Robert Sapolsky Case Study

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Combining the law, free will, and a mental illness led by brain damage, you will get an interesting episode that causes you to be lost in a thought. In a podcast with author and neurologist, Robert Sapolsky, we learn about a man with epilepsy, also known as Kevin. Robert Sapolsky describes the story and shows two opposing point of views involved in controlling actions with a brain damage. The hypothesis presented in this case study was whether the impulses in the brain were able to be controlled. Kevin developed a disease called Kluver-Bucy syndrome.
Kevin is a friendly guy who lives in New Jersey with his wife, Janet. Prior to meeting Janet, Kevin was living with his brother, went through a divorce, and depended on other people to drive
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Kevin has been supporting child pornography by buying videos and downloading it to his computer. Kevin would download these videos a dozen times, then delete them a dozen times. Kevin stated that he lacked neurological control when he would buy these child pornography videos, but knew what he was doing was wrong. In court, Kevin would plead guilty but during his sentencing hearing he asked the judge to be lenient because the person who was downloading and supporting child pornography, in a sense wasn’t him. He stated that he had no control of that part of his brain. Prosecutor, Lee Vartan explained why he believes that Kevin is responsible for his actions, and should serve the maximum sentence. In court, Dr. Orrin Devinsky stated his actions were caused by the brain surgery and that it could happen to anyone. Dr. Orrin Devinsky presented a syndrome called Kluver bucy, which he claimed was causing Kevin’s …show more content…
First, Robert Sapolsky presents the idea that Kevin’s actions were caused by the removal of the lid on his sexual desires. This seems to be a bit complicated, because do the surgeons not know what each part of the brain exactly controls? It was unclear on how they knew what part of the brain they were going to remove. An in-depth explanation on why Dr. Orrin Devinsky chose to remove that specific part of the brain would have given Devinsky more credibility. The second major point Robert Sapolsky made during the case study is that the prosecutors pointed out that the lid might not have been completely off because Kevin didn’t download child pornography at work. This is a statement that could be argued for, or against. The prosecutors did not take in account whether he could have been fearful to get caught therefore he was not watching and downloading these videos at work, since after all, nobody knew what he was doing. These two main points are big implications in this case that could be further

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