The Disordered Mind

What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves

By: Eric R. Kandel

Narrated by: David Stifel

Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's Summary

Eric R. Kandel, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his foundational research into memory storage in the brain, is one of the pioneers of modern brain science. His work continues to shape our understanding of how learning and memory work and to break down age-old barriers between the sciences and the arts.

In his seminal new audiobook, The Disordered Mind, Kandel draws on a lifetime of pathbreaking research and the work of many other leading neuroscientists to take us on an unusual tour of the brain. He confronts one of the most difficult questions we face: How does our mind, our individual sense of self, emerge from the physical matter of the brain?

The brain’s 86 billion neurons communicate with one another through very precise connections. But sometimes those connections are disrupted. The brain processes that give rise to our mind can become disordered, resulting in diseases such as autism, depression, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s, addiction, and post-traumatic stress disorder. While these disruptions bring great suffering, they can also reveal the mysteries of how the brain produces our most fundamental experiences and capabilities - the very nature of what it means to be human. Studies of autism illuminate the neurological foundations of our social instincts; research into depression offers important insights on emotions and the integrity of the self; and paradigm-shifting work on addiction has led to a new understanding of the relationship between pleasure and willpower.

By studying disruptions to typical brain functioning and exploring their potential treatments, we will deepen our understanding of thought, feeling, behavior, memory, and creativity. Only then can we grapple with the big question of how billions of neurons generate consciousness itself.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio. 

©2018 Eric R. Kandel (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Critic Reviews

"David Stifel provides a confident professorial tone in his narration of [Eric] Kandel's fascinating audiobook. Listeners searching for a fundamental review of neurobiology will find it satisfyingly comprehensive." (AudioFile Magazine)

The Brain and how it forms our reality.

The Disorded Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves is a marvelous book delving into the physical processes of our brains that work to form our perception and understanding of the world around us. Essentially it covers the information regarding how our mind is formed by the underlying processes of our brains. Eric R. Kandel goes in depth on the different parts of the brain and how pathways take in sensory information and use it to make us the way that we are. However, his approach is done in reverse. He takes information from brains that have disorders and functional issues and uses them to come to an understanding of how everything works and why we think, feel, and interact in the way that we do. It is a fascinating account of neuroscience, psychology, and biology. I highly recommend it to anyone that is fascinated by the construct of life and the brain.

Outstanding Book

I love this book. The elucidation of the biology of mental illnesses was so well done that both the laymen and the person with a medical background would appreciate and learn from it. The author is both a skilled writer and obviously an accomplished scientist (Nobel Prize winner ).

Excellent overview of neuroscience with important updates on key topics.

I recommended this to my first year medical students before embarking on their neuroscience course. I LOVE that the author uses the correct anatomic terms to describe brain structures as it helps to provide the “big picture” of associating a structure with a function. At the same time, what a beautiful overview of the brain! It’s engaging and interesting for both scientists and non-scientists alike. I particularly love the way he deals with topics such as gender identity, mood disorders, and addictions of all kinds. Were medicine to move in the direction espoused in this book, many more patients with neurological/psychological disorders could be treated successfully - and with compassion.

Thoroughly enjoyed

I'm just an amateur reader of neuroscience, starting with the early writings of Oliver Sachs. I listen to a new book every 6 weeks or so, by whoever is the writer Dejeur. This one goes way beyond that pack. I am a nurse, so.not out o
By anatomy speak, so that must be disclosed. This book is highly thought out, and is almost poetic in delivery. Each fact and example fit seamlessly and draws the reader in. I learned so much or-i thought sinemet stopped working on Parkinson's patients due to tolerance. I was wrong. There is a connection between bipolar and schizophrenia. Which explains why both run in my family.....Which is also.explained. I will likely listen again. This would make an.ideal series for pbs. Do the producers of pbs hear me??????

Easy ...seriously interesting and easy to understand

Such fluid writing ! Love that this book was read by a skilled voice. Dr Kandel makes this complicated science a subject I will study more. And, at 76
I’d say my excitement for understanding our Brain and Our Unconscious has just scratched the surface
Someone you know or met has a disorder — you now will look at them with a higher resolution of understanding. Buy it !

somewhat interesting

generally, good bits and pieces of information. of course hard to call trans people as having a brain disorder. so, that politacally sensitive affirmation is predictable. also, credit given to rather irrelevant darwin is predictable due to peer pressures. realistically, he is completelly irrelevant. people use model organisms in the lab not because of some evolution. but because it is unethical to use humans in the lab. neither affirmation or rejection of darwinism will tell you HOW similar a given organism in it's function to human organism.
saying all that, vast majority of information in the book seems solid. i don't regret buying

Best explanations about neurological disorders

I’m a physician and a professor of pathophysiology. The explanations are very clear so non medical professionals will understand them and are deep enough that will satisfy medical professionals as well. It is hard to reach such a level that will serve different audiences. The reading is engaging and I never felt bored. Besides the audiobook I bought the kindle version but it’s not necessary since there is an accompanying pdf with the pictures that help follow the explanations.

Excellent overview of a few neurological disorders

Dr. Kandel has put together an insightful, lucid, and digestible overview of some of the prototypical neurological and neuropsychological disorders, and utilizes this perspective to describe some of what we know about normal brain functioning and anatomy. Almost anyone with any background in neuroscience, neurology, psychology, or psychiatry will know of, and has been impacted by Dr. Kandel. At least when I was training in the 90s, he was the lead author of the main textbook, Principles of Neuroscience, by Kandel, Schwartz, and Jessell. It was superbly comprehensive and I still have it and actually still use it. Dr. Kandel is renowned for his work on memory and the short-term and long-term potentiation of neuronal circuits. That being said, as far as I can tell, this work is very accessible to the general public. His final few chapters bring together a synthesis of ideas with far-reaching societal implications about gender equality, free will, consciousness, criminal justice, and other topics which he feels might eventually lead to a new approach to scientific humanism. I would agree that the more these ideas are popularized and make their way into the cultural mainstream, the better our chances of utilizing science to guide rational policy decisions. Unfortunately, I am a little skeptical that we are ready to consider human nature from this perspective, as of yet.

Fascinating

This is the first audiobook I really took advantage of the accompanying pdf because of how in depth and interesting it is. The book covers autism, schizophrenia, depression, movement disorders, memory disorders, consciousness. All easy to understand and insightful.

Where is the pdf?

I'm enjoying the book but where is the gosh darn pdf he keeps referencing to every 10 minutes?