Sometimes after a traumatic experience the brain is forced to shut down, if the trauma is so great that that’s what it takes for the person to carry on as normal. This is one of lead character Dr Alex Hendrik’s numerous insights into the workings of the human brain and its links to the human condition that punctuate The Piano Man. The lectures specifically analyse Andreas Grassl, the enigmatic figure who, in true-life events, washed up on a beach on the Isle of Sheppey, in Kent, 2005. Soaking wet, traumatised and unable to speak, he was hospitalised, where he communicated solely through the keys of a piano.
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