8 books on body and brain science
How is our consciousness shaped by our perceptions? Why does pain sometimes become pleasure? What is the line between eccentricity and mental illness? Some of the biggest and most pressing mysteries investigated by researchers are those involving our minds and bodies. Here are eight recent books discussed by WSJ reviewers that uncover the science of our inner worlds.
No matter what we learn about brain states and mental states, the very existence of subjective feeling remains an enigma. Anil Seth argues that unlocking it depends on a new understanding of the mind as a “foretelling machine”.
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DSM: A Bible History of Psychiatry
By Allan V. Horwitz | John Hopkins
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM, presents nearly 300 diagnoses. What’s the science behind it? Allan Horwitz makes two arguments: first, that the DSM is a “social creation”; second, that we’re stuck with this.
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How God Works: The Science Behind the Benefits of Religion
By David De Steno | Simon & Schuster
Some studies show that a belief in God reduces anxiety, and other research sheds light on how rituals — from Shinto baptismal ceremonies to the Jewish practice of seated shiva — bond and ease loneliness. Psychologist David DeSteno explores the links between belief and mental health.
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Life is Simple: How Occam’s Razor Unleashes Science and Shapes the Universe
By Johnjoe McFadden | Basic
The 14th century Franciscan friar William of Occam saw the importance of finding the simplest explanation for any phenomenon – the principle known as Occam’s razor. Johnjoe McFadden explores this groundbreaking approach to how the brain grasps a complex universe and its consequences throughout human history.
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It Hurts So Much: The Science and Culture of Intentional Pain
By Leigh Cowart | Public affairs
Pain is sometimes the unwanted by-product of extreme activities like strenuous exercise. But it can also be the point, like when we eat hot peppers. By flooding our brains with endorphins that act like natural opioids, pain clears the mind when the world is overwhelming, forcing us to focus only on the present moment.
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Of Sound Mind: how our brain builds a meaningful sound world
By Nina Kraus | MIT Press
“Sound is all around us, unavoidable and invisible.” Our sense of hearing is woven into our experience of the world in ways most of us never notice: sound influences how we feel, how we see, how we move, how we think. Nina Kraus offers a rigorously scientific but often poetic look at the hearing brain.
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The Sleeping Beauties and other stories of mysterious illnesses
By Suzanne O’Sullivan | Pantheon
In ‘Sleeping Beauty’, practicing neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan attempts to answer tough questions about what it means to have ‘mysterious illnesses’ like the puzzling ‘broken heart syndrome’. His book is at once poignant, surprising and sometimes horrifying.
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You Bet Your Life: From Blood Transfusions to Mass Vaccination, the Long and Risky History of Medical Innovation
By Paul A. Offit | Basic
New medical procedures, new drugs, new vaccines – welcome as they are – inevitably involve risks, especially in the early stages. Medical advances are jerky and uneven, rushing in response to a new idea, then stuttering when unexpected limits reveal themselves.
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