Broken Brains: A Patient-Centered History
HISTSCI 1770
Subject & Catalog Number
Sign in to Add to Cart
Share
Course Information
Description
An exploration of the complex relationship between doctors and scientists who study and treat different kinds of “broken brains,” the patients they study and treat, and larger public conversations about being human in today’s neurological society. Topics include iconic cases of brain damage that catalyze new scientific understandings (like the case of H.M.), the study of brain damage in war, the emergence of writings (including memoirs and novels) that attempt to describe "what it is like" to suffer from disorders like autism and Alzheimer’s, and controversies over recent efforts to see psychiatric disorders like depression as simple products of a chemically “broken brain.”
School
Faculty of Arts & Sciences
Credits
4
Cross Reg
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
Department
History of Science
Course Component
Seminar
Subject
History of Science
Grading Basis
FAS Letter Graded
General Education
N/A
Quantitative Reasoning with Data
N/A
Divisional Distribution
Social Sciences
Course Level
For Undergraduate and Graduate Students
