A 68-year-old man in England who suffered from a stroke is unable to feel sad.
Malcolm Myatt, a retired truck driver from Staffordshire, suffered from a stroke that left him in the hospital for almost five months back in 2004. He lost some feeling on the left side of his body, a relatively normal result of a stroke, but he also lost something more unusual: the ability to feel sad.
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"I am never depressed," Myatt said. "Being sad wouldn't help anything anyway. I would definitely rather be happy all the time than the other way round. It's an advantage really."
Myatt is unable to feel sad because the stroke damaged his frontal lobe, a part of the brain associated with emotion and empathy.
Of course, the side effects like inappropriate behavior sort of suck.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory.Leonard Nimoy.
Now I did a job. I got nothing but trouble since I did it, not to mention more than a few unkind words as regard to my character so let me make this abundantly clear. I do the job. And then I get paid.- Malcolm Reynolds, Captain of Serenity, which sums up my feelings regarding the lawsuit discussed here.
If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. - John F. Kennedy
Yes. Also, it would be extremely frustrating dealing with someone who is physically incapable of being saddened by bad news, such as "my dog got hit by a car." Now, in Mr. Myatt's case, his long life will hopefully have taught him some social graces that can counter this, so he won't come across as a complete dick due to lack of empathy. But it would be a very drastic 'solution' to the more normal problems of depression.
