The Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything (Abridged) by Adam Rutherford

Author:Adam Rutherford
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2021-12-18T00:00:00+00:00

HOW MUCH ARE YOU IN CHARGE OF YOUR OWN BRAIN?

Charles Whitman was a perfectly ordinary man until he started having headaches. He had studied mechanical engineering at the University of Texas, liked karate and scuba diving, and married his first proper girlfriend after five months of courtship. “Everyone loved him,” according to one newspaper headline.

In 1965, aged 24, after he was discharged from the Marines, he started to get severe headaches. “Tremendous and frightening” is how Whitman described them. They came with overwhelming violent urges that he couldn’t understand. In the year leading up to his death, he visited at least five doctors and a psychiatrist. Then, on July 31, 1966, Charles Whitman sat down to write what would become his suicide letter:

I do not quite understand what it is that compels me to type this letter. I do not really understand myself these days. I am supposed to be an average reasonable and intelligent young man. However, lately (I cannot recall when it started) I have been a victim of many unusual and irrational thoughts. These thoughts constantly recur, and it requires a tremendous mental effort to concentrate on useful and progressive tasks. . . . After my death I wish that an autopsy be performed on me to see if there is any visible physical disorder. It is after much thought that I decided to kill my wife, Katy. I love her dearly and she has been as fine a wife to me as any man could ever hope to have. I cannot rationally pinpoint any specific reason for doing this.

Whitman murdered both his wife and his mother, then phoned their employers to say that they were unable to work that day. The following morning, he went to the University of Texas, climbed a tower and shot and killed 11 people with a hunting rifle, wounding 31 others. After half an hour of shooting, Whitman was finally killed by police officers.

During Whitman’s autopsy, a large, cancerous tumor was found in his brain. Though it is impossible to directly attribute his murderous actions on his final day to the presence of this cancer, some psychiatric experts speculated that its presence and the pressure it put on parts of the brain that control emotions may well have had a significant effect on his behavior. Brain injury is known to alter behavior; indeed, a study from 2018 described 17 cases where previously normal patients went on to commit crimes after developing a brain tumor or suffering a brain injury, their crimes including arson, rape and murder.

The presence of these brain abnormalities does not exonerate people from their crimes, but it does raise a fascinating question: how much of our behavior is under our conscious control? Many people will endure periods of mania or psychosis, when their biology and circumstances render them unable to control their actions. Even if we do not have a brain injury, some of us are better at self-discipline, some of us are more impulsive or prone to addictions or obsessions.

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