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A review by haifay
Phantoms In The Brain: Human Nature And The Architecture Of The Mind by V.S. Ramachandran, Sandra Blakeslee
4.0
A book full of quirky case studies about the brain? I am sold! Usually, I tend to fixate on every single concept I cannot grasp and often end up losing the big picture. But this was a smooth read and very entertaining! V.S.R takes you through a process of discovery as he studies the brains of people with bizarre neurological disorders. I loved how he daringly venture into terrains of philosophy offering his hypothesis on consciousness, nature of self, the whole sense-making of human existence.
I must say this really got me questioning the richness of our intimate mental life, I mean when a brilliant neuroscientist teases you about how your grasp of reality, your freewill and awareness is simply the activity of these little specks of jelly in your head, you are in for some existential crisis, but on second thought, you could also free yourself from one!
If you are still not convinced about picking up the book, read it for the fun cases, a man who mistook his wife for a hat, another dude who mistook his foot for penis (yeah, you read that right and he claims to have had tremendous orgasms too!), about the 'God helmet', and several more. There is also a series on VSR on YouTube where he recreates many of the tests with patients, definitely check it out.
I must say this really got me questioning the richness of our intimate mental life, I mean when a brilliant neuroscientist teases you about how your grasp of reality, your freewill and awareness is simply the activity of these little specks of jelly in your head, you are in for some existential crisis, but on second thought, you could also free yourself from one!
If you are still not convinced about picking up the book, read it for the fun cases, a man who mistook his wife for a hat, another dude who mistook his foot for penis (yeah, you read that right and he claims to have had tremendous orgasms too!), about the 'God helmet', and several more. There is also a series on VSR on YouTube where he recreates many of the tests with patients, definitely check it out.