Friday, December 22, 2006

Corrupt mind (or, Corrupt brain)

This article caught my attention. A Person in US started behaving abnormally after developing a brain tumour. Remove the tumour, off goes the abnormality. Resurfaces the tumours, resurfaces the problem.

Another article in TOI reported that a person UK got paid 3m for a damage to his brain which altered his personality.

The question here, as raised by The Economist, is about the free will. Do we have a free will or, are we conditioned by some factors over which we have no choices. I haven't read Broca's brain but have heard about one or two fascinating cases mentioned in the book - cases about persons who can recognise stationary objects but can't register moving objects, and about many more mind-boggling cases.

Though these cases caught my attention just for their peculiarity, but when i told these cases to my friends, they just said - "So, now you've got an excuse for your lecherous activities". Huh! Sometimes even when you're speaking truthfully, nobody believes you. Where's the question of free-will when it comes to people making judgements about you.