How the Brain Lost Its Mind

wall space and has been accommodated just outside of the main gallery, as if in an afterthought, in a skylighted foyer where, on a sunny day, the glare makes it difficult to take in as a whole. As a further indignity, it is unframed and almost casually hung, a sad fate for a work once hailed as "the success of the Salon of 1887."

The painting is by Andre Brouillet, a journeyman artist who studied with the great Jean-Leon Gerome, had a moment of passing fame, and then slid back into obscurity. He titled the work Une Leon Clinique a la Salpetriere (A Clinical Lesson at the Salpetriere Hospital), and at the Salon des Beaux Arts of 1887, an annual showcase of established and aspiring academically trained artists, it stood out by virtue of its striking subject. Rather than drawing upon the distant past, Brouillet chose to depict a contemporary event, one very much of the moment. The setting is a window-lit room in a hospital. A medical demonstration is in progress before a male audience. At first glance, it appears to be a group portrait of thirty finely rendered individuals. The center of attention is a young woman in a state of semiconsciousness and semi-undress. The scene is highly sexualized and frankly voyeuristic, hardly unusual in the world of academic painting. Two of its more obvious points of reference include a scandalous canvas by Gerome entitled The Slave Market in Rome, featuring a nude young woman standing on an auction block as buyers frantically make their bids. The other, a more subdued work, depicts Philippe Pinel, the aforementioned pioneer in the humane treatment of the insane, as he orders the unshackling of the madwomen at an asylum. Stripped of all context, the subjects of these works are young, vulnerable, exposed, unseeing or semiconscious women under the complete control and watchful eyes of men. In each case the historical moment trumps the sensational content, allowing the paintings to be peddled as art rather than as pornography.

century Europe to the public health commissioners of 1930s New York. Ropper and Burrell trace the riveting history of the science of the mind and brain, revealing how and why neurology and psychiatry split, and how the future of medicine depends on their reunification. Aaron Berkowitz, MD, PhD, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School; author of Clinical Neurology and Neuroanatomy and The Improvising Mind

I have listened to, watched, and read Allan Ropper on subjects related to the brain for thirty years. He's still my teacher, but I've never seen him teach like this. Along with his friend and gifted co-author, Ropper takes us on a romp through centuries of cultural and scientific history. There's a kicker: can that history clarify and crystallize through the lens of just one nasty disease? Yes. Read how in this page-turningly accessible and brilliant book. Edison K. Miyawaki, MD, assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School; author of The Frontal Brain and Language

A thrilling journey from the dramatic common origins of neurology and psychiatry, through their historical divergence, to their current realignment.  The medical, scientific and social histories of two fascinating conditions are brilliantly interwoven and contrasted. Fascinating stories, masterfully told, bring to life the notable patients who suffered with these strange maladies, and the extraordinary doctors who treated them as they sought cures. This is essential and engaging reading for anyone who wants to understand these most interesting medical and philosophical issues, and how they have played out across continents and centuries. David Silbersweig, MD, chairman, Department of Psychiatry, co-director, Center for the Neurosciences, Brigham and Women s Hospital; Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

A page-turner vividly depicting the struggles of medicine s perennial sibling rivals: neurology and psychiatry. The dramatic interactions between clinical investigators and patients occasionally one and the same demonstrate how ideas relating mind to brain pervasively influence our sense of ourselves. Paul McHugh, MD, Chairman Emeritus of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

"Through tales of eminent physicians and their suffering patients, replete with sex, drugs, and magnetically-induced hypnotism, we learn how a bacterium that deprived countless souls of their reason also helped scientists discover a role for brain biology in mental illness." Alan Jasanoff, PhD, author of The Biological Mind; Professor of Biological Engineering, Brain & Cognitive Sciences, Nuclear Science & Engineering

Know someone who has bizarre thoughts or strange behaviors? Ever wonder whether it means mental illness or a brain disease or both? Ropper and Burrell have written an insightful, fantastically readable analysis of what was once called hysteria. Also, by studying how things can go wrong, we learn a great deal about the working of the human mind when things go right. Elizabeth Loftus, PhD, Distinguished Professor of Psychological Science, University of California, Irvine; author of Eyewitness Testimony

It is remarkable how much influence syphilis has had on human history and how widespread the disease has been. Even today, the subject is generally off limits, which is why the story remains mostly unknown and why How the Brain Lost Its Mind makes for compelling reading. Like all well written histories and this one is very well written the narrative engages like a mystery novel. But the story is true, and replete with sometimes salacious, sometimes revelatory details. Ultimately, it is the story of the beginning and development of the modern scientific study of the brain and the mind: the false leads and great discoveries, the charlatans and the heroes. The question of what is a disease of the brain and what is an illness of the mind remains undetermined even in our knowledgeable and enlightened era. A fascinating and sophisticated read." Avi Nelson

"A compelling read." Library Journal