A worthy companion to books by Oliver Sacks, Daniel Dennett, and other students of the always puzzling human mind.
When asked to imagine a brown cow, what takes place inside your head? This pleasantly winding survey offers some clues.
Per John Lennon, can we really imagine that there’s no heaven? Perhaps, writes Davies (Cognitive Science/Carleton Univ.; Riveted: The Science of Why Jokes Make Us Laugh, Movies Make Us Cry, and Religion Makes Us Feel One With the Universe, 2014), but given that imagination seems to be strongly tied to memory, it may be that we can’t really know what we haven’t experienced—or perhaps we can. Either way, it shouldn’t keep us from trying: Imagination is, after all, a component of creativity and of problem-solving. As the author reveals, imagination is strongly linked as well to the related word “imagery,” which opens onto a universe of symbols with its own grammar, declarative and otherwise. Memory recall is a work of imagination “because memories are reconstructed every time they are retrieved”—and therein lies the possibility of negative consequences, since reconstructed memories can be unhappy ones. Good or bad, Davies examines how thinking works, always in a complicated way, since, as he notes, “there’s a saying in neuroscience: if the brain can do things five different ways, it does all ten.” His discussion covers such matters as hallucinations, which defy description, and imaginary friends: Some readers may take comfort in knowing that there’s no requirement that one abandon them at an early age. “When the child perceives that the parent starts to disapprove,” writes Davies, “the imaginary companions go dark: the children stop sharing information about companions, and only play with them when parents aren’t around.” At the close of his ever engaging book, Davies notes that the visual and spatial components of the brain and the contents it holds are often “bewildering.”
A worthy companion to books by Oliver Sacks, Daniel Dennett, and other students of the always puzzling human mind.Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64313-203-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
An intriguing look at suicide weighed down by dense facts and figures.
A mechanical engineer zeroes in on the physiological dynamics of the brain in a valiant effort to explain suicide and make sense of his son’s death.
In 2002, Sanchez’s son Mitchell Xavier killed himself after suffering for years from depression and panic attacks. Unsatisfied with current therapies and methods of pharmacology, the author has written two previous books searching for clues to the causes of depression and other brain disorders. This third book continues the hunt, focusing on aftoktognosis, which the author defines as the knowledge of suicide. Despite a tendency to indulge in a deluge of statistics, Sanchez offers wise and elegant words–written by the likes of Andrew Solomon and Kay Redfield James–to bring dry facts to life. The centerpiece of the book is an exhaustive, often tedious exploration of the brain based on modern neurological theory, which concludes with a lengthy description of brain mechanics and the chemical changes that may lead to panic attacks, depression and suicide. A more successful section devoted to a catalogue of mental disorders is made memorable by the inclusion of the author’s personal experiences. In a brief, moving passage, Sanchez reveals that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder in the months following his son’s suicide–anxiety disrupted his sleep and visions of Mitchell’s death haunted his waking hours. Later in the book, a suicide autopsy–a fascinating investigation into why a promising lawyer overdosed on pills–makes a convincing case that the many theories currently in play among psychiatrists and psychologists may work against each other, complicating the potential for prevention. Perhaps the most innovative theory presented involves the idea that the loss of a sense of self–otherwise known as idiozimia–may be the prerequisite for suicidal behavior. Sanchez ultimately concludes that saving a person from suicide depends on a more accurate assessment of risk and a deeper understanding of this tragic phenomenon through collaboration and communication.
An intriguing look at suicide weighed down by dense facts and figures.Pub Date: Dec. 14, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4257-7990-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
This academic exploration of female sexuality is marred by a facile categorization of feminists. Sexologist McCormick (Psychology/State Univ. of New York, Plattsburgh; Changing Boundaries: Gender Roles and Sexual Behavior, not reviewed) simplistically defines feminists as either ``Liberal'' or ``Radical.'' She constructs the former as focused on women's sexual pleasure and the latter as concerned with protecting girls and women from sexual abuse and exploitation. Placing her work as outside the typical model of sex research centered on white, middle-class heterosexual women, McCormick seeks to widen her readers' conception of female sexuality with her discussion of seduction, intimacy, lesbians and bisexuals, female sex-trade workers, pornography, and models of pleasure and fulfillment. She challenges the popular belief that sex should have orgasm as its goal, asserting that it denies many women their sexuality, especially those who are paralyzed or otherwise disabled. In the context of her research, McCormick encourages us to move beyond the ``dehumanizing [equation of] sexuality with genital juxtapositions and intercourse'' and to view sexuality as ``a whole body and whole mind experience.'' She is at her strongest in her explorations of women sex-trade workers, sexual victimization, and pornography; she advocates the legalization of prostitution and the creation of erotic material that affirms women's sexuality. Unfortunately, McCormick has a tendency to idealize women as more sentimental, affectionate, and desirous of intimacy than men. She sees female sexuality as almost spiritual, which leads her to make some extravagant generalizations. She suggests, for instance, that lesbians value intimacy more than sex, that loving lesbian relationships work better than gay or straight relationships, and while she lists the dangers faced by female participants in the sex-trade industry, she tends to glamorize their agency. A flawed but sometimes astute analysis of power and sexual relations.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-275-94359-3
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Praeger
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
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