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| Source: archivio Di Spazio |
Acquired savant
syndrome (from the French word “savant”,
‘knowledgeable person’) is a syndrome in which persons suddenly develop
extraordinary cognitive abilities, remarkable artistic skills (in music,
drawing, painting, sculpture) or impressive calculating abilities. This new and
extraordinary state emerges following a brain injury (head trauma, initial frontotemporal
dementia, stroke, hemorrhage, tumor) often confined to the left
hemisphere. Until 2017, less than 50
hyperskilled persons have officially been recorded, a rare biological condition
still full of questions. I’ve been lucky to meet a person who represents the
exception in the exception; SS, a 54-year old man, corrected left-handed, presenting
with acquired savant syndrome. Here are the exceptionalities of this case:
first of all, he’s a long-surviving patient, because he’s presently in clinical
remission after undergoing surgery for IV-grade glioblastoma multiforme to the
right temporal lobe in spring 2013. Furthermore, he has developed extraordinary
calculating skills not following the ablation of the tumor (in other documented
cases, lesions concern the left hemisphere and represent the starter for the
development of new abilities), but after the death of a friend for the same
pathology. He reports that mental calculations are for him a life-saving remedy,
an effective way to set his mind free from destructive thoughts that have been
tormenting him after that emotional trauma (“next time is my turn”). In his
case it is clear that acquired savant syndrome is a coping strategy to cope
with the effects of the traumatic experience of grief and mourning. In other
words, is it possible that savant persons’ super powers hide a therapeutic
function of cognitive defusion through artistic expressions or extraordinary
calculating performances?
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