Memory'S Ghost: The Nature Of Memory And The Strange Tale Of Mr. M - Softcover

Hilts, Philip J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 068482356X ISBN 13: 9780684823560

Publisher: Touchstone, 1996

Synopsis

In an experiment that occurred some forty years ago, Henry M.'s memory was stolen from him during a highly controversial operation performed to cure his epilepsy. Henry has lived in the immediate present ever since, unable to connect a past moment with the next, incapable of retaining or recalling any physical or emotional experience.

Philip J. Hilts -- one of the few people to spend time with Henry, who is sequestered in a hospital -- draws on Henry's bizarre situation as well as current cutting-edge research into the functions of the brain in a revealing investigation of
-- How an individual's memory is constructed
-- When and why memory fails
-- The efficacy of mnemonic devices
-- The validity of "recovered" memories

Part poetic reflection and philosophical meditation, part popular science and investigative journalism, Memory's Ghost is an unforgettable journey into the mysteries of the human mind.

About this title

From Booklist

Health and science reporter Hilts has always been fascinated by memory, both in terms of its biological workings and its role in the formulation of our psyches, art, and culture. He touches on each of these spheres in this profoundly moving portrait of Mr. M., a man who, literally, had his memory removed. Mr. M.'s epilepsy manifested itself abruptly and cruelly on his sixteenth birthday, severely restricting his life. A dozen years later, in 1953, he underwent radical brain surgery. Dr. William Scoville sucked out a large section of Mr. M.'s brain, a crude procedure that had little initial effect on the epilepsy, but succeeded in completely eradicating Mr. M.'s memory. Mr. M. became a man frozen in the present and a scientific curiosity. As Hilts chronicles Mr. M.'s strange life, he relates the history of the study of memory, that element of mind that, more than any other, defines us. The poignancy of his percipient inquiry is deepened by Hilts' descriptions of his own tragedy, the slow death of his wife. Hilts' sensitive and intelligent inquiry will have special appeal to fans of Oliver Sacks. Donna Seaman

From Publishers Weekly

New York Times reporter Hilts centers his musings on memory around Henry M., a victim of disastrous experimental surgery which robbed him of his ability to remember.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Touchstone
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 068482356X
• ISBN 13: 9780684823560
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256