Head Case - by Dennis Cass (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

"Dennis Cass ventures into the terra infirma that is neuroscience, and returns with a fascinating, funny and touching tale. I recommend it for anyone who owns a brain." -- AJ Jacobs, New York Times Bestselling author of The Know it All

In the tradition of Supersize Me, Dennis Cass becomes a human guinea pig in a darkly comic journey to understand the human brain and find out what makes us who we are

Infiltrating the world of neuroscience, Cass offers his own brain up to science, subjecting his mind and body to electric shocks, mind-numbing attention tests, stress tests of his own devising and cigarettes. In the spirit of George Plimpton and early Tom Wolfe, his exploits reveal the intricacies of fear, attention, stress, reward and consciousness from the inside out. Along the way, he weaves in the story of stepfather's manic depression and drug addiction, as well as his own troubles with stress and depression, giving neuroscience a personal touch along with the clinical facts.

Cass attacks the subject of the human brain with wit and candor, turning popular science into something distinctly human. Head Case is an imperative read for anyone who's ever asked themselves why they are who they are.

From the Back Cover

When journalist Dennis Cass was nineteen years old his stepfather, Bill, suffered from a psychotic break. Cass tried to commit him to a mental institution only to watch Bill escape from a cab en route to a Harlem hospital and run raving down the streets of Manhattan. Some fifteen years later, a bout of writer's block turned Cass's thoughts toward the brain.

A complete stranger to science, Cass immersed himself in the world of neuroscience, subjecting himself to brain scans, psychological tests, and scientific conferences, as he attempted to gain a better understanding of ADHD, anxiety, stress, motivation and reward, and consciousness. Then things got a little weird. What began as a more clinical effort to understand himself soon became a personal and emotional journey into the fragile, mysterious workings of the mind and the self.

Head Case is a charming, hilarious, and at times harrowing memoir of scientific experimentation. It's a story of science and society, of fathers and sons, and of how the past lives on in the present. Along the way the book asks timeless questions: What do we know about ourselves? What can we know about ourselves? And how much self-knowledge can a single person handle?

Review Quotes

"Dennis Cass ventures into the terra infirma that is neuroscience, and returns with a fascinating, funny and touching tale. I recommend it for anyone who owns a brain." -- New York

"Armchair quarterbacks had George Plimpton's Paper Lion, wannabe bikers had Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels, and now anyone curious about their own brain has Dennis Cass' Head Case, a compulsively readable and witty account of his quest to understand what makes him--and us--tick. Neuroscience has never been examined in quite this way, and it's certainly never been so funny." -- Adelaide Advertiser

"[A] fast-reading story with educational tidbits snuck in....Mr. Cass relates his ideas in a breezy, conversational style...a fun and informative read." -- Washington Times