Reaching Down the Rabbit Hole : Extraordinary Journeys into the Human Brain

Ropper, Allan/ Burrell, Brian David

Atlantic Books（2025/01発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 304 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9781805463221
• DDC分類 616.8

Full Description

*Updated and revised edition, with a new epilogue and interview with Michael J Fox*

'Engagingly written, informative, often funny' Daily Telegraph
'Has the hard-boiled style of a Raymond Chandler novel' The Times
'Think Oliver Sacks meets Gregory House, with a sprinkling of a hypochondriac's worst nightmare' Sunday Times

What is it like to try to heal the body when the mind is under attack? In this gripping and illuminating book, Dr Allan Ropper reveals the extraordinary stories behind some of the life-altering afflictions that he and his staff are confronted with at the Neurology Unit of Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Like Alice in Wonderland, Dr Ropper inhabits a place where absurdities abound: a sportsman who starts spouting gibberish; an undergraduate who suddenly becomes psychotic; a mother who has to decide whether a life locked inside her own head is worth living. How does one begin to treat such cases, to counsel people whose lives may be changed forever? Dr Ropper answers these questions by taking the reader into a world where lives and minds hang in the balance.

Contents

Introduction: The Queen - What neurologists do 1: Six Improbable Things Before Breakfast - Arrivals, departures, and delays on the ward 2: Like a Hole in the Head - Where baseball and neurology converge in a game-saving, over-the-shoulder catch 3: The State of Confusion - Two characters in search of a neurologist 4: My Man Godfrey - A poor sort of memory that only works backwards 5: What Seems to Be the Problem? - A politically incorrect guide to malingering, shamming, and hysteria 6: Do No Harm - A walking time bomb tests the limits of good sense 7: A Story Is Worth a Thousand Pictures - Nine songs of innocence and experience 8: Endgame - Facing down Lou Gehrig's disease 9: The Examined Life - What it takes to survive a motor-neuron death sentence 10: The Curse of the Werewolf - On the front lines in the battle against Dr. Parkinson's disease 11: For the Want of a Nail - A hard-knock lesson on the way to the morgue 12: The Eyes Have It - When is somebody not dead yet? 13: Boats Against the Current - Based on a true story Epilogue: Epilogue to the 2025 Edition