There's an interesting article on the Independent site, about Henry VIII personality changing due to a jousting accident, which turned him from a relativity nice chap as Kings go, into the tyrant remembered by history:"After the accident he was unconscious for two hours; even five minutes of unconsciousness is considered to be a major trauma today." Henry may have suffered a brain injury, Dr Worsley says. "Damage to the frontal lobe of the brain can perfectly well result in personality change."(read more)That's quite an interesting theory, I'm reminded of a documentary on the BBC about Walter Freeman who horrifically preformed frontal lobotomies on patients. Howard Dully who was one of the people Freeman performed this on, afterwards found his behaviour became uncontrollable and erratic. Doctors in the documentary said it because the frontal lobes assist in planning, coordinating, controlling and executing behaviour and judgement. It also controls social and sexual behaviour.
So the theory seems sound, just not as exciting as thinking of him as a tyrant though.
A link to an overview of Howard Dully and Walter Freeman, though I forewarn they do have picture on the page of the lobotomy being preformed, and they explain how he did it.
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