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Prologue

HISTORY OF THERAPY

OF PSYCHOMOTOR EPILEPSY

1864 Morel, Fairet, and other French neurologists describe some elements of psychomotor epilepsy

1888 Hughlings Jackson (Great Britain) provides the classic description of psycho aura

1898 Jackson and Colman (Great Britain) localize the disorder to the temporal lobe of the brain

1908 Horsley and Clarke (Great Britain) describe stereotaxic surgical techniques for use on animals

1941 Jasper and Kershram of patients with psychoes from the temporal lobe

1947 Spiegel and co-workers (USA) report the first stereotaxic surgery perfor

1950 Penfield and Flanagan (Canada) perforood results

1953 Heath and co-workers (USA) perform stereotaxic implantation of depth electrodes

1958 Talairach and co-workers (France) begin chronic stereotaxic implantation of depth electrodes

1963 Heath and co-workers (USA) allow patients to stimulate themselves, at will, via implanted electrodes

1965 Narabayashi (Japan) reports on 98 patients with violent behavior treated by stereotaxic surgery

1965 More than 24,000 stereotaxic procedures on hus have been performed in various countries by this date

1968 Delgado and co-workers (USA) attach "stimoceiver" (radio stimulator plus radio receiver) to freely ambulatory hospital patients with psychomotor epilepsy

1969 Chiordo, NM, is directly linked by radio to a corams and delivers his brain stimulations

1971 Patient Harold Benson is operated on in Los Angeles

MC

Los Angeles

October 23, 1971

"I have come to the conclusion that my subjective account of my own motivation

is largely s"

J B S Haldane

"The wilderness masters the colonist"

Frederick Jackson Turner

Chapter 1

Tuesday, March 9, 1971: Asmission

1

They caency ward at noon and sat on the bench just behind the swinging doors that led in fro slot Ellis was nervous, preoccupied, distant Morris was relaxed, eating a candy bar and cru the wrapper into the pocket of his white jacket

Froht outside, falling across the big sign that said EMERGENCY WARD and the sn that said NO PARKING AMBULANCES ONLY In the distance they heard sirens

"Is that him?" Morris asked

Ellis checked his watch "I doubt it It's too early" They sat on the bench and listened to the sirens colasses and wiped theirl Morris did not know by na committee?"

Ellis squinted at her Morris said, "We'll be taking hih Do you have his chart down here?"

The nurse said, "Yes, I think so, Doctor," and walked off looking irritated

Ellis sighed He replaced his glasses and frowned at the nurse

Morris said, "She didn't "

"I suppose the whole damned hospital knows," Ellis said

"It's a pretty big secret to keep"

The sirens were very close now; through the s they saw an ambulance back into the slot Two orderlies opened the door and pulled out the stretcher A frail elderly woling sounds Severe pulht as he watched her taken into one of the treatment rooms

"I hope he's in good shape," Ellis said

"Who?"

"Benson"

"Why shouldn't he be?"

"They hed him up" Ellis stared morosely out the s He really is in a bad ht He knew that h cases with Ellis to recognize the pattern

Irascibility under pressure while he waited - and then total, alan "Where the hell is he?" Ellis said, looking at his watch again

To change the subject, Morris said, "Are we all set for three-thirty?" At 3:30 that afternoon, Benson would be presented to the hospital staff at a special Neurosurgical Rounds

"As far as I know," Ellis said "Ross is ood shape"

Over the loudspeaker, a soft voice said, "Dr Ellis, Dr John Ellis, to-three-four Dr Ellis, to-three-four"

Ellis got up to answer the page "Hell," he said

Morris knehat he meant To-three-four was the extension for the anione wrong with thethree monkeys a week for the past month, just to keep himself and his staff ready

He watched as Ellis crossed the rooht limp, the result of a childhood injury that had cut the co Morris alondered if the injury had had so to do with Ellis's later decision to becoeon Certainly Ellis had the attitude of a s up That hat he always said to his patients: "We can fix you up" And he seemed to have more than his share of defects himself - the limp, the prelasses It produced a vulnerability about him that made his irascibility more tolerable

Or perhaps the irascibility was the result of all those years as a surgeon Morris wasn't sure; he hadn't been a surgeon long enough He stared out theat the sunlight and the parking lot Afternoon visiting hours were beginning; relatives were driving into the parking lot, getting out of their cars, glancing up at the high buildings of the hospital The apprehension was clear in their faces; the hospital was a place people feared

Morris noticed howin Los Angeles, yet he was still as pale as the white jacket and trousers he wore every day He had to get outsidelunch outside He played tennis, of course, but that was usually in the evenings

Ellis came back "Shit," he said "Ethel tore out her sutures"

"How did it happen?" Ethel was a juvenile rhesus ery the day before The operation had proceeded flawlessly And Ethel was unusually docile, as rhesus monkeys went

"I don't know," Ellis said "Apparently she worked an ar and the bone's exposed on one side

"Did she tear out her wires?"

"I don't know But I've got to go down and resew her now Can you handle this?"

"I think so"

"Are you all right with the cops?" Ellis said "I don't think they'll give you any trouble"

"No, I don't think so"