Phineas P. Gage is one of the most famous named cases in the history of psychology and neurology, owing to brain damage suffered in a construction accident which reportedly resulted in a marked alteration in his personality. Gage was the foreman of a gang of workers excavating rock while preparing the bed of a railroad in 1848 near what became Cavendish, Vermont. His survival of a massive injury to the left side of his brain immediately turned him into a medical curiosity. Later reports of changes in his behavior contributed to physiological, psychological, and philosophical debates that continue today over the localization of functions in the brain.
Phineas Gage was born on approximately July 9, 1823, in or around Lebanon, New Hampshire, and died on May 21, 1860 in San Francisco (both the date and place of his birth are uncertain; for an authoritative account of Gage’s life and medical history, see Macmillan 2000a, 2012). What detailed knowledge we have of Phineas Gage is limited,...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Barker, F. G. (1993). Treatment of open brain wounds in America, 1810–1880: A survey. Journal of Neurosurgery, 78, 364A.
Barker, F. G. (1995). Phineas among the phrenologists: The American Crowbar Case and nineteenth century theories of cerebral localization. Journal of Neurosurgery, 82, 672–682. https://doi.org/10.3171/jns.1995.82.4.0672.
Damasio, A. R. (1994). Descartes’ error: Emotion, reason, and the human brain. New York: Putnam Publishing.
Damasio, H., Grabowski, T., Frank, R., Galaburda, A. M., & Damasio, A. R. (1994). The return of Phineas Gage: Clues about the brain from the skull of a famous patient. Science, 264, 1102–1105. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.8178168.
de Schotten, M. T., Dell’Acqua, F., Ratiu, P., Leslie, A., Howells, H., Cabanis, E., Ib-Zizen, M. T., Plaisant, O., Simmons, A., Dronkers, N. F., Corkin, S., & Catani, M. (2015). From Phineas Gage and Monsieur Leborgne to H.M.: Revisiting disconnection syndromes. Cerebral Cortex, 25(12), 4812–4827. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhv173.
Della Sala, S. (2011). A daguerreotype of phineas gage? Cortex, 47(4), 415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2010.07.013.
Ferrier, D. (1886). The functions of the brain (2nd ed.). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Fodor, J. A. (1983). The modularity of mind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Gall, F. J. (1822–1825/1835). On the functions of the brain and each of its parts: With observations on the possibility of determining the instincts, propensities, and talents, or the moral and intellectual dispositions of men and animals, by the configuration of the brain and head. Boston: Marsh, Capen, & Lyon.
Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.
Griggs, R. A. (2015). Coverage of the Phineas Gage story in introductory psychology textbooks: Was Gage no longer Gage? Teaching of Psychology, 42(3), 195–202. https://doi.org/10.1177/0098628315587614.
Harlow, J. M. (1868). Recovery from the passage of an iron bar through the head. Publications of the Massachusetts Medical Society, 2, 327–347.
Kihlstrom, J. F. (2010). Social neuroscience: The footprints of Phineas Gage. Social Cognition, 28(6), 757–783. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2010.28.6.757.
Luria, A. R. (1962/1966). Higher cortical functions in man. London: Tavistock.
Macmillan, M. (1992). Inhibition and the control of behavior: From Gall to Freud via Phineas Gage and the frontal lobes. Brain and Cognition, 19(1), 72–104. https://doi.org/10.1016/0278-2626(92)90038-N.
Macmillan, M. (1996). Phineas Gage: A case for all reasons. In C. Code, C. Wallesch, Y. Joanette, & A. R. Lecours (Eds.), Classic cases in neuropsychology. Oxford: Taylor & Francis.
Macmillan, M. (2000a). An odd kind of fame: Stories of Phineas Gage. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Macmillan, M. (2000b). Nineteenth-century inhibitory theories of thinking: Bain, Ferrier, Freud (and Phineas Gage). History of Psychology, 3(3), 187–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/1093-4510.3.3.187.
Macmillan, M. (2000c). Restoring Phineas Gage: A 150th retrospective. Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 9, 42–62. https://doi.org/10.1076/0964-704X(200004)9:1;1-2;FT046.
Macmillan, M. (2001). John Martyn Harlow: “Obscure country physician”? Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 10(2), 149–162. https://doi.org/10.1076/jhin.10.2.149.7254.
Macmillan, M. (2004). Inhibition and Phineas Gage: Repression and Sigmund Freud. Neuro-psychoanalysis, 6(2), 181–192. https://doi.org/10.1080/15294145.2004.10773459.
Macmillan, M. B. (2012). The Phineas Gage information page. Retrieved 11 August 2018, from https://www.uakron.edu/gage/
Macmillan, M., & Lena, M. L. (2010). Rehabilitating Phineas Gage. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation Psychology, 20(5), 641–658. https://doi.org/10.1080/09602011003760527.
Ratiu, P., Talos, I. F., Haker, S., Lieberman, D., & Everett, P. (2004). The tale of Phineas Gage, digitally remastered. Journal of Neurotrauma, 21, 637–643. https://doi.org/10.1089/089771504774129964.
Thomsen, I. V., Waldemar, G., & Thomsen, A. M. (1990). Late psychosocial improvement in a case of severe head injury with bilateral fronto-orbital lesions. Neuropsychology, 4, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1037/0894-4105.4.1.1.
Tyler, K. L., & Tyler, H. R. (1982). A “Yankee Invention”: The celebrated American crowbar case. Neurology, 32(4(Part 2)), A191.
Van Horn, J. D., Irimia, A., Torgerson, C. M., Chambers, M. C., Kikinis, R., & Toga, A. W. (2012). Mapping connectivity damage in the case of Phineas Gage. PLoS One, 7(5), e37454. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0037454.
Wilgus, J., & Wilgus, B. (2009). Face to face with Phineas Gage. Journal of the History of the Neurosciences, 18, 340–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/09647040903018402.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Macmillan, M., Kihlstrom, J.F. (2020). Gage, Phineas. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1716
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1716
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-24610-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-24612-3
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences