Each electrode produces different results one stimulates a sexual pleasure. The electrodes are activated one by one to test which ones would stop a seizure. McPherson, the head of the NPS, interviews Benson and realizes Manon and Ross were right about his psychosis, ordering nurses to administer thorazine to Benson.Īfter resting for a day, Benson goes through "interfacing". He recalls a Norwegian man with schizophrenia, who was allowed to stimulate himself as much as he wanted, and did so to the extent that it actually gave him brain damage. Morris refuses a man who volunteers to have electrodes put into his brain to stimulate pleasure, but realizes that people like Benson could potentially become addicts. While he is recovering, a woman identifying herself as Angela Black gives Morris a black wig for Benson, whose head was shaved prior to the operation. Benson must wear a dog tag with instructions to call University Hospital if he is injured, as his power pack may emit radiation. Despite the concerns voiced, the team decides to go ahead with the operation.įorty electrodes are implanted into Benson's brain, controlled by a small computer that is powered by a plutonium power pack in his shoulder. ![]() Ellis rationalizes his approach by pointing out that he is not convinced that not operating on Benson will do him any favors his condition threatens his life and those of others, has already undermined his legal status three times, and is worsening. It would prevent a seizure but not cure Benson's personality disorder. Ellis admits that what they are doing is not a cure, simply a way to stimulate the brain when the computer senses a seizure coming on. Manon raises concerns that Benson is psychotic and predicts that the crimes he commits during the blackouts will not be curtailed. The ramifications of the procedure are questioned by the NPS's staff psychiatrist, Janet Ross, and later by her former teacher, Manon, an emeritus professor. Two NPS surgeons, John Ellis and Robert Morris, are to perform the unprecedented surgery. ![]() He is a prime candidate for an operation to implant an electronic " brain pacemaker" in the amygdala region of his brain in order to control the seizures, which will be performed in the Neuro-Psychiatric Service (NPS) of University Hospital. During these seizures, he severely beats two people the day before his admission, he was arrested after attacking a third. ![]() He often has seizures followed by blackouts, and then wakes up hours later with no knowledge of what he has done. Harold Franklin "Harry" Benson, a computer scientist in his mid-thirties, is described as suffering from " psychomotor epilepsy" following a car crash two years earlier. The events in the novel take place between March 9 and March 13, 1971.
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