An Odd Kind of Fame ─ Stories of Phineas Gage

In 1848 a railway construction worker named Phineas Gage suffered an accident thatmade him a major curiosity of medicine and a significant figure in psychology and neuroscience: anexplosion caused a tamping iron to be blown completely through his head, destroying the left frontallobe of his brain. Gage survived the accident and remained in reasonable physical health for anothereleven years. But his behavior changed markedly after the injury, and his case is considered to bethe first to reveal the relation between the brain and complex personality characteristics. Yetalmost nothing is known about him, and most of what is written is seriously in error.In this bookMalcolm Macmillan, a leading authority on Gage, covers all aspects of this fascinating story. Hedescribes Gage's family and personal background, the context of his work and the accident, andGage's subsequent history. He analyzes contemporary medical and newspaper reports of the accidentand its consequences, and evaluates the treatment Gage received from Dr. John Martyn Harlow. He alsolooks at Harlow's own life and work. Macmillan examines Gage's place in the history of how functionscame to be localized in the brain. He explores the many ways that Gage's tale has been representedand misrepresented through the years in popular, fictional, and scientific works. One of Macmillan'sprimary aims is to rescue the case from the predominantly fantastic accounts so that its realcontribution to modern neuroscience can be understood. Partly for this reason, the appendicesinclude facsimiles of Harlow's 1848 and 1868 reports, the primary sources about Gage, and previouslyunpublished CT scans of Gage's skull made in 1982.

Malcolm Macmillan is Adjunct Professor in the School of Psychology at Deakin University, Australia.