A neurologist recounts some of his most extraordinary cases and gives an introduction to the curious and frightening consequences of brain disorders, reflecting also on how recent developments in neurology are shedding new light on the behaviour disorders of people in the past ie what happened when Toscanini lost control of his orchestra? Did Mao Tse Tung have Parkinson's Disease? Did the witches of 17th century America suffer from Huntington's Chorea? From amongst his clinical experiences, the author describes the case of the oboe player who woke up to find he couldn't play, the woman who couldn't watch television because a dead uncle sat in her chair, the man who could only shave half his face and the doctor who couldn't remember removing a gall bladder. He also tells of the developments being made in medical science towards understanding what happens when the complex workings of the human brain go wrong. Harold Klawans has written three novels and is an editor of "The Handbook of Clinical Neurology".