Memories of a Brain Doctor: Muhammad Ali, Franklin Roosevelt, Adolf Hitler: Polio to Parkinson Disease

Memories of a Brain Doctor

Parkinson's, Paralysis, Psychosis. Muhammad Ali, Franklin Roosevelt, and Adolf Hitler. A neurologist's perspective into the minds of notorious leaders.

The book is an insight into people Dr. Lieberman cared forincluding Leona Helmsley, the “Queen of Mean,” Joseph E Levine theHollywood impresario, Jack Dempsey and Muhammad Ali, or studiedincluding President Franklin Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler.

The book recounts Dr. Lieberman’s and President Roosevelt’sstruggle with paralysis, from poliomyelitis, and their refusal toaccept the limitations of their paralysis. When America was paralyzedby the Great Depression, Roosevelt rallied the nation saying , “Theonly thing we have to fear is fear itself, nameless, unreasoning,unjustified terror which paralyzes us”

The book recounts how Muhammad Ali the greatest athlete ofthe 20th Century and Dr. Lieberman’s patient for 30 years confrontedhis Parkinson disease. He did not succumb to his disability butsurmounted it and helped others deal with theirs. The book describesAdolf Hitler’s Parkinson disease, on which Dr. Lieberman is anauthority, including Hitler’s paranoia and psychoses. As a student of mass murderers and serial killers Dr. Lieberman writes aboutPresident Kennedy assassination and speculates about a coup.

The book recounts Dr. Lieberman’s father’s experience inCzarist Russia during World War I, his mother’s experience as a fieldnurse in the German Army during World War I, her cousin, Dudya’s partin the Russian Revolution and his meeting with Lenin and Stalin. Thebook describes growing up in Brownsville, the home of Murder Inc. Thebook recounts Dr. Lieberman’s years at Cornell where a professor ofmedieval history introduced him to Germany and describes how Hitlerfooled the German people and led them to war.

The book describes Dr. Lieberman’s years at the NYU-Bellevue Hospital Medical School, describes unusual patients anddiseases that shaped his thinking and taught him about the brain. Itis here he became interested in Parkinson disease and therevolutionary new drug, levodopa and worked with Professor MenekGoldstein a holocaust survivor who introduced him to the NobelLaureates who created the field of biogenic amines. The book covershow Dr. Lieberman became an expert on Hitler’s Parkinson disease.

The book describes how Dr. Lieberman met Jack Dempsey, nextto Muhammad Ali the greatest boxer of the 20th Century, how Muhammadbecame his patient, and what a fight between Jack and Muhammad wouldbe like. The book recounts why Dr. Lieberman left New York and wentto the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix where he helped startthe world renowned Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center.

Doctor Lieberman is a neurologist born in Brooklyn, in1938. He graduated from Cornell University in 1959, New YorkUniversity-Bellevue Hospital Medical School in 1963, completed aneurology residency at New York University-Bellevue Hospital 1964 -1967, served as a Captain at the United States Air Force Hospital,Tachikawa, Japan 1967 to 1969 and did a fellowship in biogenic aminesat New York University 1969-1970.

He was a professor at NYU from 1970-1989. From 1989 tillhis retirement in 2018 was a professor of neurology at the BarrowNeurological Institute (BNI). Dr. Lieberman is the author or co-author of 200 peer reviewed articles on Parkinson disease andpsychoses. He initiated the use of a new class of drugs, dopamineagonists, in Parkinson disease and pioneered neural transplants anddeep brain stimulation in Parkinson Disease.