For two reasons:
1. We are, in effect, our brains. Change the brain, for example by shooting a bullet through parts of it, and you change the person. Personality is not some magic essence that floats around in our heads, it is physically encoded in the connections between neurons. Disrupt those connections, and you disrupt the personality.
2. Being shot, be it in the head or anywhere else, is an enormously emotionally traumatic event. Often it is associated with a prolonged hospital stay, a long reconvalescence, and/or chronic pain. These sorts of experiences can and will change a person.
Even when our bodies heal, there are often lasting effects from an injury. For example, you may recover from falling and getting a nasty cut to your leg, but be left with a scar. In much the same way, the brain can be changed as the result of a bullet wound to the head – even though it heals. As the brain is central to our personalities, this change will be lasting.
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