The Brain and the Arts

Did Thomas Mann show any special interest in neurology?
Are neurological diseases described in the Bible?
What were the medical problems of St Paul?
Did Roald Dahl construct equipment for neurosurgery?
Do we know deadly diseases that do not exist?
Could the fate of Charles XII of Sweden be explained by brain dysfunction?
And did Queen Christina of Sweden abdicate because of medical problems – and not the way Hollywood and Greta Garbo wanted us to believe?
Did the Vikings perform neurobiological experiments?
Why did Bob Dylan write about an inherited brain disease?
How important is the big toe in neurology?
And last: How should brains be cooked and consumed?

These questions and many more are dealt with by the members of The Norwegian Neuro-Literary Club. The book tries to show how neurological diseases influence creative artists and how the same artists use their experience with diseases of the nervous system in their creative work. Examples are given as to how neurological dysfunctions have influenced world history, and the authors report on peculiar incidences in the history of neurology.

The Norwegian Neuro-Literary Club is a small group of medical doctors, specialists in clinical neurology, who try to combine their knowledge about the nervous system and its diseases with their interest in the arts and history. The members have published numerous articles and books mostly in Norwegian, and are popular orators on topics from the borderland of neurological disease and creativity or history.This book is their first in English.