Girl With Half A Brain

During the Today Show’s segment on Health they featured a young girl, named Cameron Mott, who had half of her brain removed. For three years Cameron Mott experienced violent seizures that continued throughout the day and endangered her life. Her seizures started when she was only three years old. Mott was having up to ten or more seizures a day. Her parents took her to numerous doctors who conducted many examinations. Meanwhile Cameron’s cognitive functions were deteriorating and she was losing the ability to speak. Mott was finally diagnosed with Rasmussen’s syndrome, a condition that causes the destruction of one side of the brain. Doctors said that the solution is hemispherectomy, which means the removal of half of the brain. Cameron’s parents brought her to Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore, where neurosurgeon Dr. George Jallo led a team that carefully removed the right side of Cameron’s brain. When Cameron woke up her left side of her body was completely paralyzed. She went through immediate and intense therapy. Cameron exceed expectations and walked out four weeks later. Her doctors said that she is now able to walk, run, and do well in school.

I chose this media report because it relates to the topics in Chapter 2 very well. In Chapter 2 the book discusses all the functions of the brain and the nervous system. Cameron’s seizures were cured by the removal of the right side of her brain. Roger Sperry’s split brain research helps to demonstrate the specializations of both the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Table 2.2 in our books shows some of the specializations found. Both hemispheres of the brain have many functions and help people with speech, recognition, and movement. The book also discusses Michelle M., “who in her case neuroscientists thought that her right hemisphere was able to learn what would normally be left hemisphere tasks through Michelle’s own actions”. Michelle’s case relates very well with Cameron’s case; the difference in the two being the opposite side of the brain.

Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 1920 silent film directed by Robert Wiene. The movie stars with a flashback with a man named Francis, who is the narrator, and his friend Alan. They visit a carnival in a mountain village in Germany where they see Dr. Caligari, a somewhat deranged man, and the somnambulist Cesare. The doctor is displaying Cesare as an attraction, bragging that Cesare can answer any question he is asked. When Alan asks Cesare how long he has to live, Cesare tells Alan that he will die before dawn tomorrow. The prophecy comes true; Alan is murdered before dawn tomorrow. Dr. Caligari and Cesare become prime suspects for the murder. Francis and Jane, is soon to be wife, investigate Caligari and Cesare. Jane, however, eventually gets kidnapped by Cesare. Meanwhile Francis discovers that Caligari is actually the director of the local insane asylum. He also discovers that Caligari is obsessed with the story of a monk called Caligari. The monk, in 1093, used a somnambulist to murder people as a traveling act throughout northern Italy. After being confronted with the dead Cesare, Caligari reveals his mania and is imprisoned in his asylum. Although a twisted ending reveals that the flashback Francis had is actually his fantasy. Francis, Jane, and Cesare are all inmates of the insane asylum, and the man he says is Caligari is his asylum doctor.

The movie The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari fits in quite well with what we have learned in chapter 4. Cesare was the man hypnotized by Dr. Caligari. Hypnotism is discussed in chapter 4 of our books, stating that hypnosis is a state of consciousness in which the person is especially susceptible to suggestions. The cases presented in the writing of Psychology in the News: Murder While Sleepwalking, also relate to Cesare. Cesare murdered Alan when Cesare was asleep and being controlled by Dr. Caligari. Also with the twisted ending and Francis’s flashback all being just a false memory and only his fantasy, it could relate to the false memory syndrome discussed in chapter 6 of our books. Also another possibility of Francis's flashback could be that he has schizophrenia (talked about in chapter 14) because he shows the inability to distinguish between fantasy and reality.

50 First Dates

The movie 50 First Dates is about a man named Henry Roth, starring Adam Sandler, who lives in Hawaii. One day Henry meets Lucy Whitmore, an art teacher, played by Drew Barrymore, in a café one morning. Both Henry and Lucy enjoy the company of each other. They plan to meet to have breakfast together the next morning. Approaching Lucy the next day, Henry is confused when Lucy fails to recognize him. The owner of the café pulls Henry aside and explains that Lucy suffers from anterograde amnesia, also called 'Goldfield Syndrome' in the movie. The amnesia is the result of a car accident she was in a year earlier. Her condition has left her with no memory of anything between the day of the accident and the present, because she is incapable of converting short-term memories into long-term memories. At the beginning of each day, she loses all memory of the past day. She believes that every day is October 13, 2002, the day of her accident. Lucy’s father, Marlin, and brother, Doug, attempt to re-enact the activities of October 13, every day to prevent her from suffering from learning about the accident. Henry, however, won't let this stop him and is prepared to make her fall in love with him all over again, each and every day.

50 First Dates relates well to chapter 6 in our books which discusses the types of memory. In the movie Lucy had suffered from anterograde amnesia. This type of amnesia, written about in the book, is the loss of memory from the point of injury or illness forward. People with this type of amnesia have trouble remembering anything new, such as Lucy did in the movie when she thought every day was the day of her accident.

The movie shows the effects of someone, such as Lucy, not remembering a new day on family and friends, and how much difficulty they go through to make someone, such as Lucy, not feel completely in pain. Not only does the movie show how the effect of having someone in your life not remember you day to day, it also shows how the person is helped to overcome his or her inability to remember with the help and support of loved ones.

Me, Myself, & Irene

In the movie Me, Myself, & Irene a sweet natured man named Charlie Baileygates, starring Jim Carrey, is a Rhode Island State Police trooper. Charlie is a mild-mannered, hard-working, and helpful man. Charlie has Split Personality Disorder, and when he runs out of his medication he turns into Hank Baileygates. Hank is Charlie’s hyper-aggressive alter-ego. Charlie and Hank are complete opposites; they have nothing in common except for a woman named Irene Walters, played by Renée Zellweger. Irene is a beautiful woman who both Charlie and Hank have fallen in love with. Charlie and Hank both fight over the affection of a confused Irene. In the meantime Charlie tries to keep Irene save from her evil corrupt ex-boyfriend Dickie Thurman along with his associates who plan on killing Irene.

This movie has a good representation of dissociative identity disorder discussed in chapter 14 of our books. In dissociative identity disorder the person with the disorder seems to experience at least 2 or more distinct personalities existing in his or her body, such as Charlie Baileygates did in the movie. There is one “core” personality, which would be Charlie, in Charlie/Hank’s disorder.

Sleeping Beauty Syndrome

Fox News covered a story on February 9 about a fifteen year old girl, named Louisa Ball, who was diagnosed with Klein Levin Syndrome also known as Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. Sleeping Beauty Syndrome causes the person to sleep for days. Doctors do not know what causes it. Louisa Ball's sleeping problem started back in October 2000 when she caught a flu virus. She takes naps and sleeps for days at a time. The longest she has slept was thirteen days long. Louisa Ball struggles to wake up from her sleep, her parents even sometimes shake her and she still won’t awaken. She gets tired, her mind goes blank, and she becomes unresponsive before going into one of her “sleeps”. Doctors are unsure when it will end. They guess, and hope, sometime between eight and twelve years.

I found that this media repot tied in well with what we learned in chapter 4 section 3 in our books. In this section of chapter 4, the book discusses the different types of sleep disorders. The young girl, Louisa Ball, from the media report had a sleeping disorder called Klein Levin Syndrome, also known as Sleeping Beauty Syndrome that made her sleep for days at a time. Her disorder is almost opposite to insomnia, the inability to get to sleep.

I chose this media report because I found it very interesting. I have never heard of a sleeping disorder called Sleeping Beauty Syndrome. I always thought that “Sleeping Beauty” was just a fairy tale and that it was a magic spell that kept her asleep; I guess it is really much more than that. I also always thought that people couldn’t sleep for days or weeks at a time. It must do damage on someone’s body when they sleep for that long, such as making his or her body very weak. It is also sad that doctors cannot figure out what caused Louisa Ball’s sleeping disorder and cannot give her a cure.

Monk

Monk is a television show that shows on USA on Friday at 9/8c. The show was created by Andy Breckman. It stars Tony Shalhoub as the character Adrian Monk. Adrian Monk is a brilliant San Francisco detective. Monk suffers from intensified obsessive compulsive disorder and a variety of phobias since the murder of his wife, Trudy. The murder of his wife and his inability to solve her murder case has made his condition worse to the point where Monk finds it impossible to function in society without assistance. Despite his photographic memory and his amazing ability to piece tiny clues together, he is on psychiatric leave from the San Francisco Police Department. He works as a consultant for the police department with the help of his assistant, until he can be reinstated.

The television series Monk fits in very well with a lot of what we have learned throughout our psychology book. Adrian Monk suffers from a number of various phobias. Altogether he has 312 phobias with new phobias developing at random times. This fits in with Chapter 14 in our book. The book discuses three different types of phobias that relate to Monk; social phobias, specific phobias, and agoraphobia. Monk also has the disorder called obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) which is discussed in chapter 14 again in our books. Another relatable characteristic that Monk has to our books is his photographic memory. This is discussed in chapter 6 section 2. The book states that, “Eidetic imagery is the ability to access a visual memory over a long period of time; although the popular term photographic memory is often used to mean this rare ability”.