Hughlings Jackson

The committee were 4 senior doctors. The first three came early. Earlier than us. The Ph.D. thesis of the 3 resident doctors who were anxious, was to be discussed on that day at 9 a.m.. They waited the forth senior psychiatrist till 9:30 a.m.. He did not come. They started the discussion. At about 10 a.m. an old man entered the room. All the seniors stood up, we followed them and stood up, and we knew that this senior is the waited one. His hair was combed, but some hairs on the back of his head were going upward in a noticeable factions. He sat. they gave him a cup of coffee and a small chocolate piece, as it was already given to the 3 senior psychiatrists. He spent his time drinking coffee and tasting the chocolate, while the discussion was going on. Till suddenly he looked at the paper in front of him and said with marked surprise:
- what is this? Hughlings Jackson was born in 1885?
- It is taken from the book sir. (answered the resident doctor whom thesis was being discussed)
- No doctor, no. be sure about it. Ok?. Please, reread your book.

After that, the discussion of the thesis continued for about 3 hours. The old doctor did not say a thing but about his need for another cup of coffee.

I got a great respect for old psychiatrists. That senior stimulated me to search for who is Hughlings Jackson. and I found the following.
He was born on 1835, died on 1911. Was named the father of the British neurology. Best known for his investigations of epilepsy and aphasia. He also was interested in psychiatry. In 1894 John Hughlings Jackson published a paper on “The Factors
of Insanities” in which he considered the positive symptoms as a “release phenomenon” occurring in healthy tissue; while negative symptoms were attributed to neuronal loss.
He was the pioneer to talk about hemispheric dominance. He studied also the dissociation state, and he made a model of the mind and the concept of the self. He regarded the sense of the self as a function of the brain that gained its high rank in development in species. He meant HUMAN. And linked the prefrontal cortex to the sense of the self. The concept of dissociaton is the reverse of evolution of species. I think he called the reverse of EVOLUTION as DISSOLUTION. Then said that dissolution occur in dissociation. In dissociation there is dissociation of the higher mental functions: memory, language, intelligence, reasoning…and others…