The people at the heart of S;icks's essay rebuild their lives after they Jose their sight. One element of their success is the adaptabiJity of the human brain. But does this adaptability also mean...

The people at the heart of S;icks's essay rebuild their lives after they Jose their sight. One element of their success is the adaptabiJity of the human brain. But does this adaptability also mean that people can transfo11n themselves in destructive ways quite unlike the positive examples that fill rhe pages ofSacks's account? Consider what happens to the cadets in Susan Faludi's T11e N11ked Citadel. If the brain is as adaptable as Sacks's narrative suggests, is there any natural limfr to the way people ca11 bebavt:? Can we count on human nature co prevent people like the Citadel cadets from acting destructivdy? Can the encounter with those different from ourselves-people with different ways of mental processing-force us to question and revise our own reaJities? Does Shannon Foster pose a challenge to the way the cadets' brains operate?