Social and Environmental Modifications: Dynamics of Change

This chapter emphasizes cases with acquired disorders, neuroatypical conditions, and adaptations later in life that change one’s relationship to society and one’s environment. In underscoring the complexity of brain development, it expands on the discussion of genetic and biological perspective presented in the last chapter. As both chapters point out, these are not separate topics in individual lives. Individuals who are going to thrive despite genetic, congenital, developmental conditions require social and environmental responses that meet their needs. Similarly, although an acquired condition is clearly biological and possibly related to genetics or environmental factors, it often creates a social rupture that distinguishes it from a condition one knows from birth and infancy. Case studies in this chapter include the musician/composers Ludwig van Beethoven, Maurice Ravel, Paul Wittgenstein; the painter Kurt Schwitters; the color-blind painter Jonathan Isaacson; the National Deaf Theater (NFD); the rock group Beethoven’s Nightmare; and others.