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Capturing Capgras: The Echo Maker by Richard Powers

2009; University of Arkansas Press; Volume: 43; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

2374-6629

Luc Herman, Bart Vervaeck,

Deception detection and forensic psychology

Richard Powers's novel, Echo Maker (2006), tells of Mark Schluter, a young man of 27 is nearly killed in an accident with his truck. recovers but seems to be suffering from Capgras, a condition in which patient believes that some of his loved ones have replaced by doubles. Mark thinks his sister Karin has replaced by someone looks exactly like Karin, but is certain she is only a robot or a stand-in. calls her Kopy Karin and Karbon Karin. evolution of syndrome is far from positive. condition seems to spread. Mark begins to believe it is not just Karin has replaced. His dog, his house, his old town and some of his best friends all seem to be replaced by stand ins. Two doctors are trying to help Mark. neurologist, Dr. Hayes, seeks causes for Capgras in physiological aspects of brain. For him, treatment consists of pills. popular cognitive neurologist (93), Dr. Weber, on other hand, tries to understand syndrome by linking it to existential problems such as is self? and who is other? starts from idea that you couldn't grasp any individual brain without addressing private history, circumstance, personality--the whole person, beyond sum of mechanical modules and localized deficits (227). Both doctors fail to get a grip on syndrome and to help Mark. We might say they fail to capture condition called Capgras. In what follows, we would like to see novel succeeds where these two fail. To organize our thoughts on matter, we will first look narration and focalization as they serve in Echo Maker to grasp Mark's condition. At end of our paper, we will test our findings on representations of Mark's brain immediately after accident. His limited brain capacity this stage brings out bare necessities of consciousness representation, which will give us crucial evidence for an analysis of way in which brain trauma is narrativized in Echo Maker. 1. Telling Story of Capgras In view of Dr. Weber, one can only come to grips with a brain disorder by turning it into a story. His books have become nationwide bestsellers thanks to his talent for turning strangest cases of brain disorders into most interesting and arresting stories. When is asked for a speech at an international conference on The Origins of Human Consciousness (229), he was simply supposed to play himself, tell some good stories, and shake lots of hands (230). As a scientist, is a tale-teller (231) driven by the narrative impulse (232). Put positively, has been telling of people whose don't get told (225). Put negatively, Weber reduces his patients to and forgets about their all too real misery. Thus, there was Neil, couldn't see left side of things anymore. Weber liked man, but as soon as Neil had turned into an interesting story, Weber forgot all about him: He had no idea what became of man. Some other neglect wiped him out, reduced him to story (125). Narrative mirrors Weber's storytelling involves a form of blindness and voyeurism same time. pries into private affairs of his patients. More than once, people ask if Weber had any qualms about violating his subject's (186). A critical reviewer states that Weber's stories border on privacy violation and sideshow exploitation (221). At same time, Weber suffers from blindness because does not want to get involved: He dealt in generalities with no particulars, facts with no understanding, cases with no individual feeling (222). refuses to feel what his patients feel, in short refuses empathy. His reflect life of his patients in an exciting but safe way. In narratological terms, we might say his have a high degree of tellability, but in common sense terms they have a low degree of involvement. …