Book Description
Any sensible diet will help you lose weight, but the challenge for 90% of Americans is actually staying on the diet they choose.Enter Dr. Judith Beck and The Beck Diet Solution.Dr. Beck, one of the foremost authorities in the field of Cognitive Therapy, has created a four-week plan that will help people stick with their diet, lose weight with confidence, and keep weight off for a lifetime. This program is not only based on the authors personal success and on her success with her many clients, but also on published research. It all starts with how you think. With other programs, you think about nothing but food: counting, weighing, and worst of all, food you cant have. This way of thinking inevitably contributes to diet failure. The Beck Diet Solution is the only program that helps dieters use Cognitive Therapy methods scientifically proven over 20 yearsto forever change those treacherous thought patterns that lead to overeating, cheating, excuses, and other dieting downfalls.
Customer Reviews:
Applies to more than just diet.......2007-09-27
Judith S. Beck is right, and her approach works not only for diet, but it can be applied to other efforts in life as well where people derail themselves with their own thoughts. This is a tool for success, not a diet.
Beck Diet Solution.......2007-09-21
This book is great for anyone who wants to lose weight and keep it off. Cognitive Behavior Therapy is the same thing I used to quit smoking 20 years ago, and it really works. The book is written in layman's terms so it's easy to understand, yet not condescending. I highly recommend it.
Brain training........2007-09-17
Judith S. Beck, The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person (Oxmoor House, 2007)
The Beck Diet Solution is not a diet book in the strict sense; there are no eating plans to be found here. This is, more accurately, a diet book adjunct; Beck has designed this to be usable with any diet, whatever you work with. Even the grapefruit diet. (If you're crazy enough to try the grapefruit diet, of course.) Beck's goal here is not to change what you eat so much as the way you eat it, the way you think about eating it, and your habits while eating. After all, as millions of us are well aware, just changing what you eat is in no way guaranteed to shed pounds and keep them off. The idea is to read a chapter a day for six weeks, learning Beck's tips and techniques gradually in order to change your mindset towards food. Does it work? I know that since reading it, I've looked at a few things differently; it's certainly worth a try. *** ½
Awesome book!.......2007-09-15
I am always telling people to buy this book. I have made a friend buy it. Now the tricky part is sitting down and doing it daily. It is a process. I can't wait for the workbook to come out in Oct 2007. This book needs the workbook. It should have been thought out before.
Excellent book .......2007-09-11
I highly recommend this book. I had a great deal of trouble losing 20 pounds. I followed this book and I was successful. It is logical not magical. It is great practical advice on how to lose weight and keep it off.
Book Description
Widely praised for its student-friendly style and exceptional artwork and pedagogy, Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain is a leading undergraduate textbook on the biology of the brain and the systems that underlie behavior. This edition provides increased coverage of taste and smell, circadian rhythms, brain development, and developmental disorders and includes new information on molecular mechanisms and functional brain imaging. Path of Discovery boxes, written by leading researchers, highlight major current discoveries. In addition, readers will be able to assess their knowledge of neuroanatomy with the Illustrated Guide to Human Neuroanatomy, which includes a perforated self-testing workbook. This edition's robust ancillary package includes a bound-in student CD-ROM, an Instructor's Resource CD-ROM, a Connection Website, and LiveAdvise: Neuroscience online student tutoring.
Customer Reviews:
Basic Overlook of Neuroscience.......2007-02-24
This book is really good for a general understanding of neuroscience and it has good pictures. This is really a beginning undergraduate level book and can be used as supplemental material for basic concepts when a student is starting to become more advanced, but it does not go into much detail. It is well-written and consequently easy to read. If you're looking for an introduction to neuroscience this is a good book. If you're looking for a reference book for higher level neuroscience this book won't meet standards.
Good for undergraduates.......2006-11-30
You're probably purchasing this book because it's required for your survey course in neuroscience, and that's fine. In fact, it's pretty good for that purpose. But if you want a more rigorous treatment of the subject matter, then this book needs one or several serious supplements.
It's certainly the most "lickable" neuroscience textbook out there, due to its candy-coated drawings.
Pros:
-Current information
-Readability
-Clinical focus
-Profiling relevant human diseases (however largely non-rigorous)
-Profiling current scientists
-Presentation of some of the diagrams (colorful, do a fair job at synthesizing information)
It is not so good at:
-Thoroughness
-More realistic images (stained sections, slice preparations, fMRI images)
The two cons are a deal-breaker for me, however. For instructors I would recommend this book highly at the undergraduate level and only with a caveat to the graduate level.
Neuroscience Brain.......2006-11-06
It is a very good neurobiology book. All of the concepts are explained very well and in great detail.
An Excellent Text.......2005-12-14
If you have been dabbling in cognitive psychology and brain science, have found it interesting and are looking for a broad yet in-depth treatment then this book will not dissapoint you. It approaches Neuroscience from every possible angle: you will learn about the anatomy and physiology of the brain and how it produces, controls and mediates the sensory, motor and emotional functions that underlie human experience. The layout of the text is logical, it uses great pedagogical tools, and the writing is concise and informative (if a little dry). Highly recommended as a first textbook for serious study.
A Brief Review of "Neuroscience".......2005-09-05
I just finished using this book for an undergradutate Neurobiology class at Harvard University, and found it to be very informative. It has a number of diagrams and illustrations, and clearly describes various aspects of neuroscience in great detail, but in a comprehensive manor. I recommend it to anyone pursuing a career in neuroscience.
Book Description
Is it really possible to change the structure and function of the brain, and in so doing alter how we think and feel? The answer is a resounding yes. In late 2004, leading Western scientists joined the Dalai Lama at his home in Dharamsala, India, to address this very question–and in the process brought about a revolution in our understanding of the human mind. In this fascinating and far-reaching book, Wall Street Journal science writer Sharon Begley reports on how cutting-edge science and the ancient wisdom of Buddhism have come together to show how we all have the power to literally change our brains by changing our minds. These findings hold exciting implications for personal transformation.
For decades, the conventional wisdom of neuroscience held that the hardware of the brain is fixed and immutable–that we are stuck with what we were born with. As Begley shows, however, recent pioneering experiments in neuroplasticity, a new science that investigates whether and how the brain can undergo wholesale change, reveal that the brain is capable not only of altering its structure but also of generating new neurons, even into old age. The brain can adapt, heal, renew itself after trauma, and compensate for disability.
Begley documents how this fundamental paradigm shift is transforming both our understanding of the human mind and our approach to deep-seated emotional, cognitive, and behavioral problems. These breakthroughs show that it is possible to reset our happiness meter, regain the use of limbs disabled by stroke, train the mind to break cycles of depression and OCD, and reverse age-related changes in the brain. They also suggest that it is possible to teach and learn compassion, a key step in the Dalai Lama’s quest for a more peaceful world. But as we learn from studies performed on Buddhist monks, an important component in changing the brain is to tap the power of mind and, in particular, focused attention. This is the classic Buddhist practice of mindfulness, a technique that has become popular in the West and that is immediately available to everyone.
With her extraordinary gift for making science accessible, meaningful, and compelling, Sharon Begley illuminates a profound shift in our understanding of how the brain and the mind interact. This tremendously hopeful book takes us to the leading edge of a revolution in what it means to be human.
Customer Reviews:
'Focus & Attention.".......2007-09-29
This book is based in part on an Oct.2004 meeting bewtween the Dalai Lama & a group of western neurologists & psychologists to discuss the mutability of the human brain. The main positives of this book are that it is meticulously researched, & yet concise. But, despite the title it is not a self-help book. One should not expect any life altering experiences. This is a history of neuro-plasticity, a cerebral trait discovered by neuro-scientific experiments some twenty years ago. The books central message is that the brain/mind can change when we want it to. The techniques of mental discipline can be learned, & our negative traits reduced. Here eastern philosophy & meditation meets western neuro-science. When the reader is interested in the latest developments for treating dysfunction & depression, or in the mental deterioration brought by aging this is a good place to start. Basically, the adult brain retains much of the plasticity of the developing brain, to change the circuitry that weaves neurons into the networks that allow us to think, feel, dream, remember, & suffer. Some findings show that changes can occur by certain mental activities: like learning a language, or playing a musical instrument. To a degree, the neuro-science does blend with the buddhist belief that our reality can be created by our own thoughts & projections. I have learned that meditation can truly help alter ones feelings, especially in dealing with grief & depression. The book explains in detail how various experiments, training methods, & therapies can change the adult brain. It has shown a remarkable ability to cope with unexpected changes, like blindness, recovering from a stroke, etc. The crucial changes in the brain can willfully overcome neural problems like dyslexia, etc by changing its own circuitry. However, the book does not actually answer all of the questions it poses. I was also a bit taken back that the Dalai Lama would condone animal testing? His statment that the larger human community would benefit from the experiments felt expedient to me. Still, this is a four star book for all the data it contains.
Surprising science: new about neuroplasticity. .......2007-09-06
For nearly a century, scientific dogma held that the brain is immutable, fixed by genes and early upbringing. Wall Street Journal science writer Sharon Begley recently visited the frontiers of neuroscience and returned with a news flash: The dogma is wrong. Researchers have discovered that the brain remains plastic, lifelong. This creates new frontiers: Stroke victims can rewire their brains using challenging exercises; deaf people can repurpose dormant auditory cortexes for other tasks; and blind people can begin to "see" patterns of Braille dots using a seemingly dead visual cortex. Suspecting that they were on to a general pattern, researchers soon looked for similar changes in "normal" brains. Working repetitively on your golf swing, playing the piano or learning a language, they found, also change your brain in lasting, important ways, as does practicing compassion toward others. Begley arrives with heavyweight friends: a foreword by the Dalai Lama and a preface by Daniel Goleman of Emotional Intelligence. If you want to understand how the brain keeps working, and how to make yours do more of what you want it to, we think you should start here. Your brain will thank you.
Change your Life.......2007-08-23
Reading this book will change your life by providing scientific proof that humans can change their brains through meditation. The book is readily accessible to the non-scientific/technical reader and the sections involving the Dalai Lama are fascinating. Those interested in neuroscience, meditation, improving one's quality of life, or in the mysteries of the brain will enjoy this book. Educators and parents will also will find this book as inspiration because it suggests a radical new approach to educating and developing young minds.
Understanding our brain.......2007-07-12
Personal renewal through understanding how the brain works is a subject I am very interested in. This book gets you into the science behind this most promising area of new understanding. It is a subject we all need to know more about - science has learned so much about it in the last 15 years - and this book is a very good place to begin your study of this most important developing area of knowledge.
stunning.......2007-07-05
Train your Mind, Change your Brain is a fascinating look at new discoveries in neuroplasticity and their relation to Buddhist practice. Probably the most salient thing with which I came away from this book is the sense of man's self-determinacy and ability to improve himself. In the age-old debate between heredity and environment, the book highlights new discoveries weighing in heavily on the side of environment. Victor Frankl would be proud.
While the information given is often in relation specifically to Buddhist meditation practice, there is very little material here that is not directly applicable to the contemplative tradition of any religion. For that matter, most of what is presented here does not posit religious beliefs at all - for instance, how exploitation of neuroplasticity can correct dyslexia, help people recover use of paralyzed limbs after strokes, etc.; and how continued research into neuroplasticity may help reverse the mental/neural effects of aging.
Begley writes in a very accessible way - the book was quite readable even for a layman like me. It does help to have a basic knowledge of the principles of Buddhism before starting with this book - I'd recommend reading The Art of Happiness by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Howard Cutler as background.
Book Description
The fifth edition of the book is the most major revision yet. Written in a friendly and engaging manner, Biopsychology clearly presents the fundamentals of the study of the biology of behavior but makes the topics personally and socially relevant to the reader.
Four interwoven themes support the major recent developments in the rapidly changing field of biopsychology. Thousands of new references and dozens of new topics have been added to this edition, making Pinel's discussion of and focus on the human element easy and interesting to read.
For those interested in physiological and biological psychology.
Customer Reviews:
Cerebral topography and much more - this is the best.......2007-04-30
I have just read Pinel's excellent work called BIOPSYCHOLOGY. Illustrated by his partner (sic) Maggie, superbly, and contributing greatly to the success of the book as a great teaching medium in neuropsychology and neurology. It is a textbook for undergraduates in Psychology and assumes little in previous physiology and anatomy, using extensive explanations of vocabulary and concepts. Frankly, you might as well buy this one instead of the Pinel's brain coloring book. It will cost more but you will get a lot more out of it along with the same high quality of illustrations necessary to understand this challenging subject. John Pinel has an engaging writing style, some surprising personal anecdotes, and many case histories. I highly recommend BIOPSYCHOLOGY.
ha, ha!!.......2007-04-03
Ha, ha!! I have to put in my 2 cents after reading the review by Sergiu P Codreanu. The section on sleep was one of the ones that was not assigned in my biopsych class, and for good reason. All the information Pinel uses is from the 1970s, and is not all research. Some of it is just reporting of anecdote. I was so amazed after I read Pinel's comments that I contacted a student working on a PhD in circadian rhythms, who said that the cited material was all either urban myths or discredited research. So, some parts of the book are not only worthless, they're counterfactual!! Just what you want in a textbook!! (Oh, by the way, did you know that heroin addicts are all just whiners because withdrawal isn't any worse than a case of the flu? Yeah, that's right, you can experiment with drugs because the side effects are all over-blown.)
As to the rest, the fact that Pinel constantly delves into the details of single research papers leaves the impression that the book is speculative rather than conclusive. It also made it, for me, hard to follow the material. I like to skim first to get an overview of the reading, but you can never tell with Pinel what's going to be an important discussion and what's not.
I hated this book and learned far more about biopsych after reading "Animals in Translation" the summer after the course was over. I only give 2 stars because the graphics are good. Someone needs to steal Pinel's graphics and put them in a decent, accurate textbook.
Oh, and one more thing: the 5th edition is almost exactly the same as the 6th edition. My instructor really tried to twist my arm saying she didn't want me to miss out on any updated info in the new edition. So, after getting my used 5th edition, I went through the book chapter by chapter and section by section. The books are the same, with the exception of 2 page numbers!! What a scam!
Biosych Short cuts Review.......2007-02-03
The book was in good condition, but i returned it because it wasn't what i wanted. I wanted the actual txtbook.
Love the book but CD needs work.......2006-12-13
I absolutely loved this book. It really made learning my class material a more pleasureable experience. However, BEWARE of the practice quizes on the CD. They don't work correctly. Here and there, the answer marked correct is wrong and it doesn't tally your score (which is easily fixable by paying attention). But, I have to wonder if I got something wrong on one of my tests as a result of the CD answers being wrong. So, be careful with the CD.
The book however is informative and explains the material in an understandable manner as long as one has some prev knowledge of psychology at the intro level.
He even includes cognitive neuroscience in almost every chapter which biases me because I work in that field.
So, all in all, book is great but watch out for the CD.
CD is self-congratulatory and virtually content-free .......2006-02-19
While I agree with other reviewers that the text is good and the graphics in the text are outstanding, the CD that accompanies the book is a shocking waste of time.
Pinel has videotaped himself awkwardly addressing his imagined readers and foists these segments on the user at odd points throughout the CD. Each chapter contains a set of flash cards, a single multiple choice quiz, and a list of supplemental readings. The flash cards are of some use, the quiz doesn't provide correct answers for missed questions and yields only a superficial evaluation of the student's performance, and the list of readings is short (three or four citations) and without Web links.
One has the impression that the CD was included because it's de rigueur for college texts in the $100+ price category these days. Neither Pinel nor his editor seems to have any idea what content would actually be useful on a CD, e.g., a variety of quiz types, pre- and post-tests with specific reading remediations in the text for missed questions, animations of text content (rather than silly visual-space-ship-tracking exercises), Web links to supplemental material, and so on.
Book Description
You've probably seen it before: a human brain dramatically lit from the side, the camera circling it like a helicopter shot of Stonehenge, and a modulated baritone voice exalting the brain's elegant design in reverent tones.
To which this book says: Pure nonsense. In a work at once deeply learned and wonderfully accessible, the neuroscientist David Linden counters the widespread assumption that the brain is a paragon of design--and in its place gives us a compelling explanation of how the brain's serendipitous evolution has resulted in nothing short of our humanity. A guide to the strange and often illogical world of neural function, The Accidental Mind shows how the brain is not an optimized, general-purpose problem-solving machine, but rather a weird agglomeration of ad-hoc solutions that have been piled on through millions of years of evolutionary history. Moreover, Linden tells us how the constraints of evolved brain design have ultimately led to almost every transcendent human foible: our long childhoods, our extensive memory capacity, our search for love and long-term relationships, our need to create compelling narrative, and, ultimately, the universal cultural impulse to create both religious and scientific explanations. With forays into evolutionary biology, this analysis of mental function answers some of our most common questions about how we've come to be who we are.
Customer Reviews:
Nicely done, accessible account of the human brain.......2007-08-08
David Linden's "The Accidental Mind" is a neat little book. He has two main purposes: (a) to write a readable introduction on brain science, accessible to nonspecialists; (b) to make the case that (page 6) `. . .the brain is an inelegant and inefficient agglomeration of stuff, which nonetheless works surprisingly well." As to the first point, this volume is a far cry from the magnificent work, Michael Gazzaniga's The Cognitive Neurosciences III: Third Edition. However, if one is not well steeped in knowledge and understanding of the neurosciences, Gazzaniga's edited work is close to impenetrable. This book is well and crisply written, explaining simply how neurons work the structure of the brain, how the brain develops, and so on.
As to the second point? He asserts that, quoting Francois Jacob (Page 6), "'Evolution is a tinkerer, not an engineer." That is, evolution operates on organisms as they are and then the process of change takes advantage of the material already existent to adapt to new conditions and challenges. Thus, the human brain is mounted on older, more primitive structures, in an ill fitting complex. As he says (page 21): "The brain is built like an ice cream cone (and you are the top scoop): Through evolutionary time, as higher functions were added, a new scoop was placed on top, but the lower scoops were left largely unchanged."
Thereafter, he speaks of the structure of the brain, how the fully mature human brain develops (with both nature and nurture having roles to play), how the brain is associated with all manner of emotions, learning, religion, and so on.
The Ninth chapter has a title that speaks directly to Linden's first theme--"The Unintelligent Design of the Brain." Here, he slyly critiques advocates of the "Intelligent Design" perspective by noting that the brain is hardly an exemplar of some great design. As noted already, he sees the brain as inefficient and "jury-rigged."
This is a book that provides plenty of insight into how neuroscientists study the structure and function of the brain--and presents some of the exciting possibilities for future research.
In sum, this is a work that ought to be attended to by those interested in the brain sciences, but who cannot readily read the technical literature.
Entertaining?.......2007-07-30
This is a great book for readers who are interested in an overview of the anatomical and physiological functions of the brain. If you have had any previous A+P, this book may give you flashbacks (and does a good job of explaining how those feelings were "created.") You may even recognise many of the examples and case studies right from classic lectures.
If you are approaching "The Accidental Mind" as pure entertainment, enjoy. If you are looking for juicier or more in depth case studies, keep browsing.
A Very Refreshing Book On Brain Science.......2007-07-18
The addition of this review is to fill in one gap in particular. Dr. Linden is the first scientific author I have read in quite a while that wasn't flip with schools of thought. He has distilled research with varied hypothesis and has enough respect for his field and the reader to frankly state when "We just don't know." My only regret is that Dr. Linden didn't make this book the "larger tomb" he mentions when wrapping up the research that didn't make it into the book. Highly recommended to anyone who is mystified by belief and dreams.
A Perspective-Changing Read about the Brain.......2007-07-04
Why do we sleep? What is love? What is happening when we dream? These questions seem so basic to our human experience, and yet the average person in at a complete loss to explain even the most common of our daily experiences. This is where the Accidental Mind comes in. Linden's book offers a refreshingly different perspective on the brain. After reading this book, you will have a much better understanding of how your brain shapes your experience, it's limitations, and what is going on "behind the curtain." Intelligence, gender identity, sexuality, are all covered with an eye to how these factors play out in the architecture of the brain.
This book also provides a great deal of information on the biological basis for issues that are being debated in our culture, which many people will find enlightening and necessary for making informed comments.
If you are considering picking up this book, read Chapter 7 on sleep, available for free from Linden's website:
[...]
While the book may sometimes goes into great detail on the biology, most readers will find plenty of compelling information in these pages. People who enjoy this book and are interested in some of the practical insights that new research is providing about humans, how we work, and practical advice for improving our lives should check out The Happiness Hypothesis by Jonathan Haidt.
Happy reading!
For your thinking and reading friends...........2007-05-31
I found The Accidental Mind a well written, humorous and thought-provoking introduction to neuroscience and to some profound ideas about evolution and other topics. It's the kind of book that makes you interrupt your partner's reading every five minutes with "Hey, listen to this...." If Dr. Linden lectures as entertainingly and interestingly as he writes, his classes at Johns Hopkins University must be in great demand.
Book Description
Have you ever felt like you were working on a seething mass of bits? Even worse, was it _your_ code? Or have you worked on a project that started out simply enough, but ended up a nest of twisty passages that nobody could navigate?
Surviving until the next bug report isn't fun, isn't fulfilling, and just isn't a good way to live. Fortunately, there's a way out. Head First Objects shows you how to analyze, design, and write serious object-oriented software: software that's easy to maintain and extend, software that doesn't hurt your head, software that lets you add new features without breaking the old ones.
You'll learn:
- How to put fundamental OO _design principles_ and _patterns_ into practice
- How to _refactor_ your code so that it's easy to maintain and extend
- How to write _reuseable code_, so you don't have to repeat yourself
- How to use UML 2 to _describe_ how your software works
Have you stayed away from Object Oriented Programming because you thought it would put you to sleep? Because it sounded like it was fun only to pointy-headed geeks? Don't worry. If you've read a Head First book, you know what to expect: a book designed for the way your brain works. Expect to have fun, expect to learn, expect to help Trini build the ultimate online salad boutique.
Customer Reviews:
A good book is made of good stories - and that is the case.......2007-09-23
I have already read quite a lot of Head First Series books. I have to admit that I have already been a little bit tired by almost the same pictures in all the Head First books. So after long pause I have decided to open the book. I was positively surprised I have found very good stories explaining main aspects of OOAD in real world. You can read the book even on sundays afternoon instead of some novels. It teaches you OOAD basics (and even a lot more) by nonintrusive method. Before reading the book I recommmend to think about Head First Design Patterns too.
Could be only 30 pages; has good topics.......2007-08-30
I have read this book after Head First Design Patterns and I expected a similar level, but I am disappointed a little. This book has good topics and it is good for start, but I think that the useful information in it could be told in 30 pages instead of almost six hundred.
Great Book, very easy to learn.......2007-08-25
I already know the family Head First and this one specially is very important in every Object Oriented developer. Very easy to study and learn with this book.
for the beginner's beginner.......2007-07-15
I was quite disappointed with this one. Way, way too much fluff. I kind of liked the "fluff" on the Head First Design Patterns - because design patterns is a hard topic and it helped. But for this one? Gosh, that doggy door use-case example got _really_ boring after 50 pages, I was withering in pain. This book is for the absolute beginner. Professionals and CS grads might want to stay away from this.
Good Book, Bad Title.......2007-06-29
Fine enough book, but in case you were hoping for a book on Business Systems Analysis and Design using Object Oriented Techniques... this is not it. Should be Re-named to "Head First Object-Oriented SOFTWARE Analysis and Design in Java". Did this book really need to be so programming language dependant??
Book Description
An exploration of the nature of our mind, from the inside out, by a leading neurobiologist.
Over the last twenty years, there has been growing attention in the Western world to mindfulness—paying attention to life in the present moment. Here, Daniel J. Siegel investigates the phenomenon of mindfulness as it impacts our daily lives, offering readers insight into personal relationships, emotional behavior, parenting, and work.
Customer Reviews:
Interesting.......2007-08-09
This is an interesting book. I bought it because I live in Los Angeles, and there is a Mindful Awareness program at UCLA. I wanted to see what that program was all about before I joined it. [...]
which is the mindful awareness research center site (MARC)at UCLA. There you can download some mindful awareness meditations. They are pretty good in helping you get into a state of greater mindful awareness.
Could be a life changing book.......2007-07-04
This book outlines the steps one can take to develop a self observer. It is the self observer within us that allows us to become architects of our destinies. Backed up with current research on how emotional trauma or experience lays down pathways in our brains that, once identified, can be re routed if need be.
The Mindful Brain.......2007-06-14
I found the content of this book fascinating and important (5 stars) but the writing ponderous and redundant (2 stars), for the most part. It is an ambitious attempt to synthesize and interpret scientific research and the author's personal experience in an emerging field that is fraught with speculation. Perhaps because of this, the author appears to have cobbled together every study potentially relating brain function and mindfulness, weaving back and forth to make every possible connection, rather than following a few salient lines of thinking and explicating them clearly. Difficult as it was to digest some of the material (I am a practiced reader of science but had to read too many sentences too many times), I benefited personally and immediately from several of the concepts presented such as streams of awareness, parenting styles ("secure attachment"), approach mindset and mindful education, and I look forward to further research in this field. I had imagined the brain research to be further along than it is and expected more about research on meditation, so I was a tad disappointed, but this is not the author's fault. In spite of the poor presentation, there was some delightful new learning for me and I am glad to have read this.
AN ENGAGING READ.......2007-06-01
It's not often that a book engages me the way this one has. I have a deep curiousity about neuroscience and human potential and this book is answering a lot of my questions. I'm only half way through so I don't feel I can give it a full review at this time. However, if the second half is a well-written as the first, it truly deserves more than five stars. Pamela D. Blair, Author The Next Fifty Years: A Guide for Women at Mid-Life And Beyond
The Foundations for a Sea Change in Psychological Health and Personal Development.......2007-05-29
A favorite book of mine is Ellen Langer's "Mindfulness." Happily still in print though it is nearly twenty years old. With it, Ellen, an eminent academic at Harvard introduced the psychological community to something that lies at the core of many religious, spiritual and contemplative practices.
This marvelous book by the co-director of the UCLA Mindful Awareness Center is a next step. To give you a flavor of the book, let me quote from the Preface,
"Welcome to a journey into the heart of our lives. Being mindfully aware, attending to the richness of our here-and-now experiences, creates scientifically recognized enhancements in out physiology, our mental functions, and our inter-personal relationships. Being fully present in out awareness opens our lives to new possibilities of well-being.
Almost all cultures have practices that help people develop awareness of the moment. Each of the major religions of the world utilizes some method to enable individuals to focus their attention, from meditation to prayer, yoga to t'ai chi."
For Daniel Siegel, being "mindful: means being aware, of being conscientious, with kindness and care." He uses a helpful acronym: COAL, for curiosity, openness, acceptance and love.
As Daniel points out, we are in desperate need of finding a new way of being, not just in ourselves, but in our relationships, schools and in society as a whole. Professionals constantly see the terrible consequences for people who feel social isolation, dislocation and alienation. Yet until the advent of the Positive Psychology movement, academic psychology, psychotherapy and psychiatry had all focused almost exclusively on the sick mind. To this day, most people working in these fields have been taught little if anything about mental health, ad even fewer are engaged in practices that can keep them healthy and resilient. It is no coincidence that people working in psychology and psychiatry have some of the highest burnout rates of any of the major professions.
The burgeoning evidence of the extraordinary plasticity of the human brain also has another side to it: if we are not mindful, if we are in unhealthy relationships, and if we are without any kind of inspiration or moral compass, our brains get wired in ways that they should not. And the earlier in life that it happens, the more difficult it is to unravel later. This is the reason why abuse in childhood can have effects that last decades.
This book is an attempt to redress the balance. The book is divided into four sections, fourteen chapters and three appendices:
PART I MIND, BRAIN, AND AWARENESS
1. A Mindful Awareness
2. Brain Basics
PART II IMMERSION IN DIRECT EXPERIENCE
3. A Week of Silence
4. Suffering and the Streams of Awareness
PART III FACETS OF THE MINDFUL BRAIN
5. Subjectivity and Science
6. Harnessing the Hub: Attention and the Wheel of Awareness
7. Jettisoning Judgments: Dissolving Top-Down Constraints
8. Internal Attunement: Mirror Neurons, Resonance, and Attention to Intention
9. Reflective Coherence: Neural Integration and Middle Prefrontal Function
10. Flexibility of Feeling: Affective Style and an Approach Mindset
11. Reflective Thinking: Imagery and the Cognitive Style of Mindful Learning
PART IV REFLECTIONS ON THE MINDFUL BRAIN
12. Educating the Mind: The Fourth ``R'' and the Wisdom of Reflection
13. Reflection in Clinical Practice: Being Present and Cultivating the Hub
14. The Mindful Brain in Psychotherapy: Promoting Neural Integration
Afterword: Reflections on Reflection
Appendix I Reflection and Mindfulness Resources
Appendix II Glossary and Terms
Appendix III Neural Notes
The book is well referenced and there is a good index.
As you will see from the chapter headings, the book is rooted in neuroscience and reviews the empirical evidence that our minds can not only control our brains, but also grow and develop them. Healthy experiences can help us cultivate our brains, our minds and our sense of well-being. What he has done in this book is to provide a theoretical foundation for the neuropsychology and consequences of mindfulness. As a neuroscientist, I thought that his models made extremely good sense. He writes well, and I do not think that what he has to say would be difficult for anyone with a high school education.
Why is this important? Because it shows that there are ways of maintaining and perhaps restoring mental health without medications or other external interventions. Of course there are times when medicines can be the only option, and literally life saving. But they are not always necessary. This brain-based approach is also very helpful for people who re already engaged in meditation, prayer or other forms of mindfulness training. It can be very helpful to know something about what is going on inside your head, without having to rely on experience alone.
Daniel shows that mindfulness is something that can easily be taught and learned, and that the consequences of using the techniques can be extraordinary, not only for ourselves, but also for our families and friends.
Though not, strictly speaking, a "how to" book on achieving mindfulness, there are ample descriptions of the keys that we need to attain it. He also provides details of some organizations that offer mindfulness training.
Very highly recommended.
Average customer rating:
- any impressario, non-performer, non-musician, lacks credibility
- Music For The Brain?
- Very interesting
- Absolutely perfect marriage of music, psychology, and neurology
- not written for a musician
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This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
Daniel J. Levitin
Manufacturer: Dutton Adult
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ASIN: 0525949690 |
Book Description
A fascinating exploration of the relationship between music and the mind—and the role of melodies in shaping our lives
Whether you load your iPod with Bach or Bono, music has a significant role in your life—even if you never realized it. Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last be- coming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, including:
• Are our musical preferences shaped in utero?
• Is there a cutoff point for acquiring new tastes in music?
• What do PET scans and MRIs reveal about the brain's response to music?
• Is musical pleasure different from other kinds of pleasure?
This Is Your Brain on Music explores cultures in which singing is considered an essential human function, patients who have a rare disorder that prevents them from making sense of music, and scientists studying why two people may not have the same definition of pitch. At every turn, this provocative work unlocks deep secrets about how nature and nurture forge a uniquely human obsession. BACKCOVER: “I know Dan to have a deep musical knowledge and strong intellect combined with a warm spirit and a big heart. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of popular music . . . He is a fine writer and has the ability to make difficult concepts very clear.”
—STEVIE WONDER
Customer Reviews:
any impressario, non-performer, non-musician, lacks credibility.......2007-10-03
For a musicican, for one trained as a musician, this is a heady intellectual book. However, it often misses the point - entirely, aesthetically, and in practical terms. For instance, a piece practiced a 1000 times, according to the author, should be peerless. Obviously, this is not true. The native talent of the performer is paramount, and, most of all, the piece may be practiced WRONGLY 1000 times, of which, as a non-performer, the author is clearly unaware. The author also almost completely ignores the influence and insight of professional classical performers. The author is an administrator and impressario of rock and probably rap bands. The author has no training in musicology, and probably never talked to a musicologist. I admire the intent, but there are no breakthroughs here in understanding, or enjoying music, and no great insights into music's magic.
Music For The Brain?.......2007-10-01
Certainly well documented and written for those in the know. It tends to be somewhat boring on some occations but you have to continue on the read to hear the music!
Very interesting.......2007-09-30
Being a musician, I was suprised at how little I actually knew about sound. The book was very interesting and well written. If you're at all curious about the phycology of sound, check out this book.
Absolutely perfect marriage of music, psychology, and neurology.......2007-09-13
This was an amazing read that I absolutely could not put down. This is exactly the book I have been waiting years for. It is written for people with a deep interest in both science and music; I believe that many "engineer/scientist by day and musician by night" types will love this book. Best of all, it does not require a deep understanding of music, psychology, or neurology (although one of Levitin's premises seems to be that we ALL have a deep understanding of music, whether we know it or not!)
Levitin starts out with a chapter or so on his background and music theory. As many reviewers have mentioned, the music theory presented here (and throughout the book) may not be new material for practicing musicians, but it does lay a good groundwork for many of the definitions and ideas that Levitin uses throughout the text.
Moving on to the rest of the book, Levitin has an interesting style that I found riveting. The book is not highly dense with ideas - it is not a textbook. It often takes several pages to come to a point. However, in these pages, Levitin is either giving historical information about how the current theories have come about, telling anecdotes related to the topic, or explaining laboratory results that have shed light on the topic.
Please do not misunderstand the intent of this book . . . it is not a thesis, a textbook, a journal article, etc. It should not be used as a primary source for information on any of the topics presented. And Levitin lays this out in the forward. This book is geared toward a much broader audience.
not written for a musician.......2007-09-07
Although i was personally quite disappointed with the book, I have given it a rating of 3 stars because it perhaps serves a role educating younger readers looking for a few interesting ideas or a general overview of music psychology.
As for me, I found myself skimming the pages as rapidly as possible, occasionally saying out loud in frustration, "Get to the point!" The few interesting ideas (such as that professional musicians tend to transfer activities from the right brain to the left) I had already picked up elsewhere.
I have nothing against the author. He seems friendly and nice enough, and has obviously spent a lot of time and effort researching the subject, coming to reasonable and well-supported positions. However, I do think a lot more (or better?) editing was called for, so that ideas were presented in a more organized way, and a lot of fluff and unnecessary repetition removed.
In summary, this could be an introduction to the subject if you have never thought about it before, but if you are a musician, and have thought at all about the psychology and evolution of music, even casually, and especially if you have kept up with the general media's coverage of new scientific research, this will not have anything to offer you. In addition, if you like writing to be dense with ideas and information (Oliver Sacks is a good example), this will be particularly frustrating.
Book Description
An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they've transformed—people whose mental limitations or brain damage 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.
Customer Reviews:
Very interesting.......2007-10-05
Although this book gives a lot of valuable information, you will have to wade through the usual psychological jargon.
Superb writing on a complex and fascinating subject.......2007-09-12
What a fantastic and absorbing subject, so very well explained and defended by the author.
I believe this book to be a must read for everyone interested in, or subject to, some of the strange and intricate brain disorders we see developing and spreading in Amercian society.
Doctor Doidge has done an excellent job in brining this material to life while breaking down a complex subject into a highly readable format.
Great and easy to read.......2007-09-02
One of the best "brain" books out there.
Each chapter introduces it's own seperated brain related topic. Felt like I read many book--for my many interests, this is a good thing.
As an educator this helps explains many different behaviors and learning styles.
I have recomm this book to many.
When Change is Possible - Miracles Can Happen.......2007-08-27
If you're like me - a rank amateur in the field of brain science - you'll find that Dr. Doidge has authored an interesting and compelling text to explain the science of neuroplasticity. More importantly, you'll discover the implications of the "new" discoveries that show that the human brain is malleable throughout our lifetime.
While I sometimes got lost in the details, Dr. Doidge provided enough easy to understand nuggets to allow me to grasp that the science of neuroplasticity has life altering applicability to all human beings. The text provides many stories of personal triumph that could be seen as unimaginable miracles to those who have no background in this exciting science. The stories have not only been useful in my own life, they have shown themselves to be useful to others as I share these exciting discoveries with friends who have children who struggle with similar stories as those depicted in the text.
I would not classify this text in the self-help genre. It is a detailed exploration of the brains ability to change itself and it prepares the reader with sufficient knowledge and encouragement to seek solutions that just a few years ago were thought to be the stuff of miracles.
Fascanating.......2007-08-20
The Brain That Changes Itself is a collection of fascinating stories that shows the plasticity of the brain. For much of history, it was believed that the brain you were born with was hardwired and you were pretty much stuck with what you had at birth. Doidge has put together an interesting collection of stories that demonstrate that 1) the brain is indeed very plastic and 2) we have just begun to understand the capacity of the brain to change itself.
Woven in with the different stories is the history of the scientific and medical community theories about the brain. For most of history, it was accepted theory that the brain was hardwired. The scientists that advanced new theories were met with collective resistance. There was a real effort to cast the new theories as so much baloney.
Fortunately for everyone, the new theory about the plasticity of the brain has proven correct. There are stories of a woman who was born with half a brain but has learned to function in life. There are heart warming stories of stroke victims who had gone through traditional rehabilitation but after extensive rehab based on the theory of the brain's plasticity have made remarkable additional improvements.
It is well worth reading. We truly do need a better understanding of our brain, how it works and what can be done when it is not functioning properly. This book provides a great lesson in how the brain can change itself.
Book Description
Every brain begins as a female brain. It only becomes male eight weeks after conception, when excess testosterone shrinks the communications center, reduces the hearing cortex, and makes the part of the brain that processes sex twice as large.
Louann Brizendine, M.D. is a pioneering neuropsychiatrist who brings together the latest findings to show how the unique structure of the female brain determines how women think, what they value, how they communicate, and whom they’ll love. Brizendine reveals the neurological explanations behind why
• A woman remembers fights that a man insists never happened
• A teen girl is so obsessed with her looks and talking on the phone
• Thoughts about sex enter a woman’s brain once every couple of days but enter a man’s brain about once every minute
• A woman knows what people are feeling, while a man can’t spot an emotion unless somebody cries or threatens bodily harm
• A woman over 50 is more likely to initiate divorce than a man
Women will come away from this book knowing that they have a lean, mean communicating machine. Men will develop a serious case of brain envy.
Customer Reviews:
A must to read for every man.......2007-10-02
More than reading The Female Brain i also listened to it after buying it from audiobook.
My advise is that this book is a must read for every man.
The book is very will written and the author Dr. Louann Brizendine did all of us a favour by going very deep in the Female Brain.
I can not wait to see Dr. Louann Brizendine write about the Male Brain,I am sure that it will be another best seller.
Bravo Dr.Brizendine.
Ibrahim Al Mugaiteeb
Saudi Arabia
humanrightsfirst_saudiarabia@yahoo.com
the female brain.......2007-10-01
The Female Brain is a great book to read for any parent and coach who is interested to find out about the needs and wants of a woman of different age groups. It is especially good read for the coaches who train women (most of them are men) to understand what drives the women to performance and how to fuel this drive. A must read book!
Not at all pleased.......2007-09-21
I began reading the first chapter of the book and I found my self slamming the book down and walking out of the room in an aggressive and angry mood. The first chapter pretty much sums up how she will approach the rest of the book. The largest issue I had is that she does not take into consideration environmental or social factors. Rather, she believes that we are fated by our chemistry. I am a prospective graduate student in philosophy who has done work on intelligibility and epistemology based on our physical and physiological bodies. I specifically used Anne Fausto-Sterling in my work (she's a biologist). She argues that our biology is not just something that happens, but rather our environment has the potential to affect our biology. For instance, today the words in this book caused me to have an angry reaction. I became aggressive and more alert than I was before. The thoughts that occurred in my head triggered a physiological response. Thus, my interpretation of something external caused me to react physiologically. She doesn't address (or at least this is what I gathered from the first chapter) that something externally can cause our hormones to shift. I could ramble on and on , but this is primarily what concerns me.
Scientific Truth vs. Political Correctness.......2007-09-19
Dr. Brizendine admits, "In writing this book I have struggled with two voices in my head - one is the scientific truth, the other is political correctness. I have chosen to emphasize scientific truth over political correctness even though scientific truths may not always be welcome." It is rare that anyone who is in favor of political correctness openly admits that it conflicts with scientific truth. It is also interesting that she says she has "chosen" scientific truth; this statement implies that it was a choice she had to consider.
At no point in the book does Dr. Brizendine draw politically incorrect conclusions from the scientific data, even when they seem inevitable. She verifies at length that the moodiness and changeability men notice in women is not only real, but neurochemically based. She tap-dances around the inevitable mention of Lawrence Summers' being forced to resign from the presidency of Harvard for mentioning that men more frequently show scientific ability than women do by explaining that it isn't that women can't do math and science, it's just that those things require working alone, and women's hormones make working on their own without constant feedback and guidance from others intolerable for them. (Personally, I'm a woman and a loner, and the idea of working with other people makes me want to jump off a building.) Also, in discussing how women choose men who will be good providers as mates, she says, "Though single motherhood has become fashionable among some sets of modern women, it remains to be seen how well this model will succeed." This is disingenuous; a few minutes of research would have shown her that it has already been seen how well this model will succeed, and that is not very well at all. Children with absent fathers have a far higher incidence of delinquency, behavioral problems, mood disorders, and academic trouble.
Another example comes in the discussion of mothers of infants. Dr. Brizendine reveals that the feelings of withdrawal new mothers feel when they are separated from their babies are hormonally based, and admits that when she herself went back to work when her son was only five months old, she "was a wreck on most days". That is, not only are working mothers of infants not being very good mothers, they're also not being very good workers. Naturally she doesn't suggest that maybe, just maybe mothers should at least wait until their children are past babyhood before skipping back to the office, not even when she goes on to detail the deleterious physical effect on the "trust and security circuits" in the brains of children whose mothers are inattentive, an effect that lasts for a lifetime, nor when she details the behavioral troubles exhibited by the children of mothers who work full-time. Instead, she tries to claim that having someone else take care of your children is okay because female monkeys sometimes leave their babies with other monkeys. What she glosses over is that these other monkeys are the babies' aunts or grandmothers - relatives with a genetic motivation to take good care of the babies. So yes, if there's a grandmother or aunt or other close relative to babysit your baby while you work, that will work well. But many of us don't live that near relatives who are willing to babysit, and dumping your toddlers off at daycare to be raised by strangers making minimum wage isn't remotely the same thing.
However, for Dr. Brizendine, simply admitting that the differences between men and women are biologically based and not social constructs was probably going frighteningly far, and for that, she deserves credit.
The book verifies that boys are not only larger, but also more aggressive, more disruptive, and less mentally mature than girls of the same age, but doesn't follow through to the obvious politically incorrect conclusion that maybe co-education isn't such a great idea. Hey, why not lock up a bunch of helpless little girls with unsocialized children who are larger, stronger, more aggressive, less mature and less self-controlled than they are? Even when she explains that teenage girls spend hours in the bathroom together because "It's the only private place at school we can go to *talk*!", the author does not seem to notice that she is building a case against co-education.
One of the most intriguing passages in this book was when the author explained that the proverbial "fight or flight" response is actually the male response to danger; females, prevented by their smaller size or by the need to protect their young from fighting or flying, are more apt to respond with "tend or befriend". She cites the example of a teenage girl she knew, Elana, whose best friend started insulting another girl who Elana had once been friends with. Even though Elana didn't like this behavior, she meekly let it pass without a word of protest because she was too frightened of losing the friendship. According to Dr. Brizendine, a great deal of female behavior is motivated by this fear of loss of a relationship. This doesn't speak well for women's ability to stand up for their friends or fight for a principle in the face of opposition, but, well, that's why we have men.
For the most part, the science in this book is pretty solid, but there are a couple of areas where Dr. Brizendine accepted common wisdom rather than examining it. For example, there is a chapter detailing the hormonal changes that allegedly explain turbulent adolescent behavior, an idea that has gained widespread acceptance in the media and in water-cooler conversations. The problem is, the entire concept of adolescence, as well as the notion that this is a time of inevitable stormy emotion and behavior, didn't exist until the 20th century and is peculiar to the industrialized West. The turbulence is caused by the artificial prolonging of childhood into the years when humans should be working and starting a family, not by hormones. Try expecting someone in his or her thirties to follow rules made for children and see if the result isn't some storminess.
Another problem area was when Dr. Brizendine tried to prove that men are virtually incapable of noticing changes in other peoples' expression. According to her, their brains just don't register it, whereas women's do, and this is where we get the idea of women's intuition. Unfortunately for her, I just read a book (Everyday Mind Reading: Understanding What Other People Think and Feel) that thoroughly debunks the idea of women's superior intuition. In fact, men are just as adept as reading people's faces as women. Which didn't surprise me; if men were really as inept at this as Dr. Brizendine claimed, novels written by men would be devoid of mention of characters' expressions, and no male spy would last for more than a day before getting himself killed.
There is a regrettably short appendix about sexual orientation, which verifies the common belief that Lesbians are more likely to display masculine characteristics than straight women. According to the book, prenatal exposure to testosterone is one of the causes of both homosexuality and unconventional gender behavior in women.
The blurb claims that men who read this book will "develop a serious case of brain envy". I doubt that; I'm a woman, and this book made me devoutly wish I could get a retroactive sex change operation.
The Female Brain.......2007-09-16
I found this book very enlightening, well written, sometimes a little technical but on the whole a very interesting insight into the female brain
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