The Fractured Self: Exploring Selfhood in the Neuronovel The Echo Maker and the Neuromemoir Brain on Fire
European Journal of American Studies January 6, 2025 Bonnie Cross
This paper examines two works: Richard Powers' novel The Echo Maker, about a man with Capgras syndrome who believes his family has been replaced by impostors, and Susannah Cahalan's memoir Brain on Fire, about her diagnosis with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. Both protagonists suffer serious brain illnesses that shatter their ability to trust their own perceptions. The argument is that these narratives complicate the notion of selfhood by showing how the characters must piece together fragmented personal experience, input from family and friends, and neuroscientific explanations to rebuild a coherent sense of self. The smooth, linear self we normally experience is revealed as a construction that can fracture and require reassembly.