Alice Weaver Flaherty is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

neurologist Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal c ...

. She is a researcher, physician, educator and author of the 2004 book ''The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain'', about the neural basis of

creativity Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary w ...

Early life and education

She grew up in

Brookside Brookside may refer to: Geography Canada * Brookside, Edmonton * Brookside, Newfoundland and Labrador * Brookside, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Brookside, Berkshire, England * Brookside, Telford, an area of Telford, England United States * Br ...

, a hamlet of

Mendham Township, New Jersey Mendham Township is a township in Morris County, in the central portion of northern New Jersey, United States, located more than due west of New York City. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 5,869, reflecting an ...

and graduated from West Morris Mendham High School. She completed her undergraduate degree and her medical degree at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

as well as a

fellowship A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

there. She also completed a Ph.D. at

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

Career

Dr. Flaherty is a joint associate professor of

neurology Neurology (from el, wikt:νεῦρον, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix wikt:-logia, -logia, "study of") is the branch of specialty (medicine), medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of co ...

and

psychiatry Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of mental disorders. These include various maladaptations related to mood, behaviour, cognition, and perceptions. See glossary of psychiatry. Initial psych ...

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

. She is a neurologist at

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

. She heads the MGH Neurology’s Brain Stimulator Unit, where “she uses deep brain stimulators to treat

neurological disease A neurological disorder is any disorder of the nervous system. Structural, biochemical or electrical abnormalities in the brain, spinal cord or other nerves can result in a range of symptoms. Examples of symptoms include paralysis, muscle weakness ...

and

psychiatric disease A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitti ...

. Her research focuses on voluntary control of action, and how human brains represent their bodies, two factors that help drive suffering in depression,

Parkinson’s Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

, and somatoform disorders.” She writes in various genres, including “

scientific paper : ''For a broader class of literature, see Academic publishing.'' Scientific literature comprises scholarly publications that report original empirical and theoretical work in the natural and social sciences. Within an academic field, scienti ...

s, humorous

essay An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal a ...

s, and

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

s”. Her book, ''The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Neurology'' was for years the most "widely used neurology text in its class".Profile
at ResearchCrossroads Her most famous book, ''The Midnight Disease'', appeared on "Best Books of 2004" lists in

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

and

The San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...

Experience with hypergraphia

After her

premature Premature may refer to: * ''Premature'' (2014 film), an American comedy film * ''Premature'' (2019 film), an American romantic drama film * '' PREMature'', a 2015 British television drama miniseries See also * Premature aging, of an organism * ...

twin boys died soon after their birth, Flaherty was full of

grief Grief is the response to loss, particularly to the loss of someone or some living thing that has died, to which a bond or affection was formed. Although conventionally focused on the emotional response to loss, grief also has physical, cogni ...

. Several days later, however, she “awoke one morning with an overwhelming desire to put everything on her mind on paper”. She describes her experiences with

hypergraphia Hypergraphia is a behavioral condition characterized by the intense desire to write or draw. Forms of hypergraphia can vary in writing style and content. It is a symptom associated with temporal lobe changes in epilepsy and in Geschwind syndrome ...

, this overwhelming urge to write. She claims she could not stop for a period of four months. A similar experience occurred after the birth of her premature twin girls, who survived. Following the two births, her abilities to produce creative works were heightened. ''The Midnight Disease'' tried to make sense of this phenomenon.

Media work

Flaherty gave a TEDx talk ''Danger and Creativity'', in 2019. She was a consultant on two TV drama series pilots based on her life: ''The Madness of Jane'', created by

Rob LaZebnik Rob or ROB may refer to: Places * Rob, Velike Lašče, a settlement in Slovenia * Roberts International Airport (IATA code ROB), in Monrovia, Liberia People * Rob (given name), a given name or nickname, e.g., for Robert(o), Robin/Robyn * Ro ...

, and ''Hysteria'', created by

Shaun Cassidy Shaun Paul Cassidy (born September 27, 1958) is an American singer, actor, writer, and producer. He has created and/or produced a number of television series including '' American Gothic'', '' Roar'' and ''Invasion''. Cassidy currently serves as ...

. She has appeared on many TV and radio broadcasts as a public advocate for the abilities of patients with brain illnesses. She was featured on the podcast The Great God of Depression, created by

Pagan Kennedy Pagan Kennedy (born c. 1963) is an American citizen, American columnist and author, and pioneer of the 1990s zine movement. She has written ten books in a variety of genres, was a regular contributor to the ''Boston Globe'', and has published ar ...

, about her interactions with the writer

William Styron William Clark Styron Jr. (June 11, 1925 – November 1, 2006) was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work. Styron was best known for his novels, including: * '' Lie Down in Darkness'' (1951), his acclaimed fi ...

. Her image hangs in the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

, in the oil painting ''Museum Epiphany 3'' painted by Warren and Lucia Prosperi. She was the protagonist of ''Bedside Manner'', directed by Corinne Botz, which in 2016 won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Documentary, DOC NYC, Oscar-qualifying.

Publications

Selected journal articles

*Graybiel, A.M., Aosaki, T., Flaherty, A.W., Kimura, M. "The basal ganglia and adaptive motor control" (1994) ''Science'', 265 (5180), pp. 1826–1831. *Flaherty, A.W., Graybiel, A.M. "Input-output organization of the sensorimotor striatum in the squirrel monkey" (1994) ''Journal of Neuroscience'', 14 (2), pp. 599–610. *Flaherty A.W. "Frontotemporal and dopaminergic control of idea generation and creative drive". ''J Comparative Neurology.'' 2005;493(1):147-53. *Flaherty, A.W. "Creativity and disease: Mechanisms and treatment". ''Canadian J. Psychiatry.'' 2011;56(3):132-143.

Books and non-technical articles

*Flaherty, Alice W. '' The Midnight Disease: The Drive to Write, Writer's Block, and the Creative Brain''. Boston, Mass: Houghton Mifflin, 2004. **German translation as "Die Mitternachtskrankheit : warum Schriftsteller schreiben müssen ; Schreibzwang, Schreibrausch, Schreibblockade und das kreative Gehirn" Berlin, 2004. **Japanese translation as Flaherty, Alice, and Toshiko Yoshida. 書きたがる脳 : 言語と創造性の科学 / Kakitagaru nō: gengo to sōzōsei no kagaku. Tōkyō: Randamuhausukōdansha, 2006. *Flaherty, Alice W., illus. Magoon, Scott. '' The Luck of the Loch Ness Monster.'' Boston: Houghton, Mifflin; 2007. **Korean translation as Flaherty, Alice W., illus. Magoon, Scott. 호수 의 행운 괴물 다움 osu ui haeng-un goemul daum Seoul: Marubol Publications; 2008. *Flaherty, Alice W., and Natalia S. Rost. ''The Massachusetts General Hospital Handbook of Neurology''. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2nd ed. 2007. **Translated into Japanese as Flaherty, Alice W., and Takamichi Hattori. MGH 神経内科ハンドブック / MGH shinkei naika handobukku. Tokyo: Medikaru saiensu intanashonaru, 2001 *Flaherty AW. Homeostasis and the control of creative drive. In R. E. Jung & O. Vartanian (Eds.), ''The Cambridge Handbook of the Neuroscience of Creativity''. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. *Flaherty, AW. Playing doctor well. ''Neurology''. 2008;70(11):826-7. *Flaherty, AW. Special effects: What can the dramatic arts teach doctors about improving their performances? ''Harvard Medical Bulletin.'' 2009;82(2):12-17. *Flaherty, Alice W
Performing the art of medicine
''Total Art Journal.'' 1(1), 2011. *Flaherty AW. Writing and drugs. ''Writing and Pedagogy.'' 4(2), 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flaherty, Alice Weaver American neurologists Women neurologists American women neuroscientists American neuroscientists American women writers Living people Physicians of Massachusetts General Hospital Harvard Medical School faculty Harvard Medical School alumni Year of birth missing (living people) American women academics People from Mendham Township, New Jersey Physicians from New Jersey West Morris Mendham High School alumni Writers from New Jersey 21st-century American women