Life lessons learned from Rake

I was a newcomer to the television show Rake, and have only watched it a few times. I was thinking last night during a particularly poignant episode (it's the last one for the series), that there are many life lessons that can be learned from Rake, and shows like it, which I think is a big part of their appeal.

As I am a newcomer, I'm not completely across the full plotline, characters, subtleties etc., so please forgive any errors. It's not really about the show so much anyway, as about what it can teach us. There's also one correction that 'needs' to be made (we are neuropsychologists after all), to the storyline involving the witness who had sustained a brain injury after a fight with Cleaver Greene.

1. The only certainty in life is change

When I started watching the show, Cleaver Greene was recently out of gaol, had no job, no clients, and no relationship; his apartment had been taken over by his secretary, and his ex-wife was about to remarry. By the end of the series, he had rebuilt his career, retained numerous high profile clients, his ex-wife was single again, and was building what appeared to be quite a healthy relationship with a new woman. Rake takes it to extremes of course, few people's life circumstances are that dire, or change that quickly, but no matter how bad things are, take comfort in the fact that they will change.

2. The brain is an amazing organ

The storyline about Rake's ex-wife Wendy being only able to speak Bahasa following a siege where she is held hostage by her fiancé seems a bit far-fetched, but there have been other cases of individuals losing their first language (temporarily) and only being able to speak a second language following trauma. (As far as I'm aware the other known cases have been following brain trauma rather than psychological trauma, so a bit of poetic licence has been taken by the show here. Or maybe she did sustain a brain injury, I'm not sure.). It is thought that this can happen following damage sustained in the area of the brain where language knowledge is stored. The ability to speak a first language tends to be localised to an area in the left hemisphere of the brain, whereas the ability to speak a second language predominantly comes from the right hemisphere. So when trauma results in better recall of the second language, it may be that they had an injury to the left side of the brain and are better able to access the knowledge of the second language localised to the right hemisphere.

The correction...

The other reference to the human brain in this episode warrants further discussion. Cleaver manages to discredit a witness who had recently sustained a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) by claiming that since he had developed amnesia, they couldn't rely on his testimony about events that had occurred (as far as I'm aware) some time prior to the injury. The type of amnesia that follows a mTBI tends to be difficulty recalling events that occurred around the time of the incident. People may experience retrograde amnesia (loss of memories formed shortly before the injury, typically minutes before for a mTBI) and/or anterograde amnesia (difficulties creating new memories after the injury, e.g., remembering new appointments, learning new tasks) following a mTBI. So while it is possible that the witness would not recall that it was Cleaver who attacked him, he is however very unlikely to have difficulties recalling details of the fraudulent deal which was the subject of the court case.

3. Being genuine is endearing

Cleaver Greene is a bit of a 'Warnie' (Shane Warne) type character. No matter how badly he behaves, he always has his fair share of loyal friends and lovers, and the appeal of his character is a big part of the show's success. This is because he is genuine. While he may tell the odd lie to get out of trouble, overall with Cleaver Greene what you see is what you get: he doesn't pretend to be anyone other than who he is. Pretending to be somewhat you're not may impress people in the short-term, but real friendships and relationships are built on a foundation of being genuine.

If you'd like to know more about traumatic brain injury, mental health issues, assessment of brain injury or illness or rehabilitation following brain injury, please contact the team at ANTS.

The neuropsychology of humour

Humour is very important to humans, and therefore to psychology. According to Brownell and Gardner (1998):

Humour plays a powerful and unique role in human life,
with wide-ranging effects on many aspects of functioning.
Humour is a basic ingredient of binding in society; it provides
an effective means of communicating a wide range of ideas,
feelings and opinions.

Lacking, or losing (such as through brain injury) a sense of humour can very be damaging to one's social interactions and self-esteem. Having difficulty appreciating and understanding humour is a key feature of many psychological and neuropsychological conditions, including Autistic Spectrum Disorders, psychotic conditions, certain acquired brain injuries and some forms of dementia.

For these reasons there has been extensive neuropsychological research on humour. This research has shown that damage to the right hemipshere, particularly the frontal lobe most disrupted the ability to appreciate humour. Interestingly, this was also correlated with other cognitive processes, such as visual search, ability to focus attention and to hold relevant information in mind and mentally manipulate it (working memory). This makes sense, as appreciating a joke involves: being able to listen and focus on the joke, holding relevant information in mind and relating it back to the punchline, and/or scanning cartoons or other visual material. Humour is a complex business!Disorders of humour such as foolishness and a tendency toward making inappropriate jokes have also been reported in patients with damage to the frontal lobes.

It is thought that the right frontal lobe may be unique in integrating cognitive and affective information, to allow us to appreciate jokes and other emotive material.

Neuroimaging studies have revealed that the physical expression of laughter involves the amygdala (emotion centre), thalamic, hypothalamic and subthamalic regions (sensory relay areas) and the brainstem, as well as the premotor/frontal area through to the motor cortex (to aid the motor movements involved when laughing). These studies have confirmed that the perception of humour involves the right frontal cortex, as well as the prefrontal cortex (higher level executive area and personality), temporal regions (memory centres) and possibly the cerebellum.

Because they are associated with different parts of the brain, disorders of laughter can occur independently of disorders of humour. Difficulties with expressing laughter are most commonly associated with a type of stroke known as pseudobulbar palsy, when laughter can be intermixed with crying. 'Laughing' seizures are associated with a tumour in the hypothalamus. These individuals may have an intact sense of humour but may have difficulty expressing laughter approriately.

Finally, just to show that neuropsychologists have a sense of humour, the following (mildly edited) joke is taken from the Humour in Neuropsychology webpage:

DINNER ARRANGEMENTS

A group of 40-year-old buddies discuss and discuss where they should meet for dinner. Finally it is agreed upon that they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen restaurant because the waitresses there have low cut blouses.

10 years later, at 50 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss and discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed that they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen because the food there is very good and the wine selection is good also.

10 years later at 60 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss and discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen because they can eat there in peace and quiet and the restaurant is smoke free.

10 years later, at 70 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss and discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed that they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen because the restaurant is wheel chair accessible and they even have an elevator.

10 years later, at 80 years of age, the group meets again and once again they discuss and discuss where they should meet. Finally it is agreed that they should meet at the Gausthof zum Lowen because that would be a great idea because they have never been there before.

References
Brownwell, H.H., & Gardner, H. (1988). Neuropsychological insights into humour. In J. Durant, & J. Miller (Eds.), Laughing matters: a serious look at humour (pp.17-34). New York, Wiley.