Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the Guillotine, and Modern Ontological Anxiety

Lacefield’s interdisciplinary analysis analyzes motifs of decapitation/dismemberment in Frankenstein and then moves into a discussion of the novel’s exploration of the ontological categories specified above. For example, Frankenstein’s Creature, as a kind of cyborg, exists on the contested theoretical “slice” within a number of antinomies: nature/tech, human/inhuman (alive/dead), matter/spirit, etc. These are interesting juxtapositions that point to tensions within each set of categories, and Lacefield discusses the relevance of such dichotomies for questions of modernity posed by materialist theory and technological innovation. Additionally, she incorporates a discussion of films that fuse Shelley’s themes with appeals to twentieth-century and post-millennium audiences

Mary Shelley's Novels, the Guillotine, and Contemporary Horror Film

Assessments of Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein commonly refer to it as a seminal work of proto-science-fiction, a narrative that not only captured certain modern ideas of its time but also prophesied the anxieties that would emerge fully almost two centuries later in response to accelerating technological and scientific developments. However, despite the nearly ubiquitous recognition of Frankenstein's influence on modern popular culture, there are few comparative studies of Shelley's novel and its derivatives among popular modern films. Moreover, Frankenstein's influence on modern film has been underestimated; that is, its influence extends to more cinematic genres and works than the limited examples for which it has been credited. Also, scholars have largely ignored the artistic prescience and modern influence of Shelley's later work of sci-fi/horror, The Last Man. In light of this critical deficiency, I advocate moving beyond analyses of Frankenstein's obvious derivatives to study films which fuse her novels' motifs with appeals to twentieth-century and post-millenium audiences. I also employ the historical symbol of the guillotine--introduced in the late eighteenth century--as a metaphor for anxieties related to modernity and evoked in Shelley's works and modern horror films.Doctor of Philosoph

Neurogenesis and generalization: a new approach to stratify and treat anxiety disorders

Although an influence of adult neurogenesis in mediating some of the effects of antidepressants has received considerable attention in recent years, much less is known about how alterations in this form of plasticity may contribute to psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression. One way to begin to address this question is to link the functions of adult-born hippocampal neurons with specific endophenotypes of these disorders. Recent studies have implicated adult-born hippocampal neurons in pattern separation, a process by which similar experiences or events are transformed into discrete, non-overlapping representations. Here we propose that impaired pattern separation underlies the overgeneralization often seen in anxiety disorders, specifically post-traumatic stress disorder and panic disorder, and therefore represents an endophenotype for these disorders. The development of new, pro-neurogenic compounds may therefore have therapeutic potential for patients who display pattern separation deficits