Title: Human ontology narratives
First published: 2009
Description: The author creates a fictional conceptual model of a human that is visualized in physical form analogous to a notebook computer that hides an infinite backend process of cognition representing the human mind driven by its consciousness. 
This particular backend entity is labeled 'con' (shortened from a consciousness that is universal to all humans and other sentient life also sometimes represented simply as being) and is fictionally endowed with powers that enable it to run on multiple notebook computers (analogous or metaphorically morphologically indistinguishable from humans). 
The biggest problem with this book is its length and the usage of concepts such as ontology that acts as a barrier for an average medical reader. However this is also a strength, as it prompts the medical reader to reflect on the ontologies that impact on everyday practice. The refusal to accept a dualistic mind body perspective requires the reader to make an effort to comprehend the non linear and even sometimes chaotic intrusions about mind and body in the narrative sequences in the book. Of course this is a major purpose of the book, to simulate the realism, the almost magical realism of everyday medical care and medical lives, if we open our minds and our hearts. 
Once you open up your consciousness to the earthy poetic narratives, you become involved and entranced. There is even a graphic chapter which is highly recommended as a first read even before you read the first chapter. 
'The Conscious Notebook' which weaves around the lives of two medical students representing two generations promises to touch our medical souls and bodies. On a first read it seems to have kept its promise (although a few more reads maybe necessary to grasp the entire significance of its portrayal of mind body duality and breaching that duality). It asks the reader to comprehend the multiple layers of reality and consciousness that interweave in our complex medical worlds, which influence our practice. This book should be read alongside medical journals in journal clubs and by medical students, as well as reflective practitioners. 


http://www.annalsofneurosciences.org/journal/index.php/annal/article/view/61/53
Subjects: Miscellanea, Philosophical anthropology, consciousness, fantasy, fiction, healthcare, medicine, ontology, philosophy, science
Places: America, Annapurna, Bengal, Chandigarh, Ghorepani, Kolkata, Nepal, Pokhara
People: Anirban Choudhuri, Carmel Martin, Cecil Fernandez, Curtis Brunet, David Elpern, Jane Fitzpatrick, Joan Young, Juneli Sen, Kresten Bjerg, Pranab Chatterjee, Rakesh Biswas, Samsara Sen, Shashikiran Umakanth, Susan Ross
Time periods: 1990, modern ages
LC classification: BD450 .B473 2009