A review by candaceross321
The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human by V.S. Ramachandran

2.0

This started out so good and fascinating, but as we progressed there was problematic language and intellectual leaps revealing some deep biases.  While I can dismiss the categorization of high/low functioning Autistics to the fact that his book was written in 2011, the use of “retarded” or “idiot savant” were entirely outdated and inappropriate a clinical setting even then.  Comparing those conditions to “normal people” is also inappropriate as “neurodivergent/neurotypical” first came into use 20 years before this book was published. Personal untested theories of why humans enjoy art from an author who admits he doesn’t enjoy art seem out of place.  Categorizing romantic love as a mental disorder is bizarre given how wide spread it is in the human species.  Unfortunately the inability to use appropriate terms and making broad assumptions about the human condition simply because the author doesn’t experience life this way makes me question whether his opinion as a neuroscientist is truly well informed.
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