The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves

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Last update: 05-04-2024


Top reviews from the United States

Mark B Gerstein
5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughts on 3 of Kandel's books on the Brain: Different Views of the Elephant
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2022
Here, I summarize my thoughts on three books by Eric Kandel: The Disordered Mind, In Search of Memory, and Reductionism in Art and Brain Science: Bridging the Two Cultures. Eric Kandel is a great American scientist and winner of the Nobel Prize. Interestingly, he started his career as a humanities major at Harvard, and he writes very much in that tradition.

The books cover various topics, including psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, the molecular basis of memory, and the relationship between the subconscious and art, and incorporate his recollections of his life journey and world history, particularly related to Vienna. While the books focus on different things, they all look at different aspects of the same subject, like taking different views of one elephant.

When discussing psychiatric diseases, I like how Dr. Kandel described the root causes and history of schizophrenia and autism. These diseases trace much of their early history to Vienna and some famous early brain scientists there, such as Kraepelin and Asperger. Within the topic of memory, I liked Dr. Kandel's reflection on how memory is stored in synapses from inhibitory and excitatory neurons, and, in parallel fashion, these synaptic memories turn into molecular events and gene expression through activating and repressing transcription factors of the CREB family. Kandel also talks about his own memories. It was striking how Vienna was such a center of scholarship in the early 20th century and so quickly fell into tragedy with the advent of the Nazis and has changed dramatically since then.

Finally, I enjoyed reading about Dr. Kandel's relationship between the subconscious and art. He talked about how many recent artists have tried to move beyond the conscious representation of the figure and harness their subconscious and how abstract art can play into our deep mental processes, such as face recognition.

Overall, I found these books very interesting reads that give an encompassing picture of both the mind and a great person.
David Keymer
5.0 out of 5 stars FIRST-RATE SURVEY OF BRAIN SCIENCE AND ITS APPLICATION TO BRAIN MALADIES AND DYSFUNCTIONS
Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2020
Kandel earned his Nobel laureate for work on how the brain stores memory. He was still publishing major papers in his field as late as ten years ago. (He’s ninety now.) But since 2007, he has reached out deliberately to the lay audience with first, an exemplary autobiography, In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind (2007), which is, as the subtitle implies, as much a history of his discipline as of his own life. In 2012, he published The Age of Insight: The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain from Vienna 1900 to the Present, and in 2017 Reductionism in Art and Brain Science: Bridging the Two Cultures.

A year later, in 2018, he brought out this slim book, in which he assesses the state of our knowledge of the causes and potential remediations for a number of troubling brain disorders: in order of presentation, autism, depression and bi-polar disorder, Alzheimer’s and dementia, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases, PTSD, addiction, misassignment of gender identity. He discusses artistic creativity among schizophrenics and the interesting case of dyslexic, prosopagnosic (face blind) painter Chuck Close. He concludes with a chapter on the great puzzle of consciousness: we‘re circling around an explanation of it but haven’t gotten there yet. A singular virtue of Kandel’s crystal clear prose is that he never uses it to fudge over what we don’t know, so what we get from this exemplary short book is a Cook’s Tour of the state of neuroscience and some idea where it may be leading. We also learn how study of these problems have led to increases in understanding of how the brain works that reach beyond the discrete areas of particular brain maladies or dysfunctions. The book is copiously, and helpfully, illustrated. Kandel is a master explainer.
Hope-Librarian
5.0 out of 5 stars Brain disorders shed light on humanity and understanding
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2018
This is almost a reference book, except that, 1) it draws on short case studies and fascinating stories of research discoveries and patients; and 2), rather than being limited to stating the facts, Dr. Kandel asks questions throughout. He knows his subject, but he’s still curious and is still exploring the brain, the mind, and consciousness. That’s reassuring.

The first chapter includes both historical and modern approaches to the study of the brain (I now have a new respect for synapses), and demonstrates that Kandel is a good narrator/storyteller. He covers a range of conditions devoting a chapter for each; autism, depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia, dementia, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, addictions, gender identity, brain disorders and creativity, and more. He concludes with a chapter on consciousness, or, “the great remaining mystery of the brain.”

As an example, one chapter discusses the history of research on autism and what we know so far. The way mothers of autistic children were treated in the past is quite sad. Today, knowing that genes play a role in autism is oddly comforting, because it means scientists are on the path to learning more. One learns that autism also is subject to environmental influence and possibly a gene mutation. Kandel explains why folks on the spectrum can get sensory overload and some behaviors. It’s a chapter full of interesting background. If you know someone on the spectrum, this will help you understand them better. If you are on the spectrum, this may shed some light.

For each condition, Kandel draws upon historical background and scientific research to date. His goal is to increase human understanding, and understanding brain disorders gives us insight.

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