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loslibros's review
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
How is this book not a HIPPA violation!? Just kidding but seriously a very cool, nuanced look at mental illness and the inner workings of the brain. Not nearly as "tech bro" as the synopsis might make it seem.
miguelf's review against another edition
2.0
Muddled tome that the book jacket promises to “transform our understanding not only of the brain but of ourselves as social beings”. The writing style was trying way too hard to capture both emotion and science and not really succeeding very well in either direction and the mixing of testimonials came across as disjointed.
deebee's review
I stopped reading because of the language used around autistic people (e.g. functioning labels, etc)
lucibello's review
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
At times I could hardly put the book down (the empathetic parts), and at other times it felt like drudgery. The reason is because he is not seamless in transitioning from neuroscience to stories of practicing medicine to philosophy, and even to poetry. He tried to explain mental health conditions to which there is unclear science through evolution. It was inductive reasoning at best. However, he also gave some excellent science, and has a profound ability to empathize with this client. I would have rated this much lower had it not been for his demonstration of empathy.
danapillar's review
5.0
Fantastic book
It goes through various psychiatric illnesses in a way that acknowledges the diagnostic ambiguity between the varying and overlapping presentations of disorders that have distinct mechanisms and roots in the brain. Other books I have read take a textbook approach to disorders that acts like things are clear cut and set in stone for the stake of explanatory simplicity, this book engages with the comorbidities that sprout from coping with baseline conditions and how they must be unpicked so that a sufficient treatment can be given. It also engages with the tender line between health and pathology in individuals and across populations.
It discusses the lived realities of people struggling with these conditions with deep empathy, as well as the strengths and limitations of scientific explorations into disruptions of the human mind without getting too abstract. The book is quite compact and beautifully written. Though I tried dipping in and out of it and found that frustrating, it is the kind of book you ought to read in a handful of sittings to keep its emotional flow. The shifting between various metaphors reflects the noisy nature of reality and how we must shift between mental models to cope with the world, I particularly enjoyed the simile of threads in a fabric (as vulnerable aspects of a whole that if broken can lead to a disintegration or frailing of that whole) thoughout the book. It made me want to read poetry, do neuroscience research and work harder to understand my fellow man
It goes through various psychiatric illnesses in a way that acknowledges the diagnostic ambiguity between the varying and overlapping presentations of disorders that have distinct mechanisms and roots in the brain. Other books I have read take a textbook approach to disorders that acts like things are clear cut and set in stone for the stake of explanatory simplicity, this book engages with the comorbidities that sprout from coping with baseline conditions and how they must be unpicked so that a sufficient treatment can be given. It also engages with the tender line between health and pathology in individuals and across populations.
It discusses the lived realities of people struggling with these conditions with deep empathy, as well as the strengths and limitations of scientific explorations into disruptions of the human mind without getting too abstract. The book is quite compact and beautifully written. Though I tried dipping in and out of it and found that frustrating, it is the kind of book you ought to read in a handful of sittings to keep its emotional flow. The shifting between various metaphors reflects the noisy nature of reality and how we must shift between mental models to cope with the world, I particularly enjoyed the simile of threads in a fabric (as vulnerable aspects of a whole that if broken can lead to a disintegration or frailing of that whole) thoughout the book. It made me want to read poetry, do neuroscience research and work harder to understand my fellow man
pejahanako's review
3.0
A very interesting dive into this psychiatrist's particular patients and thoughts on humanity as a whole. The writing style is so lyrical and unexpected that it's difficult to follow at times and the conclusions aren't easy to spot. It works wonderfully for long stories about patients' lives but for more detailed neuroscientific descriptions and for long philosophical metaphors it's not super accessible for the average reader. Overall, I still loved it, I even felt moved to tears at certain points and I think it's worth a read for anyone interested in psychology and/or medicine.