The Brain That Changes Itself

An introduction to the science of neuroplasticity recounts the case stories of patients with mental limitations or brain damage whose seemingly inalterable conditions were successfully treated or even cured through treatments that involved the thought re-alteration of brain structure.

Zusatztext 105531682 Informationen zum Autor Norman Doidge, M.D., is a psychiatrist, a psychoanalyst, and the New York Times bestselling author of The Brain's Way of Healing, which was the winner of the 2015 Gold Nautilus Book Award in Science & Cosmology . He was on the Research Faculty of the Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research at Columbia University's Department of Psychiatry in New York City, and on the faculty of the University of Toronto's Department of Psychiatry for thirty years. He lives in Toronto. Klappentext "Fascinating. Doidge's book is a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain."-Oliver Sacks, MD, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a HatWhat is neuroplasticity? Is it possible to change your brain? Norman Doidge's inspiring guide to the new brain science explains all of this and more An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable, and proving that it is, in fact, possible to change your brain. Psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity, its healing powers, and the people whose lives they've transformed-people whose mental limitations, brain damage or brain trauma were seen as unalterable. We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed. Using these marvelous stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential. PENGUIN BOOKS THE BRAIN THAT CHANGES ITSELF Norman Doidge, M.D., is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and researcher on the faculty at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research in New York and the University of Toronto's department of psychiatry, as well as an author, essayist, and poet. He is a four-time recipient of Canada's National Magazine Gold Award. He divides his time between Toronto and New York. A Slate Pick for a Best Book of the Year A Globe & Mail Best Book of the Year Praise for The Brain That Changes Itself Doidge's book is a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain. . . . Only a few decades ago, scientists considered the brain to be fixed or 'hardwired,' and considered most forms of brain damage, therefore, to be incurable. Dr. Doidge, an eminent psychiatrist and researcher, was struck by how his patients' own transformations belied this, and set out to explore the new science of neuroplasticity by interviewing both scientific pioneers in neuroscience and patients who have benefited from neurorehabilitation. Here he describes in fascinating personal narratives how the brain, far from being fixed, has remarkable powers of changing its own structure and compensating for even the most challenging neurological conditions. Oliver Sacks In bookstores, the science aisle generally lies well away from the self-help section, with hard reality on one set of shelves and wishful thinking on the other. But Norman Doidge's fascinating synopsis of the current revolution in neuroscience straddles this gap: the age-old distinction between the brain and the mind is crumbling fast as the power of positive thinking finally gains scientific credibility. Mind-bending, miracle-working, reality-busting stuff, with implications . . . not only for individual pat...

“The power of positive thinking finally gains scientific credibility. Mind-bending, miracle-making, reality-busting stuff...with implications for all human beings, not to mention human culture, human learning and human history.”
—The New York Times

“Brilliant...Doidge has identified a tidal shift in basic science...The implications are monumental.”
—The London Times

“Fascinating. Doidge’s book is a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain.”
—Oliver Sacks, MD

“Lucid and absolutely fascinating. It satisfies in equal measure the mind and heart.”
—The Chicago Tribune

"An utterly wonderful book—without question one of the most important books about the brain you will ever read; yet it is beautifully written, immensely approachable, and full of humanity. Its message is one of hope: it is not just our brains that shape our thinking, but our thinking that, very definitely, shapes our brains."
—Iain McGilchrist MA (Oxon), BM, FRCPsych, FRSA author of The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

“Two years ago, when the journal Cerebrum at the Dana Foundation in the US updated its list of great books about the brain for the general reader, it found there were already 30,000 brain-related books in English. Aided by scientific advisers and readers, it produced a new list - with The Brain That Changes Itself at No. 1.”
—The Melbourne Age

“Doidge turns everything we thought we knew about the brain upside down.”
—Publisher’s Weekly

“Brilliant...This book is a wonderful and engaging way or re-imagining what kind of creatures we are.”
—Jeanette Winterson, novelist, Order of the British Empire, Guardian, Best Book of 2008

“Superb. Brilliant. I devoured it.” 
—V.S. Ramachandran, MD, PHD, Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, Univeristy of California, San Diego, Author of Phantoms of the Brain 

“Doidge... is a master ... at explaining science to the rest of us. Doidge is the best possible guide. You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to read it, just curious about your brain.  Buy this book. Your brain will thank you.”
—The Globe and Mail

“Readers will want to read entire sections aloud and pass the book on to someone who can benefit from it. [Doidge] links scientific experimentation with personal triumph in a way that inspires awe”
*—Washington Post 

• “Doidge 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 a new age. 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.”  
  —Jeff Zimman, Posit Science, e-newsletter 

  “The most readable and best general treatment of this subject to date.”        
  —Michael M. Merzenich, Ph.D., Keck Center for Integrative Neurosciences   University of California at San Francisco

  “A riveting, essential book… These stories are most emotionally satisfying. Doidge addresses how cultural influences literally "shape" our brain. [And]….our response to the world around us is not only a social or psychological phenomenon, but often a lasting neurological process.”
  —Montreal Gazette, Liam Durcan, MD,      Neurologist & Novelist 

  “A hymn to life.”
  —Panorama Italy

  “The Brain That Changes Itself...is without qu…