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This book talks about the science of brain plasticity, and how it can, and has, been used to overcome many mental difficulties, from age-related decline, to stroke victims, and neurodivergent folk. Overall, I think the topic was super interesting but the book left something to be desired. Chief among my issues were that it seemed just really repetitive: once you read 2 or 3 stories about neuroplasticity, but still have hours and hours left, it all just starts to sound the same after a while.
The other part I didn’t like were parts that made me feel really icky reading. There is a chapter on sex and neuroplasticity, starting with an anecdote about porn addition. This is fine, we all have heard “those” stories of men who had difficulties after watching too much porn for too long. But then it starts talking about “perversions” -- what most of us would call fetishes -- and applying Freudian analysis to tell the reader that fetishes are the result of childhood trauma. But not to worry, he tells us, we can be trained out of fetishes with brain plasticity. I really didn’t like this messaging: the use of the word “perversion” made it seem inherently wrong and bad, and I googled Freud and 80% of the returns all came back indicating that Freud was wrong about nearly everything, if not everything. This Freudiuan analysis came up again and again with respect to other brain issues throughout the book and really soured my reading.
The other area that gave me pause was the chapter on neurodivergency and “fixing” it. I haven’t found any reviews from neurodivergent folk on this book, but the thinking seemed out-dated based on the discussions I’ve seen online recently. If you have thoughts on this, I’d love to hear it. And then there were just little things that I just don’t think would pass muster nowadays, including video games cause violence, and the repeated, agonizing reference to the Sama-Baju peoples as “sea gypsies” during an otherwise very interesting chapter on culture and brain plasticity.
In summary, I thought the subject of this book was interesting, but I’d find other ways to learn about it.
The other part I didn’t like were parts that made me feel really icky reading. There is a chapter on sex and neuroplasticity, starting with an anecdote about porn addition. This is fine, we all have heard “those” stories of men who had difficulties after watching too much porn for too long. But then it starts talking about “perversions” -- what most of us would call fetishes -- and applying Freudian analysis to tell the reader that fetishes are the result of childhood trauma. But not to worry, he tells us, we can be trained out of fetishes with brain plasticity. I really didn’t like this messaging: the use of the word “perversion” made it seem inherently wrong and bad, and I googled Freud and 80% of the returns all came back indicating that Freud was wrong about nearly everything, if not everything. This Freudiuan analysis came up again and again with respect to other brain issues throughout the book and really soured my reading.
The other area that gave me pause was the chapter on neurodivergency and “fixing” it. I haven’t found any reviews from neurodivergent folk on this book, but the thinking seemed out-dated based on the discussions I’ve seen online recently. If you have thoughts on this, I’d love to hear it. And then there were just little things that I just don’t think would pass muster nowadays, including video games cause violence, and the repeated, agonizing reference to the Sama-Baju peoples as “sea gypsies” during an otherwise very interesting chapter on culture and brain plasticity.
In summary, I thought the subject of this book was interesting, but I’d find other ways to learn about it.