Specific brain lesions produce predictable, shared transformations of identity

Evidence

If any one of us were to suffer the same lesion in that specific area, we would be changed in much the same way that Gage was, and we, too, would no longer be our former selves. This is the basis of our view that anyone with a serious interest in the inner life of the mind should also be interested in the brain, and vice versa. — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 507

Categorization

• XREF: Direct counterpoint to psychoanalytic singularity of the subject; resonates with Damasio and also the anti-neurocentrism debate in Continental philosophy. — connects to: Lesions hitting emotion-producing brain mechanisms alter identity — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 489; Neurology observes identity change from lesions without theorizing it — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 3440; Neurological trauma can create an identity without origin or memory — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded: From Neurosis to Brain…, 3217 (+4 more)
• DEFINE: Defines the stakes of the ‘neural’ intervention into philosophy of mind: a lesion is a universalizing, not individualizing, cause.

Broader Connections

• Neurology observes identity change from lesions without theorizing it #corroborates (0.85) — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 3440
• Dementia is another way humans lose control of their carefully maintained identities #exemplifies (0.80) — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 138
• Different adversities alter brain regions matched to the developmental stage of harm #expands (0.75) — , The Rod and the Child, 9655
• Neurological trauma can create an identity without origin or memory #expands (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, The New Wounded, 3217
• The self is posited to unify otherwise divergent plastic brain processes #complicates (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 191
• Every brain differs by its history even when anatomy matches #qualifies (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 91