Slate Magazine has just published a piece on infamous brain damage survivor Phineas Gage. To tell the story of Gage and his continuing importance in the history of psychology the article draws heavily on the work of Malcolm Macmillan. As the Slate article recounts, Most of us first encountered Gage in a neuroscience or psychology … Continue reading Slate: Phineas Gage, Neuroscience’s Most Famous Patient
A webpage providing information on Phineas Gage has recently relaunched. The Phineas Gage Information Page was created by Malcolm Macmillan at the University of Melbourne but is now maintained by The Center for the History of Psychology at the University of Akron. Included on the site are sections dedicated to Phineas Gage’s story, the detailing of … Continue reading Phineas Gage Website!
The Guardian‘s Science Section has a fascinating piece on a recent attempt by researchers to reconstruct the damage done to Phineas Gage’s brain, who famously survived an 1848 accident in which a tamping iron was shot through his head. As the article describes, research on the damage done to Gage’s brain is part of the … Continue reading Mapping Phineas Gage’s Brain (150+ Years Later)
Almost a full century and a half after his death, the face of one of the most famous cases in Psychology’s history has been revealed. As the well-known story goes, Phineas Gage was a railway worker who survived having a tamping iron that was 3.8 feet in length enter under his left eye and exit … Continue reading Face of Phineas Gage Revealed
The September 2012 issue of gradPSYCH magazine, published by the American Psychological Association, features an article entitled Psychology’s Tall Tales. The article describes two of the most persistent myths in psychology; those of Phineas Gage and Kitty Genovese (right). The true stories of what happened to Gage and Genovese have been discussed on AHP previously … Continue reading The Everlasting Myths of Gage & Genovese
This is a special post co-authored by Jennifer Bazar and Jacy Young and published simultaneously at both the Advances in the History of Psychology (AHP) and FieldNotes blogs. The 45th annual meeting of Cheiron was held at the end of June in Irving, Texas – 22 hours didn’t seem like a long enough a drive, so we decided to detour a few hours to swing through St Joseph, Missouri. What, you … Continue reading Four Floors + a Gift Shop: A History of Psychiatry Roadtrip
Starting today, BBC Radio4 is airing a 10-part series on the history of the brain. A History of the Brain, has been written and produced by historian of psychology Geoff Bunn (left), of Manchester Metropolitan University. As described on the program’s website, Dr Geoff Bunn’s 10 part History of the Brain is a journey through … Continue reading BBC Radio4: A History of the Brain
The history of cerebral localization is the focus of the most recent issue of the Journal of the History of Neurosciences. An outgrowth of a World Federation of Neurology Research Group on the History of the Neurosciences Fall 2005 symposium, the issue explores the history of cerebral localization from antiquity up to the twentieth century. … Continue reading Special Issue: History of Cerebral Localization
Following up on yesterday’s post regarding the “discovery” of the only known image of Phineas Gage on the online photo site Flickr: Jack and Beverly Wilgus, the owners of the Gage photo, have a number of other Psychology-related items in their online album: “Flint the Mesmerist” and his hynotized daughter (the Wilgus’ also host a … Continue reading More History of Psychology on Flickr
The British Psychological Society’s flagship journal, The Psychologist, has published two items related to the history of psychology in its latest issue, and it has kindly made them freely available on its website. The first is an article by Australian psychologist Malcolm Macmillan on the mythology surrounding the case of Phineas Gage, the Vermont railroad … Continue reading “The Psychologist” on Scientific Myths