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A review by introvertedbear
A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers by V.S. Ramachandran
3.0
I had to read this for a psychology decision-making class, but this book has nothing to do with decision-making (I blame my teacher for that one).
The book has five different chapters and lots of notes, taking a crack at different concepts of human consciousness. Each chapter addresses a different theme, and so the chapters don't flow into each other.
The chapters start with scientific evidence, mostly from case studies and Ramachandran's own research. The style is very accessible and Ramachandran breaks it down into easy to understand terms, even if you've never had a psychology class before. The bad thing is that Ramachandran loves to theorize about things, and he backs his theories with scientific evidence. However, that evidence comes from case studies and sometimes unpublished data, and so, technically, since case studies are specifically about one person or event, case studies aren't too reliable as scientific evidence. It's impossible to know if one case is representative of all cases or just an exception.
That being said, the book is definitely an interesting view of human consciousness, but it's mostly just theories. I advise you to read it with caution, making sure to note exactly when he's talking about scientifically proven ideas and when he's discussing his personal view on theory.
The book has five different chapters and lots of notes, taking a crack at different concepts of human consciousness. Each chapter addresses a different theme, and so the chapters don't flow into each other.
The chapters start with scientific evidence, mostly from case studies and Ramachandran's own research. The style is very accessible and Ramachandran breaks it down into easy to understand terms, even if you've never had a psychology class before. The bad thing is that Ramachandran loves to theorize about things, and he backs his theories with scientific evidence. However, that evidence comes from case studies and sometimes unpublished data, and so, technically, since case studies are specifically about one person or event, case studies aren't too reliable as scientific evidence. It's impossible to know if one case is representative of all cases or just an exception.
That being said, the book is definitely an interesting view of human consciousness, but it's mostly just theories. I advise you to read it with caution, making sure to note exactly when he's talking about scientifically proven ideas and when he's discussing his personal view on theory.