her perseverance to find some answers to the apparent life changing questions kept her going. Finally with the help from her support system, which include their family and neuroscientist fraternity, she gets a breakthrough in identifying the responsible foci in the brain for controlling the rage attacks. Charles gets treated with DBS implantation in Vicq d’Azyr. Life takes a full circle when her son gets diagnosed with a small hypothalamic hamartoma and knocks down his schoolmate at a tender age of seven.
On one hand, the book challenges the human knowledge of the brain function while on the another hand, its description of experimental results in primates brings forth the hope in the desperate families, who are unable to find any listening ear. The book has highlighted a neurosurgeon’s frustration in handling bureaucracy, ethics committee, and politics in medical science while taking care of the patient. However, the emotional upheavals have been addressed in a very rational way through the wisdom, patience and compassion of the senior neurosurgeons in the story. The book is humanely candid in depicting the problems of a young female neurosurgeon in an environment dominated by alpha males. She has used her intelligence, wit, charm, and endurance while maintaining the driving force of her love to unveil the hopeful propositions of neurosurgery in psychiatric disorders. Author is able to beautifully illustrate the role of family, society, and colleagues in dealing with sensitive yet gruelling environment of neurosurgical training. The personal sacrifices made by the team members is elegantly presented in the book. The zeal to achieve success in their mission in order to bring a positive change in the acceptable treatment of psychological patients is utmost palpable. The stakes are still high but special attention should be given to the advancements in neurosciences in last three decades which includes cutting edge techniques of brain mapping and growing experience with stimulation techniques. This book is worth reading not only for neuroscientists but also to lay persons. It gives a brief but honest insight into the lives and plights of the psychological patients and their families. It points out how the caregiver-doctor interaction, sharing of knowledge and ideas and mutual admiration is paramount for bringing out the best possible outcome in the patients. The author Dr. Antonio de Salles is a noted functional neurosurgeon practising at UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles, USA. His vision exudes his enthusiasm on this delicate subject, “A problem without a solution is no longer a problem. It is however a challenge and an opportunity for the unsettled mind to conquer the seemingly impossible.”
@manjulneuro
#benevolenthippie
gammaknife.pgimer@gmail.com
You can read the Hindi translation titled "Krodh".
Displaying 1 of 1 review