From Literature to Neurosciences. Neuroscientific concerns in Three Vilchean Neuro-stories

An interdisciplinary look at the Science-Literature binomial clearly demonstrates what these two areas have in common: exploring, modeling, and making sense of the world around us. Science and Literature intersect in literary works, in metaphors that touch on scientific themes and in the ethical questioning of problems presented by Science Fiction. This scientific interest began in 19th-Century writers, such as Mary Shelley, Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson and H. G. Wells, and reaches other levels with Neurofiction writers. In trying to understand the inner world of consciousness and mind, Neuroscience has influenced the literary representation of Neurodiversities and Mental Health Disorders, giving rise to this literary subgenre in which Neurological conditions build the topics, characters, and narrative structure, sometimes with a deterministic and closed vision, sometimes with a more complex and broad vision. For Birge (2012):
Puerto Rican writer Vanessa Vilches Norat joins the Neurofiction writers’ team, demonstrating her clear neuroscientific interest since her first installment, Crímenes domésticos (2019) and consolidating her concerns in Espacios de color cerrado (2014). In these collections of short stories, the Puerto Rican writer gives prominence to her interest in mind, Human behavior and The Other. What distinguishes Vilches Norat is his range of neurostories, ranging from the quasi-clinical narration of events to genuine empathy for his neurodivergent characters. The author places new perspectives at the center of the story, giving voice to others or insinuating their voices, pointing to the complexity of these figures and challenging the idea that they are only case studies. This analysis seeks to:

1. Examine how Literature dialogues with Neurosciences.
2. To analyze how neurodiverse characters are constructed in relation to neurological processes, experiences and sociocultural contexts.
3. To question Brain-centrism through structures, symbols and the empathy of the reader.
4. Consider the ethical and emotional contributions of Literature to the understanding of the individual.

From Vilches Norat’s neurostories, “Neurobiótica” (Neurobiotics) is the one that exhibits Neuroscience in a simpler and more direct way. In this story, Luci uses Larry Katz and Manning Rubin’s Neurobiotics exercise book to stay mentally agile. With these ideas, she decides: a) to involve several senses in a new context, 
b) to combine senses in an extraordinary way, and c) to break the routine in an unexpected way. Luci performs this Neuro Gymnastics in different ways: she uses her non-dominant hand for tasks, dresses with her eyes closed, seasons her meals with new condiments, and even walks backwards. These practices are carefully mentioned and scientific vocabulary becomes the protagonist. The narrator talks about neurons, dendrites, neurotrophins, areas of the brain, the brain as a muscle, Alzheimer, neurological connections, neurogymnastics and, of course, real neuroscientists.

By mentioning these terms and the lack of information about Luci’s feelings, the character seems to be reduced to his neurological condition, since she lacks a more complex identity that humanizes her passage in the neurostory. This contrasts with the title that yields a biological reference that should cancel the Brain-centered idea of the text. The prominence of the biological denotes much more than just mental processes. Morales Campos (in Pardo Fernández et al., 2021) explains: “If we isolated the brain from the body, the brain would not be able to carry out any function”. Therefore, the body becomes an indispensable element that connects the brain with the world. The character should not be shaped only by her Thought patterns, but by the sum of physical and sociocultural experiences that form the individual. Which emotional and social aspects does the narrator present about Luci? With the changes on her routine, the woman improved her memory and lucidity, and she felt more alive, happy, “lucid and fun” (p. 101) than ever. The reader also knows the relationship with the son that fosters his transformation and the opposition of the rest of his family to Neuro Gymnastics, since Luci has suffered blows and falls because of the exercises. Because of the limited information about their emotions, the reader takes on an important role in deciphering their story and motives.

Vilches Norat is a writer committed to the subjectivities of human behavior. Her feminine and feminist gaze leads her to question violent interactions that are usually assumed to be “natural” for biological or social reasons, but they become disturbing when they are questioned. According to Vilches, “It is the hidden, retained violence that exists in all families, which is always avoided, but it is there because every relationship implies a certain violence” (“Violenta la pasión filial”, 2008). It is possible to see that subtle violence in “Neurobiótica”. It is clear that Luci’s memory is fragile due to routines “that hide the perverse effect of limiting the brain.” These habits that age the brain can be related to patriarchal ideas that give women a place of responsibilities both outside and inside their homes. Mental aerobics come to produce neurotrophins that “strengthen the connections between neurons and help dendrites to stay young and strong”. So, breaking with patriarchal routines represents the rejuvenation of the protagonist. Renewing the brain also calms her worries: “She lived in anguish about losing her mind and bothering her children in old age”; she even repeated that her children were going to thank this gesture of developing their mental health. Her ultimate goal was to completely transform her daily life and she does so by disappearing from her routines as a wife and mother. The character challenges cultural notions of the maternal role, making it possible for the experienced reader to engage with her experience. The whole neurostory is really Luci’s journey to feel like the owner of her mind and her actions, and she achieves it thanks to the development of the neuroplasticity of her brain.

The second story with Neuroscientific interests is entitled “Sesenta y cinco veces por segundo” (Sixty-five times per second) and goes from terminology to the processes associated with Neurosciences; from patriarchal violence to institutionalized cultural violence justified by scientific advances. In this neuro-narrative, a father is worried about his eight-year-old son: “He jumps, breaks, curses [...] He kicks everything in his path. He destroys everything he touches.” His family suffers from the boy’s reactions, and the teacher condemns his behavior, so the doctors propose lobotomy as a solution. The story describes the procedure:

Although the disorder is not specified, a Neurosurgeon diagnoses the child and convinces the parent that in ten minutes he will be able to avoid the family’s suffering. According to the text, five women and one child were subjected to lobotomies on May 14, 1953. The result is heartbreaking: “The silent body walked beside him. Docile. Domesticated. Motionless. He barely uttered a word.” Although the child’s perspective is absent, these words recognize the child as the passive subject of the surgical intervention and this serves as a literary strategy to present his innocence.

LOBOTOMIES WOULD REPRESENT THE MEANS TO SILENCE THOSE WHO RESIST, TO THOSE WHO DO NOT ADAPT

The text problematizes the reductionist vision of his diagnosis through the character’s innocence, the narrative structure, and the symbols presented. It has the form of a fragmented history, which connects with the very idea of lobotomies. According to the narrator, “Transorbital lobotomy would reduce the ability to sense the continuity of being.” Therefore, the fragmentation of the text is also the fragmentation of the child; is to break away from the organic and natural flow of life in your brain. The different fragments work in interesting approaches to lobotomies. The most clinical and historical fragments talk about the visit of Dr. Walter Freeman II, a real American neurosurgeon specialized in lobotomy, and how the process of lobotomies is. Also, the behavior of the child and the result of the surgical intervention are described: the figurative death of the Being. The most philosophical fragment hints at the ethical dilemma about the process of reaching “normality” through lobotomies. As he recalls Descartes and Gall, the narrator asks, “Would [you] suspect that human behavior could be surgically modulated? [...] He (the father) would suspect that his pain, anchored to the son’s brain, could be relieved with a chisel [?].” The narrator then reduces the child to an object that can be surgically shaped. Finally, the most symbolic fragments explain the lobotomies as a coconut that is opened with machetes and leaves “an empty bowl”, a nail that explodes a ball (fragment 4) and a circus that juggles the life of the child (fragment 5). In the case of the little boy, the father dreams of him as a caged hummingbird, whose wings “tap” sixty-five times a second, but does not reach the nectar of the flower.

In the 20^th Century, lobotomies were used to treat a variety of disorders and trends quickly, despite the fact that their results were not consistent or conclusive and that gender, race and age represented important factors in their application. Women, the elderly and children made up the majority of lobotomized patients in the United States. As part of a Senate hearing, Breggin (1973) confirms: “A neurosurgeon refuses to answer questions about the race of his young patients and does not allow journalists and legal researchers to see them. But someone sneaks into the rooms and discovers that three of the children are black.” His discourse sought to demand greater social, ethical and legal training from health professionals, the same idea that the neurostory promotes. On the other hand, Tone and Koziol (2018) point to silence as a reason to impact in these groups: 

A careful reading can shed light on the racist and ageist variables that turn the child into a subject of study: an American neurosurgeon operates on a child from Puerto Rico (American colony) with behavioral problems. The colonized becomes a guinea pig for the development of medicines and treatments, and lobotomies would represent the means to silence those who resist, to those who do not adapt. The boy will cease to be “a problem” for society and the hegemonic forces. This socio-political interpretation can be confirmed with a look at another Vilchean neuro-narrative in which it is mentioned that the protagonist, a Spanish-American doctor, was “seduced by the promise of modernity with which the U.S. invasion of the country was disguised.”

Mignolo (2010) already warned of this modernity-coloniality relationship: “The rhetoric of modernity (salvation, novelty, progress, development) appeared together with the logic of coloniality. In some cases, through colonization. In other [...] through diplomatic and commercial manipulations.” In this sense, a discourse of lobotomy-salvation is established based on the desire for control of the hegemonic powers. Instead of addressing problems conscientiously, the reaction to the child’s aggressive behaviors is another quick, violent, and legalized action. In each fragment, the different perspectives and symbols make it possible to contradict the Brain-centrism of the acts presented. The reader empathizes with different characters and is uncomfortable with what happens.

The latest neuroscientific story gives full voice to the neurodivergence of its protagonist. “The House of Memory” exposes two stories that are intertwined through fragments with different narrators and focalizations. Stories represent two forms of writing: the scientific text and the literary text. As an example of a more sober text, Dr. Francisco de Goenaga, royal physician between the 19^th and 20^th Centuries, is shown as the narrator of his story. In Vilches’ text, the doctor defines the brain as a “kind of sanctuary of nerve cells where sensation is produced and where intelligence is supported.” His passion for this sanctuary led him to expand the scope of his responsibilities: “he took [his patients] out of prison, defended them in court, fought to be treated like men.” Goenaga’s achievements as the doctor in charge of the only psychiatric care institution on the island are presented: a) separating the psychiatric area from the asylum, b) improving cleanliness and resources, c) moving patients from prisons, d) providing psychotherapeutic treatment, e) rehabilitating through workshops, f) training the staff and g) provide spaces for creativity, among others. This Vilchean narrative connects with the doctor’s real writings: “Goenaga’s writings speak of the need to imitate supposedly more civilized and culturally progressive countries that treat their asylums as clinical centers instead of prisons” (Disdier, 2012). As a person and a character, Goenaga leads the transformation of the quality of life of patients. Certainly, the actions of this doctor contrast with those carried out by the American neurosurgeon in “Sixty-five times per second”. There is care, detail, practicality, holistic knowledge and empathy in the Hispanic American doctor. What is interesting and paradoxical about the description of this trajectory is that Vilches Norat endows the narrator with the words of the time in which the plot takes place. Therefore, the vocabulary used by the doctor and his wife Josefa is not politically correct for today’s readers. The characters talk about madmen, idiots, hysterics, poor wretches and insane asylums. This vocabulary gives more reality to the context of the narrative and gives a documentary character to his writings, but it awakens the reader’s discomfort again.

As an example of a more literary text, a writer with Alzheimer’s seeks to vindicate the work of this forgotten psychiatrist. The passion of Clarisa, narrator and protagonist of the story, to write about the footprint of Dr. Goenaga in the development of a more humane psychiatry leads her to certain obsessions that accompany her neurodegenerative disorder. Persistent thoughts are especially noticeable in the realm of writing. Clarisa is obsessed with telling the story of Goenaga. Likewise, looking for lost pages becomes an unstoppable compulsion. She notices the organization of the text, the endless sketches not to forget, the ticking of the clock on a sleepless night and the words that elude it. She doesn’t mind losing objects, but losing words terrifies her:

After getting lost while driving, her fears materialize when brain injuries are discovered. Alzheimer makes it difficult for her to finish his long-awaited text and feeds the metafictional narrative of Vilches Norat: memory, coherence and discipline become central to the progress of any text.

In this story, the reader knows the thoughts and emotions of the characters through their own voices or narrators who empathize with them. The most important case of development occurs in Clarisa, whose memory is presented as a fragile terrain due to Alzheimer. She herself reflects on the complexity of her fears and behaviors. The protagonist fears that others will call her hysterical because of her compulsions and recognizes the “sedative” effects of giving in to them; She describes herself as “neurotic” and “obsessively doubtful” with an “insane mania for telling”; she calls herself an “orphan of language” for forgetting words, people and places; he is troubled by the repetitions of oblivion and flees from any unfavorable diagnosis. The moment of greatest empathy occurs when Clarisa sentences: “I will be that zombie that was dad. A giant tree that forgets to move its branches.” This reflection awakens an absolute compassion for the experiences that give rise to the character’s fear and shows the panorama that a scientific report can rarely capture.

LITERATURE HAS ALLOWED A MORE HUMANE AND EMOTIONAL UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENTIFIC OBSERVATIONS

Among those complex thoughts and emotions, come considerations about a divergent vision. Clarisa makes clear that she has learned to be more patient with herself and declares that “There is no way to write if it is not forgetting”. She accepts her changes little by little, and understands that she will not finish her novel. Two quotes break with the fear that used to take hold of her. Firstly, the protagonist wants to be taken to the asylum and, referring to it, she comments: “A house of forgetfulness would be a beautiful project”. The tranquility of losing your memory in front of the sea, watching the sunsets, is a change in the way you think and feel about Alzheimer. On the other hand, the protagonist “wishes more than anything for total oblivion. It would be like a blank page” and it is here that she reaches the zenith of change of perspective. Oblivion arises as a solution to the scriptural obsession. The new Clarisa is younger and more naïve, she doesn’t recognize her family, she doesn’t enjoy the same sweets, she doesn’t know what a psychiatrist is, she doesn’t recognize her own handwriting and she prefers to draw rather than write. Inside the character, there are no longer worries or fears, there is a new order and a new normality. However, her experiences as a reader and writer are still in the depths of her mind: when she is in front of the mirror she talks to Josefa, who, according to Clarisa, is her friend and not Goenaga’s wife. This interaction is an invitation to rethink the limits between the conscious and the unconscious, between the real and the fantastic.

In conclusion, just as Neuroscience has influenced the understanding of the human mind, Literature has allowed a more humane and emotional understanding of scientific observations. This supportive face prevents a character from being reduced to the behaviors of their neurodivergences; on the contrary, it allows them to be perceived in all their complexity and humanity. These three neuro-stories by Vanessa Vilches Norat corroborate that it is possible to establish a dialogue between neuroscientific concepts and the subjectivities of the characters, always rooted in a psychosocial baggage. The reader of neurostories can find neurodiverse representations with which to connect through voices, metaphors and the very form of the text. Luci, the boy and Clarisa achieve three different levels of connection; the first from mental agility as a starting point for feminist liberation; the second from innocence that seeks empathy and more ethical processes to manage differences, and the third from the complex thoughts and feelings of those who are getting obsessed, aging and forgetting. In other Vilchean neurostories, the reader also knows the minds of individuals with sexual compulsions, video game addicts, compulsive hoarders, women in postpartum depression, those who transcend through peyote and even journalists who empathize with murderers. “Neurobiotics”, “Sixty-five times per second” and “The House of Memory” are the texts most directly related to Neuroscience, but they serve as an introduction to other complexities of the mind and body. Birge (2012) already announced the value of texts such as these: “studying Neurofiction can improve scientists’ understanding of the interactions between the brain and the mind”. Vilches’ neurostories are another rung on the ladder.

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