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Title: A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain by John J. Ratey ISBN: 0-375-70107-9 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 08 January, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (19 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: It¿s YOUR brain! Use it or lose it!
Comment: Do yourself a favor and read this book. Even better, do your doctor a favor and give a copy of this book to her or him. It's your brain, and you want to know how to care for it, tune it, nurture it and protect it. This sophisticated book -- up to date in the year 2001 -- and in remarkably clear and plain English -- and in amazing detail -- will tell you much that you need to know. And provide you a framework within which you can integrate future knowledge. When the next edition comes out, within a few years, you will want to read that one too.
January 1, 2001 marked the end of 'The Decade of the Brain' -- ten years of brain-based research focusing upon neuroscience, neuroanatomy, neurophenomenology, psychopharmacology, psychiatry and neural functioning. While this massive undertaking has been somewhat overshadowed by even more massive investigations of the human genome, it is likely that advances from brain research will have a greater impact on your life and your health. Dr. John Ratey, a Harvard Medical School professor and author or co-author of other well received previous books on neuropsychiatric conditions (eg, 'Driven to Distraction'), explains why and how, and in language that you can read even if you didn't study biology in college. Yet he never speaks down to the reader -- I am a professional medical educator myself, and I am sufficiently impressed by the breadth and depth of this book that I will recommend it to my students and colleagues. Growing knowledge about the brain is transforming our understanding of ourselves and our world, and Dr. Ratey is able to convey this information to the reader through lively descriptions and stories and through enlightening clinical vignettes.
The book is organized in a manner that is straightforward and incremental. Starting with 'perception', chapters go on to encompass 'attention and consciousness', 'movement', 'memory', 'emotion', 'language' and 'the social brain'. These are well written and informative and never boring or abstruse, with plenty of case examples taken from Dr. Ratey's practice or from autobiographical and biographical stories in the literature. For example, Temple Grandin is a middle-aged woman with an active professional and social life who overcame many limits of her well-diagnosed autism by self-observation, tenacity, and a disciplined, original, self-determined approach to her disorder. Another example, Rickie, is the daughter of an eminent psychiatrist who was frequently hospitalized for schizophrenia until it was discovered that this diagnosis was simply incorrect. Instead, Rickie suffered from an unusual perceptual problem which could be sufficiently remedied with special glasses so that she could begin a career as a rehabilitation counselor and also marry and raise children. Stories such as these are not only wonderful and humane, they are well told and instructive and the insights gleaned from them are used by Dr. Ratey to teach us about the brain, how it works, what can go wrong, what can be done about it, and most importantly, what we can do about it.
The brain, the reader learns, is certainly not a digital computer. It is an organ that provides us with access to a world and to other people as well as with the capacity to move through this world and to interact with it. The systems of the brain shape our emotions, our actions and reactions, and our identity. Furthermore, it is now very clear that our brain can be molded and cared for by us, its 'user', in a manner that can enrich our lives and expand our possibilities and potentialities. Or, with poor care, constrict these possibilities.
The book ends with a section on the four 'theaters' of the brain, a framework for understanding that encompasses traditional medical as well as more holistic approaches to healing. Finally, there is a section on the 'care and feeding' of the brain that is as practical as it is profound.
You will benefit from this book. Your brain will benefit as you --the user -- come to understand better how this miraculous organ works and what you can do to keep it going and to enhance its performance. Besides, you will enjoy a book that is a masterful and humane read.
Rating: 5
Summary: It is an excellent book I read and re-read
Comment: Just shy of 400 pages this is a book I want the smart women to read. Yes, men should read it to, but I simply feel that as a woman some people, often other women are put off by women with great brains.
Ten Chapters that cover Development, Perception, Attention and Consciousness, Movement, Memory, Emotion, Language, The Social Brain, The Four Theatres, Care and Feeding.
And his notation beginning on page 114 about the Triage mind as medical professionals often say we (we who are in the circle of friends and colleagues) have, is about Arouse, Orient, Detect, Execute is utterly engrossing. And on page 251 where he speaks of the popular fad of Emotional intelligence as an attract concept because it can provide a convenient scapegoat for today's epidemics of violent crime, marital strife and teen age drug abuse as a start, is wise and telling.
On page 274 he gives a simple lateralization concept test that the reader can take to see how the right and left brain react differently to action combined with verbal work. Was happy to see that the suggestion of a trusted friend that I was equally righ-left brained was true (laughing) and that yes, I am linguistically ambidextrous as well.
In discussing the Four Theatres he also reminds the reader that it is regaining popularity amongst medical professionals. The First being Perception, the Second is Attention and Consciousness and issues involving Cognitive issues like survival skills. The Third is Brain Function and the Fourth is Identity and Behavior.
In Care and Feeding he speaks about the real importance of reading to children at an early age and continuing to read books etc that challenge the brain and not simply fill it with mush.
And exercise! On page 359 he gives some excellent insight into how important exercise is to a healthy min. And as he notes "Obviously, exercise improves the body, but some of the most exciting new findings point to the positive effect exercise can have on mental health. First of all, it increases the amount of blood that gets to the brain. And it has been shown that it can augment the number and density of the blood vessels in the areas that need them the most: the motor cortex and cerebellum. Thus, in addition to its well-known effect of increasing blood vessels and improving circulation in the heart, it seems that exercise or activity has a similar effect on the brain."
Better self-esteem he notes is also a known effect of exercise and that females of all ages who regularly take part in sports and exercise have a more positive self image and less depression as well.
He then notes there have been more than 1,000 studies on the effect on mental health. That short sessions of vigorous aerobic exercise, usually lasting for several weeks seem to have the most helpful effect on moderate to mild forms of depression. He notes a 1994 Harvard study that found men who burn 2500 calories a day in aerobic activity which can be running walking fast, etc., were 28% less likely to develop clinical depression than less active men.
He also notes that vigorous exercise also involves learning complex movements that also challenge the brain. And then on page 316 he speaks of the importance of movement in general, and how it effects motor skills. And that inactivity and stagnation can hasten the decline of mental abilities.
And lastly he speaks of mental work outs and how important it is to think outside the box and read things that are different and that will cause the neurons to work. That people who are doing new things and trying new things, constantly reading and not watching TV or staying in ones comfort zone are the ones who live the fullest and mentally healthiest lives.
Rating: 3
Summary: Good in parts but flawed
Comment: Summary:
1. Tedious writing style - too verbose.
2. Hard to distinguish opinions of the author from what has been established scientifically.
3. Repeats - obviously without checking - the feminist lie that there was a "Rule of Thumb" which permitted men to beat their wives with a stick no thicker than their thumb. This casts doubt on his credibility.
4. I stuck it out to the end because there was enough useful information to keep me going. Next time I would advise the author to get a ghost writer and have someone check the facts for him.
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Title: A General Theory of Love by Fari Amini, Richard Lannon, Thomas Lewis ISBN: 0375709223 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 09 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Shadow Syndromes : The Mild Forms of Major Mental Disorders That Sabotage Us by M.D. John J. Ratey ISBN: 0553379593 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 June, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind by Elkhonon Goldberg ISBN: 0195156307 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: October, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Mapping the Mind by Rita Carter ISBN: 0520224612 Publisher: University of California Press Pub. Date: February, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: The EMOTIONAL BRAIN: THE MYSTERIOUS UNDERPINNINGS OF EMOTIONAL LIFE by Joseph Ledoux ISBN: 0684836599 Publisher: Touchstone Books Pub. Date: 27 March, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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