Wednesday, September 19, 2007

The Traumatically Brain Injured One



In The Brave One, Jodie Foster plays a public radio talk show host who becomes the victim of a shocking, violent, and brutal crime that leaves her in a coma for three weeks. From a clinical standpoint, she clearly sustained traumatic brain injury from the severe beating, but in typical Hollywood fashion she shows absolutely no post-traumatic amnesia and no cognitive or behavioral deficits.

Well, she does buy an illegal, unregistered handgun, and then becomes a vigilante. The movie doesn't suggest that her change in personality is a direct consequence of TBI, but rather an extreme reaction to intense feelings of fear and loss. People keep asking her, "how do you put the pieces of your life back together?" and she answers, "you don't, you become a different person."

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