Reviews – Illuminated Education

My Brain Made Me Do It? And Other Questions About Neuroscience

REVIEW: Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience, Sally Satel and Scott O. Lilienfeld, NY: Basic Books, 2013. This book is short (156 pages of text) and easy to read while being well researched and documented (61 pages of interesting, helpful notes and citations – in a point size enough smaller than the text to make one believe that in the original draft there was as much space, time and effort devoted to this endeavor as there was to the writing of the text) The authors make it clear that they are nether opposed to or over-archingly critical of brain science in general or neuroimaging in specific. They do, however, take the positions that (1) Neuroscience is a brilliant development, but still young and at the very early stages of discovering what it has to discover. (2) Some authors, enthusiasts and members of the media take small discoveries…

Review: Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease

Manufacturing Depression: The Secret History of a Modern Disease (2010) by Gary Greenberg. Published by Simon and Schuster. This book presents a combination of research and Dr. Greenberg’s personal experience with depression. He takes a position critical of today’s prevailing view that depression is a brain disorder caused by a neurochemical imbalance and effectively treated by antidepressant medications. He looks at the history of depression as a disorder, the history of antidepressant medication, and considers what we lose when we look at our sadness as a brain disease. Dr. Greenberg’s writing is fluid and unforced, making serious material an easy read (He has written for publications such as the New Yorker, Harper’s and Discover — just to name a few). He is able to combine humor (sometimes pointed at his own foibles and sometimes at the foibles of the health-care professions and pharmaceutical industry), with serious scholarship. And his points…

Review: The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine.

The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine. Shigehisa Kuriyama. NY: Zone Books, 2002. (Winner of the 2001 Welch Medal from the American Association for the History of Medicine) First of all this is a beautiful book. One does not often say that about academic paperbacks, but this book – from cover art to type face to book design – communicates that same care and effort that is evident also in the writing. This is a scholarly work, well researched and documented, which presents a wealth of information and understanding in a succinct and distilled manner. Dr. Kuriyama begins with one of those images we see in beginning psychology texts used to illustrate the foible of perception: that one image may be viewed in very different ways depending on our internal stance or point of view (as in the image to the left). This is…

Review: Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right

Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right Author: Jane Mayer NY: Doubleday, 2016 This is a detailed, well-researched look into the monetary forces driving the far right, including movements like the Tea Party (and far, far more). The subjects of the investigative reporting are billionaires (the Koch brothers, the DeVos family and others) who, as Libertarians, believe that no government is pretty much the best government and so have used their money to methodically buy institutions and influence people to conform with their ideals. It is a clear answer to why it was so difficult for President Obama to get things done and why Hillary Clinton’s campaign failed. The book is enlightening and frightening at the same time, and makes it all the more clear that we must be politically active in order to preserve social programs, stop climate change, protect…