THE BODY HAS A HEAD

by Gustav Eckstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 28, 1969

This is the gamiest treatise ever written on the body. Muscle, heart, lung, blood, digestion, metabolism, kidney, endocrine--these are not exhilarating subjects, at least not as they are usually presented in medical texts. Perhaps because Eckstein mixes philosophy with physiology, literature with science, and treats the nervous system as a grand romance the reader moves through his pages continually alert, both enlightened and delighted. The key to Eckstein's success, besides his immense erudition and aplomb, lies in his happy knack of discussing mechanical functions as if they were extensions of the human personality, because, as he says, ""the human mind is the body's master and the book's destination."" There is no simplistic Reader's Digest equation here between how we are ailing and what we are thinking; rather, Eckstein takes for granted ""the awesome intimacy of brain and mind, body and head,"" and ""in the presence of those particles of which we are always more and more, and of which finally we are constructed,"" he weaves his own bright and rolling tapestry, pursuing the vital processes, now looking to the thoughts of the ancients, now to those of Freud and Pavlov. True, Eckstein can be a fanciful-fellow: it is a little cheap to call Sophocles ""the first Freudian,"" or to imagine electrodes as resembling ""curlers for the night,"" though ""shrewd housewife"" is certainly a witty description of the kidney, and many other phrases are equally apt. That there is a larky air to the undertaking should not, we hope, detract from the seriousness and integrity of the author and his itinerary through a world we all possess.

Pub Date: Jan. 28, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION