The Mind and the Brain

Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force

By: Jeffrey M. Schwartz, Sharon Begley

Narrated by: Arthur Morey

Length: 14 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Conventional science has long held the position that 'the mind' is merely an illusion, a side effect of electrochemical activity in the physical brain. Now in paperback, Dr Jeffrey Schwartz and Sharon Begley's groundbreaking work, The Mind and the Brain, argues exactly the opposite: that the mind has a life of its own.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©2002 Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begley (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers

This book has it all

I love this book because it's so mentally stimulating and so well written. The book covers a broad range of topics in it's quest to describe neuroplasticity. This book gives an in-depth account of how scientists discovered neuroplasticity, the current theories about how neuroplasticity can be used in treatment, the concept of neuroplasticity and its connection to quantum physics and Buddhist meditation practices, and more. I find this book really intriguing, exciting, and interesting, and I would highly recommend this book to anyone curious about neuroplasticity and the biology of changing bad habits.

Great information!

I enjoyed this book very much and it has some great information on the brain and Neuroplasticity. I highly recommend it!

Neuroplasticity

There is a lot of scientific jargon and information in this but if you can get through that it gives great insight into how everyone has the potential capacity to make significant long lasting changes in our behavior and even some medical conditions.

Heavy at times but fabulous !

If you could sum up The Mind and the Brain in three words, what would they be?

Brilliant, thought provoking, a bit wafty

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no

Any additional comments?

A wonderful book that will change the way you look at the world both inner and outer. It is heavy going at times and the writer sometimes seems to go on and on a bit, but overall I really loved it and have recommended it to my friends. If it gets a bit boring, stick with it because there are some really fabulous chapters.
I love books that change me- this did
I learnt a lot

Complex

Buyer beware, this is not an easy "read". The author uses a good deal of analogy to represent his subject matter, which I found helpful. He also uses a great deal of description, which added interest and humanness of the subject while at the same time added to the complexity of the book. But if you like science and medicine, as I do, this is an interesting read. The author provides insight and description on many medical problems which are affected by brain function, but from a neurological perspective only. As far as usefullness of the information in the book, to either my practice or personal life, the book leaves a lot to be desired. I've listened to it once, and am currently going through it again to try to get more understanding of the information. Morey does an amazing job making such a complex subject interesting, but his speed was too fast for me due to the complexity of the book.

Fabulous book

What did you love best about The Mind and the Brain?

This book explains the connection between the mind and the brain. It's full of information about how the brain functions.

Hard to Digest

While interesting and fascinating, "The Mind and the Brain" was just hard to digest because it was written in a way to be very technical and you need the necessary vocabulary to understand the authors. It's almost too technical for someone to pickup from the coffee table and read.

You might take a glance and put it down because it might not interest you unless you are a brain surgeon or want to know more about OCD and how it affects the brain.

I just wished that the authors would had gone more in depth and studied more on physical disabilities, such as Cerebral Palsy and the brain. Cerebral Palsy happens when there is a lack of oxygen to the brain and damaged that portion.

I have CP and my brain allows me to type with my feet, as I write this review, but other people with the same disability doesn't have the same abilities like myself. I hope that some day, these authors will do a study on disabilities and the brain and publish their findings.

The authors covered almost everything that is possible on this human organ that is so hard to understand, but they left out involuntary motor skills that is caused by trauma to the brain.

Brain science made not exactly simple

Would you consider the audio edition of The Mind and the Brain to be better than the print version?

Although this book is full of great material increasing non-brain-scientists knowledge about what can go wrong in the brain and why mental disorders are,in fact, physical disorders, the audio version is not good. It sounds like the computer voice on my Kindle.

What other book might you compare The Mind and the Brain to and why?

Sharon Begley has written a lot about brain/Mind science, and she is extremely good at articulating issues that might leave us scratching our heads. I have enjoyed her other works that cover nearby areas very much. The information in this book is so important for therapists to know. It really is the century of the brain, and if we don't understand why things go wrong we will never get better at treating them. The research is piling up day by day, but its not getting into therapist training programs or continuing Ed. This book explains in detail how a person develops OCD and would be useful for people with this diagnosis, and for family members trying to understand the constant checking and washing. In addition, his truly helpful information about mindfulness in therapy could benefit anyone. Learning how to manage our thinking (thinking about our thinking) may be the most important mental wellness thing we can do for ourselves. And why aren't we teaching Mindfulness Meditation to our children???

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Monotonous voice, flat affect and very little variation, really almost a computer-like reader.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Hmmmm. Fantastic Voyage II - Into the Brain. Tag line: This time, its about the neural networks!

Any additional comments?

So much amazing information for the public to educate themselves about Brain Disorders. This is a really important book. Too bad the reading detracts from it.

I'll need to pay more attention next time.

great book with enough voice to keep an uneducated listener from dropping off. the audio chapters are different, and that is a little disappointing. but, I will need to listen and pay more attention when I listen to chapter 10 till the end.

good content, ok narrator

The narrator's cadence seemed odd to me and made things hard to follow at first. But once I got used to it, things were fine.