Dis-eases of the Thinking Meat

[mishalak]

What lessons can be learned from this New Scientist Article about a teacher who became a pedophile because of a tumor? As the a neurologist quoted in the article rightly points out the lesson is not that every pedophile needs a MRI. This is an unusual case where it is clear from his past behavior that something had changed and the discovered of the tumor made it clear what had happened. It would be unusual if there were any other person with this particular problem currently. But it does point out the interesting and frightening problem of something going wrong with our brains. And that even if we recognize that something is wrong we probably won't correctly self-diagnose. I am also struck by the at least superficial similarity to the case of Charles Whitman, who also recognized in his suicide letter, "I am supposed to be an average reasonable and intelligent young man. However, lately (I cannot recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts." I am also reminded of the death of a friend. He had a brain tumor and it also made him behave differently (we think) in the year leading up to his death, though not in the same dramatic way or with such terrible consequences for the people around him. My grandmother died of the same particular cancer though I do not know if she exhibited changes in the way she acted that may have been a clue to the growing glioma.

So if anyone notices me being unable to copy simple drawings and/or letters by hand coupled with changes in behavior, make me get an MRI.