Nervous Fictions: Literary Form and the Enlightenment Origins of Neuroscience: Jeff Keiser. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2020, 324 pp., $45.00 (e-book). ISBN: 978-0-8139-4479-1; $45.00 (paper). ISBN: 978-0-8139-4478-4; $85.00 (cloth). ISBN: 978-0-8139-4477-7

In Keiser's words, "each work depicts, in a knowingly ridiculous manner, a natural philosopher digging into brain matter in the hope of exposing the mechanisms that make the mind tick" (pp. 143-144). Keiser's focus is not on how the nerves and various brain structures appear during a dissection, which is straightforward and verifiable. Locke did not partake in the kinds of fictions Willis, Cavendish, and others were promoting about the nerve spirits. [Extracted from the article]