Into the Silent Land: Travels in Neuropsychology
English commentators liken Broks to Oliver Sacks, which is high praise but off the mark. Sacks relates whole cases, such as "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat," laying out the brain physiology and the panoply of behavioral distortions involved in neurological abnormality. Broks, a psychologist rather than a physician like Sacks, uses cases as jumping-off points for essays in search of personality, unique consciousness, the soul. He believes there is something in the brain that neuroscience may never find or explain, and that gives each of us the sense of self. Moreover, he posits that dualism is inescapable for consciousness, which demands that each of us discriminate between physical and mental "parts" of the self, despite the inseparability of those parts. While he has readers chewing those insoluble nuggets, he tells his patients' and his own riveting stories, at least one of which, "To be two or not to be," is science fiction of the very highest order.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.