The patient who lost emotions and couldn't decide lunch: Damasio's Descartes' Error
JafarNajafov · x · 2026-09-08
A viral thread retells neurologist Antonio Damasio's classic research:
- Damasio, head of neurology at the University of Iowa, published Descartes' Error (1994), upending 350 years of Western rationalist philosophy; behavioral economics was later built on his findings.
- Patient 'Elliot,' a successful businessman, had his ventromedial prefrontal cortex damaged during tumor removal. Post-surgery his IQ, memory and logic tested superbly — yet within a year he was fired, bankrupt and twice divorced, unable to choose how to sort papers or what to eat for lunch.
- The key test: Elliot showed zero emotional response to horrifying photos. The surgery had removed his entire emotional response system along with the tumor.
- The takeaway: without emotion, there is no decision-making — overturning the idea that emotion is reason's enemy.
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