Chapters 9 & 10 of Opening Skinner's Box

We get to the meat of the brain.  Literally

As we progress farther into the book, I am happy to see that Slater interjects her own life story into the book less and less.  In addition, her writing style becomes less stream of conscious and more of a presentation of the story.  She still throws her own insight into the story, but at least it's relevant to the current situation.  

As far as the actual chapter goes, I read about these neuroscientists "guessing" at the probable location of various thought patterns and memories, and I just think "how?".  It's not like you think about something and feel that thought occurring somewhere in the brain.  How did Dr. Scoville know that Henry's seizures originated from his Hippocampus?  It's not exactly the sort of thing you guess and check.  And it's a shame he couldn't guess and check.  Henry's short term memory was shot, and he was forced to live the same day every day.  I'd seen plenty of fictional characters who, in some sort of accident, lost their short term memory, and they would go about their life thinking everyday is the same.  Meanwhile, their families would go to great lengths to preserve that illusion, while some external person would unknowningly try to introduce the present with hilarious results.  

In the section about Kandel, she starts to discuss the moral implications of having a drug that can prolong or remove our memory.  I agree that this is a valid concern when she brought up the man who could remember any minor detail without a problem, but his mind was so bogged down with these details that he could never make any use of them.  Conversely, a pill that would let you forget the events of the previous day would be pretty useful, and a good number of video games and movies begin with a character who has no knowledge of prior events, while still having to deal with the fallout of that event.

The final chapter of the book discusses the amazing advancement process for the field of neurosurgery. It moved from carpet-bombing parts of the brain with alcohol solution to using precision lasers to cut a specific part of the brain.  I didn't know that lobotomy was still a medical solution to any problem in the brain, as every reference i've seen to it has related it as a crude and dark solution to madness.  As far as the surgery with Charlie goes, I am quite irritated with Slater for starting the story of his surgery, and then interrupting it in the middle with a "commercial" about the rising popularity of the lobotomy.  The worst part is that she did it at the point where it looked like Charlie's surgery started encountering some issues.  But that's fine.  She got back to it after a page of distraction, and we find that Charlie is fine.  Better than fine, although slightly depressed.  And now the book is finished, and I am enlightened.