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The Private Life of the Brain
The Private Life of the Brain
Oct 10, 2024 8:24 PM

Author:Susan Greenfield

The Private Life of the Brain

What is happening in the brain when we drink too much alcohol, get high on ecstasy or experience road rage? Emotion, says internationally acclaimed neuroscientist Susan Greenfield, is the building block of consciousness. As our minds develop we create a personalized inner world based on our experiences. But during periods of intense emotion, such as anger, fear or euphoria, we can literally lose our mind, returning to the mental state we experienced as infants. Challenging many preconceived notions, Susan Greenfield's groundbreaking book seeks to answer one of science's most enduring mysteries: how our unique sense of self is created.

Reviews

A rare and living combination of European and American thought in the human sciences

—— Margaret Mead

A unique combination of imaginative clinical description, rigorous thinking, gentle humour and deep humanity

—— Science

The application of psychoanalysis to the field of cultural anthropology has nowhere found a more mature expression

—— Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry

A fascinating and suggestive book

—— Literary Review

Both Descartes' Error and The Feeling of What Happens are essential reading. They are groundbreaking classics of psychology and neuroscience. These are the books to buy, keep and ponder upon. Do so, and you will be ahead of the ruck by at least a decade

—— Journal Of The Royal Society of Medicine

Fascinating and engaging

—— Sunday Times

Your One Wild and Precious Life . . . will transform your thinking

—— Irish Farmers Journal

It reframed so much for me

—— Aoibhín Garrihy

The rotund nature of the work makes it feel like a foundational text, accessible to anyone who seeks to know more about themselves and something any trainee psychologist would enjoy. It astutely examines how attachments to people or patterns can speed up, stunt or spark our growth, and, most importantly, what we can do about it.

No matter where you locate yourself in this book there's an energy to the prose that makes it a fascinating read.

But if every love story is a ghost story, as David Foster Wallace says, then Gaffney's new book resurrects your original love story and the ghost that it conjures. She provides instructions on how to vanquish the past and understand connection, so a new cycle of living is possible.

This book is a powerful reminder that history does not have to dictate our future if we can, somehow, amid the chaos of life, listen now and again.

—— Orla Tinsley , Irish Times

This book is a practical guide to making the most of our lives, within a revised framework, at every stage.

—— Anne Cunningham , The Anglo-Celt

Gaffney invariably gets to the core of things and always seems to talk to one directly. If she has a recipe for facing the next stage in life, it's going to be one worth trying

—— Orna Mulcahy , The Gloss

An expertly organised tour through life

—— Irish Times
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