How do we organize our perceptions of the world? Recent discussions of this age-old question have centered around the function of visual conventions as the primary means by which we perceive and transmit our understanding of the world about us.' Nowhere are these conventions more evident than in artistic representations, which consist more or less exclusively of icons. Rather than presenting the world, icons represent it. Even with a modest nod to supposedly mimetic portrayals it is apparent that, when individuals are shown within a work of art (no matter how broadly defined), the ideologically charged iconographic nature of the representation dominates. And it dominates in a very specific manner, for the representation of individuals implies the creation of some greater class or classes to which the individual is seen to belong. These classes in turn are characterized by the use of a model which synthesizes our perception of the uniformity of the groups into a convincingly homogeneous image. The resulting stereotypes may be overt, as in the case of caricatures, or covert, as in eighteenth-century portraiture. But they serve to focus the viewer's attention on the relationship between the portrayed individual and the general qualities ascribed to the class. Specific individual realities are thus given mythic extension through association with the qualities of a class. These realities manifest as icons representing perceived attributes of the class into which the individual has been placed. The myths associated with the class, the myth of difference from the rest of humanity, is thus, to an extent, composed of fragments of the real world, perceived through the ideological bias of the observer.

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It is rare that a symptom becomes a disease entity. 'Self-harm' is now a full-fledged diagnostic category for DSM-5. The existing literature of the topic posits that it is a trans-historical psychiatric category and that examples of self-harm can be found from the earliest written records, which is part of the underlying argument for its inclusion in DSM-5. But how old is self-harm and indeed what defines 'self-harm' historically and culturally?

The authors present the first documented case of a cavernous malformation of the mammillary bodies. A 34-year-old woman presented with a 2-month history of headaches and acute memory changes. Magnetic resonance imaging studies demonstrated a retrochiasmatic interpeduncular lesion that was initially thought to be a craniopharyngioma. Operative resection confirmed the diagnosis of a cavernous malformation. This particular case is unique in its destruction of the mammillary bodies and presents further evidence of the relationship of these regions to memory. This report is also the first to document results of pre- and postoperative neuropsychological evaluations that specifically address the memory deficits created by destruction of the mammillary bodies.