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A review by cameliarose
The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us about Ourselves by Eric R. Kandel
4.0
3.5 round up.
Eric R. Kandel is a Nobel Prize winner in Physiology for his research on the memory storage in neurons. The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us about Ourselves is a summary of history and latest research of brain disorders. Since the development of neuroscience from 1970s onwards, the line between neurology and psychiatry has become blurred. There are no profound differences between neurological and psychiatrical diseases.
This book covers following topics:
1. Social brain and Autism spectrum
2. Mood disorder (depression and bipolar)
3. Schizophrenia
4. Memory, memory loss and Dementia (Age related memory lost, Alzheimer, Frontotemporal Dementia)
5. Creativity (brain disorder and art)
6. Movement Disorder (Parkinson Disease and Huntington Disease)
7. The interplay of conscious and unconscious emotions (PTSD and anxiety, etc...)
8. Addictions
9. Sexual differentiation of the brain and gender identity
10. Consciousness
My takeaways:
-- Genetics play an important role in mental functions. Your DNA can tell if you have predispositions to many disorders, such as Autism, Schizophrenia, mood disorders, and the likelihood of addiction if you'd ever being exposed to. Each of these brain disorders is associated with not single, but many genes. The same gene mutation may be associated with several brain disorders, such as bipolar and Schizophrenia, at the same time.
-- The older the father is, the higher the number of de novo (spontaneous) mutations occur in sperms. De novo mutation in sperms contribute to 10% of Autism cases.
-- Too much synaptic pruning is related to Schizophrenia, too little to Autism
-- There is an association between creativity and mental disorder, but creativity is not dependent upon disorders.
-- Sex hormones released during fetal development influence gender-specific behavior independent to chromosomal sex and anatomic sex.
Because of the amount of topics included in this 304 pages book, each topic can only get limited attention. His presentation of the Trolley Problem is too brief. He says, "some philosophers argue it's immoral not to intervene", but without giving his own opinion.
My biggest issue lies in Chapter 10 (sexual differentiation of the brain and gender identity). He quotes Ben Barres, a transgender scientist, who says gender is biologically bimodal because of the evolution, but gender differences are not all about social-construct, and there is hormonal differences too. I agree with this view. However, the author does not address the "sex is a spectrum"(note: biological sex, not gender) argument popular among transgender activists. He acknowledges that the longterm affects of puberty blockers are still unknown, yet he quotes "some practitioners" claim it is "immoral" not to treat transgender youth with puberty blockers. The recent Keira Bell vs NHS case (https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51676020) has highlighted the physical and psychological damage to the youth because puberty blockers were given prematurely. The author says transgender is not influenced socially and transgender youth rarely change their mind. These arguments have become questionable in recent years. With the surge of transgender teens (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/22/ssweden-teenage-transgender-row-dysphoria-diagnoses-soar), there comes the surge of de-transitioners too. Yet, no scientific research has been carried out to study these new phenomena. I am interested to know if the surge of transgender teens (mostly from biological girls) has anything to do with the gender discriminations and stigma towards homosexuals.
Eric R. Kandel is a Nobel Prize winner in Physiology for his research on the memory storage in neurons. The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us about Ourselves is a summary of history and latest research of brain disorders. Since the development of neuroscience from 1970s onwards, the line between neurology and psychiatry has become blurred. There are no profound differences between neurological and psychiatrical diseases.
This book covers following topics:
1. Social brain and Autism spectrum
2. Mood disorder (depression and bipolar)
3. Schizophrenia
4. Memory, memory loss and Dementia (Age related memory lost, Alzheimer, Frontotemporal Dementia)
5. Creativity (brain disorder and art)
6. Movement Disorder (Parkinson Disease and Huntington Disease)
7. The interplay of conscious and unconscious emotions (PTSD and anxiety, etc...)
8. Addictions
9. Sexual differentiation of the brain and gender identity
10. Consciousness
My takeaways:
-- Genetics play an important role in mental functions. Your DNA can tell if you have predispositions to many disorders, such as Autism, Schizophrenia, mood disorders, and the likelihood of addiction if you'd ever being exposed to. Each of these brain disorders is associated with not single, but many genes. The same gene mutation may be associated with several brain disorders, such as bipolar and Schizophrenia, at the same time.
-- The older the father is, the higher the number of de novo (spontaneous) mutations occur in sperms. De novo mutation in sperms contribute to 10% of Autism cases.
-- Too much synaptic pruning is related to Schizophrenia, too little to Autism
-- There is an association between creativity and mental disorder, but creativity is not dependent upon disorders.
-- Sex hormones released during fetal development influence gender-specific behavior independent to chromosomal sex and anatomic sex.
Because of the amount of topics included in this 304 pages book, each topic can only get limited attention. His presentation of the Trolley Problem is too brief. He says, "some philosophers argue it's immoral not to intervene", but without giving his own opinion.
My biggest issue lies in Chapter 10 (sexual differentiation of the brain and gender identity). He quotes Ben Barres, a transgender scientist, who says gender is biologically bimodal because of the evolution, but gender differences are not all about social-construct, and there is hormonal differences too. I agree with this view. However, the author does not address the "sex is a spectrum"(note: biological sex, not gender) argument popular among transgender activists. He acknowledges that the longterm affects of puberty blockers are still unknown, yet he quotes "some practitioners" claim it is "immoral" not to treat transgender youth with puberty blockers. The recent Keira Bell vs NHS case (https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51676020) has highlighted the physical and psychological damage to the youth because puberty blockers were given prematurely. The author says transgender is not influenced socially and transgender youth rarely change their mind. These arguments have become questionable in recent years. With the surge of transgender teens (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/22/ssweden-teenage-transgender-row-dysphoria-diagnoses-soar), there comes the surge of de-transitioners too. Yet, no scientific research has been carried out to study these new phenomena. I am interested to know if the surge of transgender teens (mostly from biological girls) has anything to do with the gender discriminations and stigma towards homosexuals.