All behavior and bodily functions are processed though interactions with the brain. In his book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, Oliver Sacks discusses some of the ways that behavior is influenced for biological processes. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a chapter of this book entitled Cupid’s Disease and explain the underlying biological and psychological processes experienced by Sacks patients. In the case of Cupid’s Disease, the behavior being discussed is affected by a bacterial disease called neurosyphilis. This current paper will discuss the case in the book, the basics of neurosyphilis, its affected anatomical structures, diagnosis, and how it can be effectively treated. Through this examination, one may have a better understanding of how biology is the basis of behavior.
In Cupid’s Disease of Sacks book, 90 year old Natasha K. believes she is experiencing complications with syphilis. When she was young, she worked in a brothel where she first contracted the disease. Through further testing by Sacks, it was confirmed that she did, in fact, have syphilis. Natasha’s friends noticed a happier, more youthful Natasha and thought something was wrong with her. She found herself flirting with men, experiencing a freeing of inhibition, and experiencing a livelier mood. Natasha enjoyed the feeling so much that she did not want to be cured. She questioned Sacks on if there was a way to keep the feeling and cure the disease. Sacks treated the symptoms of her neurosyphilis with penicillin and Natasha was cured while being able to maintain her mood. This makes a happy ending for her story (Sacks, 1998).
Sacks compares Natasha K. to Miguel O. who suffers from the same disease and also exhibits ...
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...tetracycline have been employed as alternative treatments (LaFond & Lukehart, 2006).
In short, neurosyphilis is a part of the latency stages of syphilis. Its symptoms are easily treated and eliminated when the disease is detected and properly treated. If diagnosed with syphilis, one should quickly seek treatment through antibiotics. Left untreated, syphilis can severely impact quality of life in that it impairs the central nervous system and long term complications with the disease can possibly cause death (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , 2013). Luckily for Natasha K., her neurosyphilis was detected and treated with penicillin with the help of Sacks. Not only was she cured, she maintained the “mild disinhibition” (Sacks, 1998, p.104) that she wanted. Her case is just one of the many cases in Sacks book that explain the neurological basis of behavior.
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The health care physicians were fully aware of how serious these illnesses appeared. Finally, during World War I, the progressive reformers were able to bypass the Congress in 1918 to create a bill called the Division of Venereal Diseases within the Public Health Service (PHS) (Jones, Bad blood: The Tuskegee syphilis experiment, 1993). As the year progressed, the reformers were preparing to start implementing the study. In 1926, health is seen as inhibiting development and a major health initiative is started. This year, syphilis is seen as a major health problem. Consequently, in 1929, an aggressive treatment approach was initiated with mercury and bismuth that caused severe complications or side effects. As the year progressed, the funds stopped supporting the development projects causing two physicians to follow-up with the untreated men trying to demonstrate a need for treatments (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
In 1932, in the area surrounding Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama, the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and the Rosenwald Foundation began a survey and small treatment program for African-Americans with syphilis. Within a few months, the deepening depression, the lack of funds from the foundation, and the large number of untreated cases provided the government’s researchers with what seemed to be an unprecedented opportunity to study a seemingly almost “natural” experimentation of latent syphilis in African-American men. What had begun as a “treatment” program thus was converted by the PHS researchers, under the imprimatur of the Surgeon General and with knowledge and consent of the President of Tuskegee Institute, the medical director of the Institute’s John A. Andrew Hospital, and the Macon County public health officials, into a perspective study-The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male (Jones1-15). Moreover, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which began in 1932 and was terminated in 1972 by the protest of an enraged public, constituted the longest nontherapeutic experiment on human beings in medical history. Since the premise on which the experiment was based did not involve finding a cure or providing treatment, the question then remains why did the study begin and why was it continued for four decades?
Prior to the beginning of the study, the doctors decided to withhold the official diagnosis from their patients. Instead, of telling the patients that they were infected with syphilis they chose to tell them they had bad blood. This was a decision made as a group, however, the provider’s individual reasoning was different. Miss Evers wanted to tell them
Sacks’ strong application of definition shows the readers just what he means by “brainworms”. He explains the connotation of the so-called, “neurological condition”, and how it
...The reason she lived so long may be because of that treatment.(Life According to Sam, 2013)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Written By: Dr. Oliver Sacks. Although the title suggests a comical book, Oliver Sacks presents an entirely different look at the mentally challenged/disturbed. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is a book that explains why a patient shows signs of loss, excesses, transport, and simplicity. Coincidentally, the book opens with its titling story, letting the reader explore the mind of an accomplished doctor who seems to have lost his true sight of life.
Rush, Benjamin. Medical Inquiries and Observations, upon the Diseases of the Mind. Diss. Philadelphia: Kimber and Richardson, 1812. Print.
The disease was viewed as a black man’s disease due to its vast spread in the black race community. In this chapter, it is clear that the medical fraternity had formed opinion of the disease even before the start of the experiment. The theme of racial prejudice is brought out clearly in this chapter. The blacks are discriminated from the whites even after learning that syphilis can affect both races alike. The slaves received treatment like their masters just because of economic concerns and not because they were human like their masters. In chapter 3 “Disease Germs Are the Most Democratic Creatures in the World”, the writer points out that the germ theory changed the way syphilis is viewed in the society. It was clear that other emphasis such as sanitation, education and preventative medicine was necessary to combat the disease. The areas inhabited by the blacks were behind in healthcare facilities and service. In this chapter, the theme of unequal distribution of resources is seen. Whereas areas inhabited by the whites had better hospitals and qualified professionals to deal with the
Syphilis is a sexually transmitting infection caused by Treonema pallidum, a gram negative, and anaerobic spirochete bacteria 1. Syphilis is thought to have been brought to Europe by Columbus and his sailors in the 1500’s 1. The disease is characterized by four different stages with varying symptoms depending on the stage that the disease is in1. Often syphilis is presented with another sexually transmitted infection such as chlamydia. Public education regarding safe sex is important for the prevention of this sexually transmitted infection.
stopped therapy. But I believe if she would have gone to therapy and been patient, it would
In 1932 the United States Public Health Services was responsible for monitoring, identifying, ways to treat sexually transmitted diseases in all US citizens. Public health service was sponsored by Rosenwald Fund; identified Macon County, Alabama had the highest rate of male population infected with the Syphilis. So the Tuskegee Institute was approached to study the effects of untreated syphilis on a black male population for duration of six to nine months and then follow-up with a treatment plan. The research was led by Dr. Taliafero Clark, six hundred Macon County men, 399 with syphilis and 201 who weren’t infected, were enrolled to be part of the study.
The study took advantage of an oppressed and vulnerable population that was in need of medical care. Some of the many ethical concerns of this experiment were the lack of informed consent, invasion of privacy, deception of participants, physical harm, mental harm, and a lack of gain versus harm. One ethical problem in this experiment was that the benefits did not outweigh the harm to participants. At the conclusion of the study there were virtually no benefits for the participants or to the treatment of syphilis. We now have
In 1987, there was a Syphilis outbreak in a small town Alabama, Tuskegee. Ms. Evers went to seek out African Males that had this disease and did not. They were seeking treatment for this disease, but then the government ran out of money and the only way they can get treatment if they studied. They named this project “The Tuskegee Study of African American Man with Syphilis”, so they can find out where it originated and what will it do to them if go untreated for several months.
Syphilis is perhaps one of the most historically widespread and deadly diseases to exist. While the origins of syphilis are disputed, it is well understood that syphilis has been a deadly disease affecting populations across the globe for hundreds of years (Tampa et al. 2015). Despite its prevalence, very little was understood about the disease until the 20th century; in 1905, the organism that causes syphilis, Treponema pallidum, was discovered by a Prussian zoologist named Fritz Schaudinn (Souza 2005). Only four years later, in 1909, a German scientist named Paul Ehrlich and the members of his lab discovered a cure for the disease, originally named Ehrlich 606 due to it being the 606th arsenic compound he’d tested, and scientifically known as arsphenamine (Yarnell 2005). Only months after its discovery, Ehrlich 606 began to be mass produced and marketed to the public under its new name, Salvarsan (Yarnell 2005). Salvarsan then became the globally most prescribed drug until the 1940 public release of penicillin (Zaffiri et al. 2012).
When penicillin was discovered in 1940 and was the only cure for syphilis at that time. The participants form Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment were excluded from many campaigns that were taking place in Macon County, Alabama to eliminate venereal diseases (Person Education, 2007). This experiment lasted forty years and by the end 28 of the men had died directly of syphilis, 100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 of their children had been born with congenital syphilis (info please, 2007). The directors of this experiment used ethical, interpersona...