Harlow was the doctor on the scene who treated Phineas Gauge, stemmed the bleeding and treated the wound. The tamping iron involved in the accident was 3ft 7inches long, 1 ¼ inches in diameter and weighed 13 ½ pounds. The accident was reported in the Boston Post and the injury described as follows:
“The tamping iron went in point first under his left cheek bone and completely out through the top of his head, landing about 25 to 30 yards behind him. Phineas was knocked over but may not have lost consciousness even though most of the front part of the left side of his brain was destroyed.” (Deakin University Australia, n.d.)
A few days after the accident Gauge’s wound became infected but this was treated by Harlow and it was said that by the following year Gauge was leading a normal life.
Although Gauge initially appeared to have made a full physical recovery from the accident the psychological signs showed that this was not the case. In 1868, Harlow released another report, published in the Bulletin of the Massachusetts Medical Society which tells us why Gauge was no longer able to work as a Foreman.
“He is fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity (which was not previously his custom), manifesting but little deference for his fellows, impatient of restraint of advice when it conflicts with his desires, at times pertinaciously obstinent, yet capricious and vacillating, devising many plans of future operation, which are no sooner arranged than they are abandoned in turn for others appearing more feasible.” (MacMillan, 2008).
In short, prior to the accident, Guage was a highly responsible and well liked individual and had become irresponsible, profane and was unable to control his emotions and behaviour. He was unable to make any plans for the future and then see them through to completion. Guage died in 1860 following a series of fits, described as epileptic, which had increased in both severity and frequency leading up to his death. As no autopsy was done on Guage, the only evidence to the extent of the brain injury, other than what was written in Harlow’s report, was the skull which was exhumed a number of years after the accident. The exact position of the brain within the skull cannot be determined but the damage to the skull would suggest that almost all the frontal left lobe of Phineas Gauge’s brain was destroyed or damaged. This incident helped to establish that there was a direct link between damage to a certain area of the brain and specific behavioural patterns.
Until the late 1950’s the behavioural school of thought was the most popular among psychologists. During this period scientists started to become frustrated with the behaviourist approach as this only looked at the external behaviour of a person rather than their internal processes. For example, observing the reaction of a person to a certain stimuli such as a loud bang or the taste of a certain food. Things started to change as there became more evidence, and thus more discussion, regarding the cognitive behaviour of the brain. American psychologist Ulric Naisser, in 1967 published a book named Cognitive Psychology and in it described cognition as involving “all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered and used.”(Cherry, n.d.). The psychological symptoms suffered by Guage following his accident linked this area of the brain, the frontal lobe, to the resulting change in his cognitive function. Therefore memory, perception, problem solving, attention and the use of language are all functions that relate to the frontal lobe of the brain. The development of technology has also played a role in the development of the cognitive approach to psychology. Technology has developed and allowed scientists to see into the brains of normal patients and compare the reactions to those of patients with damage or lesions to different areas of the brain. As psychologists began to realise that it was the internal processes of the brain and how it processed information that lead to certain behaviours then interest grew in this new cognitive approach to psychology.
Phineas Gauge’s accident helped show psychologists that, despite horrific injury to the brain and loss of brain tissue, it is possible for someone to physically recover. The resulting psychological effects and symptoms will, however, be related to the area of the brain that was damaged. The actual area of the brain which Gauge damaged and the resulting loss of his cognitive function helped scientists to develop the school of cognitive psychology by increasing the understanding of the functions of different areas of the brain, in particular the frontal lobe.
References
Deakin University Australia. (n.d.) Psychology: Phineas Gauge Information. Available . Last accessed 17th December, 2011
MacMillian. (2008) Phineas Gage – Unravelling the Myth. Available . Last accessed 17th December, 2011
Cherry (n.d.) Psychology: What is Cognitive Psychology. Available http://psychology.about.com/od/cognitivepsychology/f/cogpsych.htm . Last accessed 16th December, 2011