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A review by desirosie
Into the Silent Land: Travels in Neuropsychology by Paul Broks
4.0
What an interesting book. Not at all dry, like some of the other brain books I've read, nor is it overly facile and commercial like some medical memoirs. Part case studies, part philosophy, part....speculative fiction, Broks tries to answer his own questions about consciousness and the self - to what extent do they exist? But he does this not as a scientist, but as a human.
I won't do it justice to try to summarize, because these are hard ideas to talk around, requiring a mental and verbal gymnastics. Essentially, there is the idea of the "mind-body problem" and the question of the "self" and whether it is a thing that exists separate from the brain and separate from the mind. I *think* that the conclusion he draws -- for himself -- is that the answer is fundamentally unknowable to science primarily because of the individual subjectivity of experience. That no matter how much we can learn about the brain and how the mind words, that we will never "find" the source of the self, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. (<-- it's entirely possible I've gotten this wrong; I said it was tricky stuff).
Apart from the philosophical and existential questions explored in the book, I appreciated it for another key reason in that Broks -- as a scientist -- recognizes and validates the subjectivity of individual experience when it comes to the functioning of our brain/mind and the impact that has on our lived experience of the "self." Just over two years ago I discovered that I had a not-small brain tumor in my left frontal lobe and that almost the entire left half of my brain was compressed and filled with fluid being secreted from the tumor. Surgeons successfully removed (most) of the tumor and the swelling went away. They also had to remove some of my brain tissue and other brain tissue that surrounded the tumor died. Although my brain mostly "bounced back," I have an empty hole in my brain about the size of a golf ball filled with cerebrospinal fluid. For the most part, I am "the same" as I was before; I have maintained a continuity of my self across the experience, but I am not unchanged -- and not only because I went through a traumatic experience -- my brain, the source of my mind, and also my self, experienced actual physical changes and I am altered. But I have not always had success in convincing people (certain medical professionals) that these changes have had a real and lasting impact on my subjective and objective lived reality. But Broks gets it - he acknowledges that this matters and that it isn't necessarily restricted to the most severe cases, and for that acknowledgement I am grateful, and for lack of a better expression, I feel "seen."
I won't do it justice to try to summarize, because these are hard ideas to talk around, requiring a mental and verbal gymnastics. Essentially, there is the idea of the "mind-body problem" and the question of the "self" and whether it is a thing that exists separate from the brain and separate from the mind. I *think* that the conclusion he draws -- for himself -- is that the answer is fundamentally unknowable to science primarily because of the individual subjectivity of experience. That no matter how much we can learn about the brain and how the mind words, that we will never "find" the source of the self, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. (<-- it's entirely possible I've gotten this wrong; I said it was tricky stuff).
Apart from the philosophical and existential questions explored in the book, I appreciated it for another key reason in that Broks -- as a scientist -- recognizes and validates the subjectivity of individual experience when it comes to the functioning of our brain/mind and the impact that has on our lived experience of the "self." Just over two years ago I discovered that I had a not-small brain tumor in my left frontal lobe and that almost the entire left half of my brain was compressed and filled with fluid being secreted from the tumor. Surgeons successfully removed (most) of the tumor and the swelling went away. They also had to remove some of my brain tissue and other brain tissue that surrounded the tumor died. Although my brain mostly "bounced back," I have an empty hole in my brain about the size of a golf ball filled with cerebrospinal fluid. For the most part, I am "the same" as I was before; I have maintained a continuity of my self across the experience, but I am not unchanged -- and not only because I went through a traumatic experience -- my brain, the source of my mind, and also my self, experienced actual physical changes and I am altered. But I have not always had success in convincing people (certain medical professionals) that these changes have had a real and lasting impact on my subjective and objective lived reality. But Broks gets it - he acknowledges that this matters and that it isn't necessarily restricted to the most severe cases, and for that acknowledgement I am grateful, and for lack of a better expression, I feel "seen."