This is Sunday Times bestseller. In The Brain's Way of Healing, Norman Doidge, the bestselling author of The Brain That Changes Itself, presents astounding discoveries in the brain's healing power. This book is about the discovery that the human brain has its own unique way of healing. For centuries we believed that the price we paid for our brain's complexity was that, compared to other organs, it was fixed and unregenerative - unable to recover from damage or illness. In his revolutionary new book, Norman Doidge turns this belief on its head. The phenomenon of neuroplasticity - the discovery that the brain can change its own structure and function in response to mental experience - is the most important change in our understanding of the brain and mind since the beginning of modern science. Here, Doidge shows how the amazing process of neuroplastic healing really works. When it is understood, it is often possible to radically improve - and even cure - many conditions thought to be irreversible. Doidge introduces us to the doctors, therapists and patients who are healing the brain without surgery or medication.
We meet patients who have alleviated years of chronic pain; children on the autistic spectrum, or with ADD or learning disorders, who have used neuroplastic techniques to complete a normal education and become independent; sufferers who have seen symptoms of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, brain injuries and cerebral palsy radically diminish; and we learn how to lower our risk of dementia by 60 per cent. Through hopeful, astonishing stories, The Brain's Way of Healing explains how mind, brain and body, and the energies around us work together in health and healing. Norman Doidge, MD, is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and New York Times bestselling author. He is on the faculty of the University of Toronto's Department of Psychiatry as well as the Research Faculty at Columbia University's Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research in New York City. He lives in Toronto.
Industry Reviews
Brilliant and highly original. Neurology used to be considered a depressing discipline with patients often displaying fascinating but essentially untreatable symptoms and disabilities. Drawing on the last three decades of research, Doidge challenges this view, using vivid portraits of patients and their physicians. The book is a treasure-trove of the author's own deep insights and a clear bright light of optimism shines through every page -- V.S. Ramachandran, neurologist and neuroscientist, author of The Tell-Tale Brain, Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition UCSD Doidge is the master of explaining how the brain's plasticity can be harnessed to improve the symptoms of brain-related disorders, ranging from stroke to autism Independent This is a book of miracles. Fascinating... An absorbing compendium of unlikely recoveries from physical and mental ailments offers evidence that the brain can heal... brings Oliver Sacks to mind -- Lisa Appignanesi Observer Exhilarating science... In an era of ever-increasing medicalisation of the human mind, and the medication of it, the appeal of neuroplasticity outlined by Doidge is addictive. It is inspiring, page-turning stuff Sunday Times Doidge is persuasive and curious as a writer, and rigorous as a thinker... what he writes about is at the edge of our current understanding of mind and body -- Tim Adams Observer In this age of distraction and unnatural environments and actions - like staring at screens all day - brain science offers all kinds of useful techniques to care for our infinitely complex selves. Norman Doidge's work is a Michelin Guide to this hopeful new trove of knowledge and insight Boston Globe An award-winning literary writer and journalist as well as a psychiatrist, Doidge has achieved a fine blend here between scientific substance and literary style. While never dumbing down the science, he's positively elegant in his crystalline explanations of brain science for a lay audience... an essential addition to our growing understanding of the mind-brain-body connection Toronto Star For someone who suffers - or knows someone who suffers - from an injury or illness related to the brain, both this book as well as Doidge's previous will provide information - and perhaps hope - that the brain can heal itself Seattle Times Inspiring... not just a treatise on the brain, it is also beautifully written. By merging scientific information into timeless and fascinating personal stories, Doidge makes his discoveries extremely readable... The Brain's Way of Healing grabs onto the reader at once and compels them to keep reading. This is an important and encouraging book Vancouver Sun
