Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and Its Aftermath
by Michael Paul Mason
List Price:
Our Price: $10.33
You Save: $14.67 (59%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.73 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Michael Paul MasonEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-01
ISBN: 0374134529
Number of pages: 320
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Book Reviews of Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and Its Aftermath
Book Review: Terrific Stories of Life After a Brain Injury
Summary: 5 Stars
Head Cases is an entertaining and eye-opening account of brain injuries. Michael Paul Mason provides the horrific truths of treatment and care of traumatic brain injuries through insightful stories and brief lessons in neuroscience. Mason's simple, conversational style allows the reader to follow along in his work as a brain injury case manager jumping from city to city. Head Cases presents the grim reality of traumatic brain injury and does a great job of highlighting the fact that sufficient treatment options are almost nonexistent. Unlike many scientific accounts that are difficult to follow, Head Cases is written using conversational language that makes each story intriguing and makes it a difficult book to put down. With each story comes horrifying thoughts of just how delicate the human brain is and how easily just "a tap on the head" can affect any of us.
Head Cases introduces the reader to Michael Paul Mason, a brain injury case manager, and the stories of some of his clients. As a case manager, one of only dozens in his profession, Mason aids patients struggling with life after a brain injury when hospital resources and insurance have been depleted. He reveals that while ninety thousand victims require extended stay in a rehabilitation clinic, only a few thousand openings are available. Constantly traveling to new cases across the United States, Mason revisits cases through short stories of some of his most interesting experiences with traumatic brain injury, which include a woman who no longer has a memory and a man who can no longer cry. The reader enters into Mason's life at home (or lack their of) and how it has been affected by his work. His stories convey the hardships and frustrations of trying to live a normal life after a traumatic brain injury.
Style
Head Cases is presented in documentary like fashion. The reader is provided with the background of Mason's life and work, the life and stories of victims and their families, and the life of brain injury care takers. The book reads just as you may expect to see on the Discovery Channel. Mason presents the hard facts about insufficient health care for patients, how he finds and helps victims, the stories of the victims, and finally a short explanation of how the brain is being affected. However, Mason's plain diction and informal style make the book pleasant for anyone to read. The reader feels like he is tagging along as Mason travels from case to case.
The Stories of Injury
I was fascinated by each of the stories of traumatic brain injury and its aftermath. Each near death experience puts the reader on the edge of his seat, and leaves him fascinated by the aftermath. Mason does an excellent job of introducing the reader to the lives of the victims as they are now, then piecing together their life-changing, catastrophic events. Mason describes working with victims like Cheyenne Emerick. After being introduced to Cheyenne's new lifestyle of coping with seizures and poverty caused by his brain injury, the reader is taken back to the day when he endured his terrible snowboarding accident.
Life After Injury
In addition to the stories of brain injury, Mason provides accounts of life in rehabilitation clinics. I was interested to learn about the lives of the caretakers and the steps taken to ensure a patient's well being. Mason describes how arriving in a clinic puts the patient in "a completely different world without realizing it." Any "externality" can be a catalyst for unpredictable behavior to a brain injury victim. I was fascinated by the unorthodox mechanisms discovered, often through trial and error, to help a patient feel comfortable (for one patient, wearing raingear indoors).
Mechanisms of the Occurrences
I enjoyed Mason's brief explanations of what affects the aftermath had on the brain as well as his quick neuroanatomy lessons. In each case, Mason describes what part of the brain was affected, how it was affected, and how it in turn affected the body. The lessons are concise and informative to the reader without being overly scientific.
Quotes
"The severely brain injured are not getting the treatment they need - they're getting mistreated through neglect, misplacement, and isolation."
"... we both know that brain injuries cannot be managed any more than a thunderstorm can be managed. They can be endured, accepted, and integrated, but not managed."
"I will tell them the real scenario, the one that nobody else has explained to them, and I will sit and watch as their smiles collapse and their eyes lift to the ceiling and turn red."
Conclusion
Mason provides his experiences of witnessing the impacts brain injuries bring to the lives of their victims. His simple, documentary-like style makes Head Cases an enthralling and informative insight to brain injury. Mason provides interesting stories of cases, coping with the aftermath, and insight as to how the brain works. I highly recommend Head Cases for anyone seeking information about brain injury or just looking for an entertaining book. Sit back and let Michael Paul Mason regale you with his experiences, and you will be amazed by the delicacy and wonders of the human brain.
Summary of Head Cases: Stories of Brain Injury and Its Aftermath
Head Cases takes us into the dark side of the brain in an astonishing sequence of stories, at once true and strange, from the world of brain damage. Michael Paul Mason is one of an elite group of experts who coordinate care in the complicated aftermath of tragic injuries that can last a lifetime. On the road with Mason, we encounter survivors of brain injuries as they struggle to map and make sense of the new worlds they inhabit.
Underlying each of these survivors? stories is an exploration of the brain and its mysteries. When injured, the brain must figure out how to heal itself, reorganizing its physiology in order to do the job. Mason gives us a series of vivid glimpses into brain science, the last frontier of medicine, and we come away in awe of the miracles of the brain?s workings and astonished at the fragility of the brain and the sense of self, life, and order that resides there. Head Cases ?[achieves] through sympathy and curiosity insight like that which pulses through genuine literature? (The New York Sun); it is at once illuminating and deeply affecting.
Psychology & Counseling Books
- Books > Subjects > Health, Fitness & Dieting
- Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Anatomy
- Medical Books > Basic Sciences > Neuroanatomy
- Medicine > Internal Medicine
- New & Used Textbooks > Medicine & Health Sciences
- Science & Mathematics > Biology & Life Sciences > Anatomy & Physiology
- Social Sciences > Psychology
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Psychology & Counseling Books
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Valuesby Robert M. Pirsig
Harper Perennial; Published: 2000-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.25
Price in other shops:
Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Consumers, and Providers (4th Edition)by E. Fuller Torrey
Harper Paperbacks; Published: 2001-05-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Surviving Schizophrenia: A Manual for Families, Consumers and Providersby E. Fuller Torrey
Perennial; Published: 1995-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.68
Price in other shops:
The Evolving Self: A Psychology for the Third Millenniumby Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Harper Perennial; Published: 1994-06-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.75
Price in other shops:
How People Changeby Allen Wheelis
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 1975-07-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.47
Price in other shops:
Sleeping Through the Night, Revised Edition: How Infants, Toddlers, and Their Parents Can Get a Good Night's Sleepby Jodi A. Mindell
William Morrow Paperbacks; Published: 2005-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.43
Price in other shops:
Emotional Blackmail: When the People in Your Life Use Fear, Obligation and Guilt to Manipulate Youby Susan Forward, Donna Frazier, Susan Frazier
Harpercollins; Published: 1997-05; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops:
Obedience to Authority: An Experimental Viewby Stanley Milgram
Harpercollins; Published: 1974-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $532.97
My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderersby Helen Morrison, Harold Goldberg
William Morrow; Published: 2004-05-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.97
Price in other shops:
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Managing Stressby Jeffrey P.; Davidson, Jeff Davidson
Macmillan Distribution; Published: 1996; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.33
Similar Books and other products
A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brainby John J. Ratey
Vintage; Published: 2002-01-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.70
Price in other shops:
My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journeyby Jill Bolte Taylor Ph.D.
Plume; Published: 2009-05-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.08
Price in other shops:
Where Is the Mango Princess?by Cathy Crimmins
Knopf; Published: 2000-09-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.00
Price in other shops:
TBI Hell: A Traumatic Brain Injury Really Sucksby Geo Gosling
Outskirts Press; Published: 2006-12-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.25
Price in other shops:
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Talesby Oliver Sacks
Baker and Taylor; Touchstone; Published: 1998-04-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.20
Price in other shops:
Over My Head : A Doctor's Own Story of Head Injury from the Inside Looking Outby Claudia L. Osborn
Andrews Mcmeel Pub; Published: 1998-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.89
Price in other shops:
Brain Injury Survival Kit: 365 Tips, Tools and Tricks to Deal with Cognitive Function Lossby Cheryle Sullivan
Demos Health; Published: 2008-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.08
Price in other shops:
Where is the Mango Princess? A Journey Back from Brain Injuryby Cathy Crimmins
Vintage; Published: 2001-10-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.95
Price in other shops:
Over My Head: A Doctor's Own Story of Head Injury from the Inside Looking Outby Claudia L. Osborn
Andrews McMeel Publishing; Published: 2000-03-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.03
Price in other shops:
Mindstorms: Living with Traumatic Brain Injuryby John W. Cassidy MD
Da Capo Lifelong Books; Published: 2009-06-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.76
Price in other shops: