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A review by micksland
Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World's Strangest Brains by Helen Thomson
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
3.5
3.5 stars
In this non-fiction pop science piece, journalist Helen Thomson interviews different people with "weird" brains. From schizophrenia to synesthesia, she humanizes people who have traditionally been "othered" and teaches some neuroscience along the way.
The strength of the book is the interviews. I appreciated the way in which Thomson highlighted her subjects' humanity, particular in cases such as schizophrenia which are often poorly portrayed in media adaptations of mental illness. The vast majority of mentally ill people are not dangerous or violent, and her book does a great job at showing that. I loved the chapters about synesthesia and about the woman with auditory musical hallucinations - something about the combination of art and science appeals to me on a personal level.
I thought the neuroscience was superficial, which makes sense considering the pop science nature of the book and Thomson's explicit desire to focus on qualitative rather than quantitative data. Even though it was her choice, I would have appreciated more background regarding each of the cases. I'm interested to know what non-medical readers would make of it.
In this non-fiction pop science piece, journalist Helen Thomson interviews different people with "weird" brains. From schizophrenia to synesthesia, she humanizes people who have traditionally been "othered" and teaches some neuroscience along the way.
The strength of the book is the interviews. I appreciated the way in which Thomson highlighted her subjects' humanity, particular in cases such as schizophrenia which are often poorly portrayed in media adaptations of mental illness. The vast majority of mentally ill people are not dangerous or violent, and her book does a great job at showing that. I loved the chapters about synesthesia and about the woman with auditory musical hallucinations - something about the combination of art and science appeals to me on a personal level.
I thought the neuroscience was superficial, which makes sense considering the pop science nature of the book and Thomson's explicit desire to focus on qualitative rather than quantitative data. Even though it was her choice, I would have appreciated more background regarding each of the cases. I'm interested to know what non-medical readers would make of it.