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Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind Introduction of the ebook: Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind
Đánh giá : 4.26 /5 (sao)
Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments — using such low-tech tools as cotton swabs, glasses of water and dime-store mirrors. In Phantoms in Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments — using such low-tech tools as cotton swabs, glasses of water and dime-store mirrors. In Phantoms in the Brain, Dr. Ramachandran recounts how his work with patients who have bizarre neurological disorders has shed new light on the deep architecture of the brain, and what these findings tell us about who we are, how we construct our body image, why we laugh or become depressed, why we may believe in God, how we make decisions, deceive ourselves and dream, perhaps even why we’re so clever at philosophy, music and art. Some of his most notable cases:
A woman paralyzed on the left side of her body who believes she is lifting a tray of drinks with both hands offers a unique opportunity to test Freud’s theory of denial.
A man who insists he is talking with God challenges us to ask: Could we be “wired” for religious experience?
A woman who hallucinates cartoon characters illustrates how, in a sense, we are all hallucinating, all the time.
Dr. Ramachandran’s inspired medical detective work pushes the boundaries of medicine’s last great frontier — the human mind — yielding new and provocative insights into the “big questions” about consciousness and the self. …more
Review ebook Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind
Ramachandran is not as touchy-feely an author as Oliver Sacks, but the pair of them cover the same ground. They both write about neurological problems, the symptoms expressed as behaviour and anecdotes concerned with the people who suffer from them. Ramachandran’s approach is that of a scientist and doctor first, the people he describes are very much patients. Sacks is more ‘oh look – this is interesting, maybe even exciting, we (he and the patient) can explore this together’. They both know the Ramachandran is not as touchy-feely an author as Oliver Sacks, but the pair of them cover the same ground. They both write about neurological problems, the symptoms expressed as behaviour and anecdotes concerned with the people who suffer from them. Ramachandran’s approach is that of a scientist and doctor first, the people he describes are very much patients. Sacks is more ‘oh look – this is interesting, maybe even exciting, we (he and the patient) can explore this together’. They both know their subjects and, both are erudite in many different spheres including literature, history and philosophy which illuminates their writing and although Ramachandran concentrates quite more on the science and both are equally enjoyable and 5 star writers.
If you like Sacks you will almost certainly like Ramachandran, but he is not as immediately accessible, so persevere. I look forward to reading more from this author.
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“He had the arrogance of the believer, but none of the humility of the deeply religious.”
Best line so far. Doesn’t that line just describe so many people who profess great faith and think that and attendance at their house of worship is quite enough. They don’t actually have to live the spirit if not the practice of it as well.
It was written about a patient experiencing the religious revelations that are a known component of certain types of epilepsy. This is where the patient is always convinced he has had a revelation which is sometimes ecstatic. Very often they carry this through to the rest of their lives. Sometimes every fit will bring ecstatic religious revelations with it which convinces them that this is not a brain malfunction but that the Divine has come to them. Dostoevesky had this kind of epilepsy and it was possibly behind his writing of The Idiot.
…more
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