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Wilder Penfield

Born

in Spokane, Washington, The United States

January 26, 1891

Died

April 05, 1976

Genre

Science, Nonfiction, Historical Fiction

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Wilder Graves Penfield, OM, CC, CMG, FRS (January 26, 1891 – April 5, 1976) was a Canadian neurosurgeon. He devoted much thinking to the functionings of the mind, and continued until his death to contemplate whether there was any scientific basis for the existence of the human soul.
Penfield was born in Spokane, Washington (but spent most of his life in Hudson, Wisconsin) on January 25 or January 26, 1891. He studied at Princeton University where he played on the football team. After graduation in 1913, he was hired briefly as the coach. He then obtained a Rhodes Scholarship to Merton College, Oxford, where he studied neuropathology under Sir Charles Scott Sherrington. He obtained his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Wilder Graves Penfield, OM, CC, CMG, FRS (January 26, 1891 – April 5, 1976) was a Canadian neurosurgeon. He devoted much thinking to the functionings of the mind, and continued until his death to contemplate whether there was any scientific basis for the existence of the human soul.
Penfield was born in Spokane, Washington (but spent most of his life in Hudson, Wisconsin) on January 25 or January 26, 1891. He studied at Princeton University where he played on the football team. After graduation in 1913, he was hired briefly as the coach. He then obtained a Rhodes Scholarship to Merton College, Oxford, where he studied neuropathology under Sir Charles Scott Sherrington. He obtained his medical degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He spent several years training at Oxford, where he met William Osler. He also studied in Germany, and New York.]
After taking surgical apprenticeship under Harvey Cushing, he obtained a position at the Neurological Institute of New York, where he carried out his first solo operations against epilepsy.
Penfield was invited by Sir Vincent Meredith to Montreal in 1928. He taught at McGill University and the Royal Victoria Hospital, becoming the city's first neurosurgeon.
In 1934 he founded and became the first Director of McGill University's world-famous Montreal Neurological Institute and the associated Montreal Neurological Hospital, which was established with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation, 1934 is also the year he became a Canadian citizen. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1950. He retired in 1960 and turned his attention to writing, producing a novel as well as his autobiography, No Man Alone. (A later biography, Something Hidden, was written by his grandson, Jefferson Lewis.)
He was awarded the 1960 Lister Medal for his contributions to surgical science. In 1967 he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada. In 1994 he was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. Much of his archival material is housed at the Osler Library of McGill University.
In his later years, Penfield dedicated himself to the public interest, particularly in support of university education. With his friends Governor-General Georges Vanier and Mrs. Pauline Vanier, née Archer, he co-founded the Vanier Institute of the Family, which Penfield helped found "to promote and guide education in the home -- man's first classroom." He was also an early proponent of bilingualism from childhood onward.
He died on April 5, 1976 ...more

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Average rating: 3.96 · 117 ratings · 16 reviews · 48 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Mystery of the Mind: A Critical Study of Consciousness and the Human Brain 4.11 avg rating — 65 ratings — published 1975 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	No Man Alone: A Neurosurgeon's Life 3.95 avg rating — 21 ratings — published 1977 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Torch 3.71 avg rating — 17 ratings — published 1960 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Speech and Brain Mechanisms by Wilder Penfield, Lamar Roberts 3.50 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 1959 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Epilepsy and the Functional Anatomy of the Human Brain by Wilder Penfield, Herbert Jasper 3.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1951 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	No Other Gods it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Cerebral Cortex of Man. A Clinical Study of Localization of Function liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1950	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Excitable Cortex in Conscious Man 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 1958 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Galahad School Scrap Book (1905-1918) (Classic Reprint) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Significance of the Montreal Neurological Institute 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Wilder Penfield (?)

“A neurosurgeon once told me about operating on the brain of a young man with epilepsy. As is customary in this kind of operation, the patient was wide awake, under
only local anesthesia, while the surgeon delicately explored his exposed cortex, makingsure that the parts tentatively to be removed were not absolutely vital by stimulating
them electrically and asking the patient what he experienced. Some stimulations provoked visual flashes or hand-raisings, others a sort of buzzing sensation, but one spot
produced a delighted response from the patient: "It's 'Outta Get Me' by Guns N' Roses.
my favorite heavy metal band!"

I asked the neurosurgeon If he had asked the patient to sing or hum along with the music, since it would be fascinating to learn how "high fidelity" the provoked memory
was, would it be in exactly the same key and tempo as the record?
Such a song (unliken"Silent Night") has one canonical version. so we could simply have superimposed a recording of the patients humming with the standard record and compared the results.
Unfortunately, even though a tape recorder had been running during the operation, thesurgeon hadn't asked the patient to sing along. ''Why not?" I asked, and he replied: "I hate rock music!'

Later in the conversation the neurosurgeon happened to remark that he was going to have to operate again on the same young man. and I expressed the hope that he would
just check to see if he could restimulate the rock music, and this time ask the fellow to sing along. "I can't do it." replied the neurosurgeon. "since I cut out that part."
"It was part of the epileptic focus?" I asked.
"No,'' the surgeon replied, ''I already told you — I hate rock music.”
― Wilder Penfield

tags: conciousness

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“But there was something else that I discovered in Madrid. It had more to do with the spirit than it did with knowledge and yet it was something I could hope to hand on. A change in method or technique accounts for many things in human history.”
― Wilder Penfield, No Man Alone: A Neurosurgeon's Life

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“It has always been my belief that, for everyone who is ready and willing, there is a place. it seems to wait for him or her, in some good human cause. Causes are man-made, to be sure, and in the long run, I believe man can control the destiny of civilization on this earth. And yet I know that, beyond it all, there is an everlasting purpose, and within each one of us there is that lonely something that links us with Divinity. The link is there, to be used or disregarded. Each must make his own choice. p.117-118”
― Wilder Penfield, No Man Alone: A Neurosurgeon's Life

tags: life, work

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