The Healing Brain - by Robert E Ornstein & David Sobel (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

The Healing Brain presents an easy-to-read, amusing, entertaining, and yet highly authoritative account of how our brain "minds" our body - actively guarding and defending our health and wellbeing. Neurologist Robert Ornstein and physician David Sobel highlight the themes most important to understanding this fascinating science. They explain that, contrary to many of our assumptions about the main purpose of our brain, it evolved primarily for "higher thinking" - and that, in fact, it works tirelessly to adapt to the changing world around us. This essential reference book helps us understand our brain as the original "health maintenance organization," and gives us the understanding we need to help it do what it does best: guard our health and help us to heal. This pioneering book helped bring about a new way of looking at the brain, one that restored the perspective that its major role is to mind the body and maintain health. The Healing Brain provided much of the raw material for the new view, and the collective weight of the findings helped close the artificial gap between mind and body.

Review Quotes

"The Healing Brain is a gem. The authors have managed to synthesize, summarize, and clearly communicate a broad body of knowledge ... into a coherent description of how the brain affects our health and well-being. It is a treasure trove of information and insights into an area of vital importance to us all." - Philip R. Lee, M.D., Professor of Social Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco

"Entertainingly written and authoritative. A superb, comprehensive, balanced review of how the brain guards the health." - Jerome D. Frank, M.D., Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

"This is a very readable, thoughtful, creative book. It brings together a vast amount of information...in a new way that I have never seen before. This is a brilliant tour de force that will be a major force in setting a new direction for research in the years ahead." - S. Leonard Syme, Ph.D., Professor of Epidemiology, University of California, Berkeley