The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science (James H. Silberman Books) by Norman Doidge Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science (James H. Silberman Books)
Book Review: The Review That Wrote Itself
Summary: 5 Stars
A revolution is now sweeping through the field of brain science, and this book chronicles the stories of the men and women who have ushered in a new age. The brain is no longer viewed as a machine that is hard-wired early in life, unable to adapt and destined to "wear out" with age. Instead, we learn that scientists are beginning to unlock the secrets of the powerful, lifelong, adaptability - or "plasticity" - of the brain. The implications are enormous for treating neurological conditions, for addressing the aging process and for dramatic improvements in human performance. Author Norman Doidge is a psychiatrist on the Columbia faculty and he tells one spell-binding story after another, as he travels the globe interviewing the scientists and their subjects who are on the cutting edge of these developments. Each story is interwoven with the latest in brain science, told in a manner that is both simple and compelling. It may be hard to imagine that a book so rich in science can also be a page-turner, but this one is hard to set down.
Book Review: Brains Flexibly Reconnect to Allow Optimal Functioning: New Treatments Abound!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the most interesting book I've read about brain science . . . and the most relevant. I highly recommend you read it!
If you haven't been following brain science, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. Recent experiments have overturned a long-held tenant of brain science: That specific mental and bodily functions can only be directed from one location in the brain. Destroy that section and physicians have told you that you were out of luck. This conclusion doomed many who had suffered strokes and other brain injuries to having no hope of improvement.
The good news, as described in this easy-to-understand popular treatment, is that the brain can actually relocate functions to new areas if the primary site is destroyed. As a result, stroke victims can gain control over movements by therapy designed to disable their abler body areas . . . forcing the brain to establish new circuits to control the areas with little or no control; the blind can learn to "see" using sensor inputs from other areas of their bodies; those without balance can relearn balance through using other feedback mechanisms; and those with "phantom" pain tied to missing limbs can trigger elimination of that sensation. The only continuing limitation seems to be that some areas of the brain are only open to maximum flexibility during short periods of life. But promising research suggests that biochemical tools may be able to reopen those pathways to progress.
Chances are that your physician won't know about all of these advanced therapies. If you or someone you know has neurological disorders, you should read this book to see where to send them for help.
Be sure to check out the sections on how psychoanalysis can be used to rewire the brain to change sensations, reactions, and behavior, and the appendices on cultural impacts on the brain and the potential for perfectibility.
Book Review: Superb and easy to understand
Summary: 5 Stars
This book, along with Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything", is how science books for ordinary people should be written. Clear and concise without being condescending but not so dry the Sahara is a water-sports marina in comparison.
Norman Doidge grips the reader's interest as he takes us back to the diastrous ideaology - soon medical orthodoxy - of the brain as a rigid inflexible computer and how pioneering scientists - often persecuted and ridiculed for ignoring the "accepted majority" - showed that the human brain is a marvellous creation superior to pretty much anything on the planet.
Forget all those claims and headline grabbers about "Artificial intelligence" being here in a decade and the Terminator movies becoming reality by 2050, Norman Doidge exposes just how great the human brain is, and just how hopelessly inadequate and vainglorious are our attempts to replicate and reproduce it.