Nervous Systems

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In this eye-opening chronicle of scientific research on the brain during the early Cold War, historian Andreas Killen explores the complex origins of our fascination with this organ. The 1950s were a transformative decade for brain science, marked by groundbreaking advancements in neurosurgery, psychiatry, and psychology. Researchers developed new techniques to probe brain activity, leading to significant breakthroughs in treating conditions like epilepsy and schizophrenia and enhancing our understanding of memory and perception. Memory, in particular, was likened to a "sleeping beauty" that had finally awakened. These advancements set the stage for the emergence of neuroscience by the end of the twentieth century. However, the Cold War era also brought social upheaval and anxiety, giving rise to mysterious afflictions such as "brainwashing." As researchers grappled with the unsettling notion that "the human personality is not as stable as we often assume," they employed innovative and sometimes controversial experimental methods to counteract perceived threats of Communist mind control. Some of these methods transcended their original contexts, influencing 1960s counterculture and later resurfacing during the War on Terror. Killen weaves these narratives together, revealing the ambivalent history behind our contemporary understanding of the brain, particularly its memory functions, within the anxious climate of the 1950s.