Biological Psychology
THE BRAIN THAT CHANGES ITSELF
Norman Doidge, M.D.
Penguin Books, 2008
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES The reader will be able to:
• Apply the findings of neuroplasticity to brain trauma, effects of stroke, and to blindness
• Apply the findings of neuroplasticity to understanding disorders
• Describe procedures for helping to raise general intelligence
• Describe brain aging
• Apply the findings of neuroplasticity to movement disorders in cerebral palsy
• Apply the findings of neuroplasticity to the treatment of depression, anxiety, and personality disorders
Norman Doidge, M.D., is a psychiatrist and researcher with the Research Faculty at Columbia University’s Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, in New York, and the University of Toronto’s Department of Psychiatry.
An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they’ve transformed—people whose mental limitations or brain damage were seen as unalterable. We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed. Using these marvelous stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential