Mind Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life [Paperback]

 

 

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I read this book before Steven Johnson's later works, The Ghost Map (2006) and Where Good Ideas Come From (2011) and then re-read recently, before composing this commentary. Because Johnson is a very serious thinker with an almost insatiable curiosity, he devotes uncommon time and thought to what he writes and draws heavily on a wealth of secondary sources that he duly acknowledges. For this book, there are generously annotated notes (Pages 217-255) and an extensive bibliography (Pages 257-262). Other reviews have offered insightful reasons for holding this book in high regard. I agree with those reasons and see no need to recycle them now.

Here in Dallas, there is a Farmer's Market near the downtown area where several merchants offer slices of fresh fruit as samples of their wares. In that same spirit, I offer a selection of brief passages representative of the high quality of Johnson's skills.

'Unlike so many technoscie3ntific advances, the brain sciences and their imaging technologies are, almost by definition, a kind of mirror. They capture what our brains are doing and reflect that information back to us. You gaze into the glass, and the reflection says to you, 'Here is your brain.' This book is the story of my journey into that mirror.' (Page 17)

'The attention system works as a kind of assembly line: higher-level functions are built on top of lower-level functions. So if you have problems encoding, you'll almost certainly have problems with supervisory attention. When people notice attention impairments, they're usually detecting problems with the focus/execute or supervisory levels, but the original source of the problem may well be farther down the chain, or it might be localized to a particular sensory channel.' (Page 93)

'Understanding the roots of laughter requires a kind of hybrid of the Darwinian and Freudian models. We laugh primarily because laughter is a crucial component of the emotional glue that connects parent and child during the vulnerable years of development. Children who laugh and roughhouse and tickle with their guardians create powerful bonds of affection with those grown-ups, and the bonds help them survive.' (Page 127)

'For reasons probably both generic and cultural, I am not much of a mystic, but these flashes of insight [while writing this book] were the closest thing I had to the experience of mysticism. These sparks were the transcendence that Keats sought when he commanded us to 'open wide the mind's caged doors.''

Note: The quotation is from the beginning of John Keats's poem, 'Fancy':

'Ever let the Fancy roam,'
Pleasure never is at home'
At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth,'
Like to bubbles when rain pelteth;'
Then let winged Fancy wander'
Through the thought still spread beyond her:'
Open wide the mind's caged-door'
She'll dart forth, and cloudward soar.'

'To me, one of the most moving discoveries in the brain sciences ' after a century f Darwinian conflict and Oedipal struggle ' has been the emerging understanding of the brain's affiliative systems. Our brains are designed to love and connect as much as they are designed to flee and fight.' (Page 264)

To his great credit, Steven Johnson relies on layman terms (to the extent possible) to explain dozens of everyday situations that many of us find intriguing'and confusing. For example, How to 'read' people accurately? Why and how do we devise self-delusions? How to explain what I characterize as 'the invisibility of the obvious'? What is the neurochemistry behind love, hate, joy, rage, and other extreme emotions? With what does a brain 'teem'? Why and how can great works of art (painting, sculpture, music, ballet) move us to tears? And in anticipation of a book Johnson wrote years later, where do breakthrough ideas originate?

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to read Steven Johnson's later works as well as Daniel Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow, Gerald Edelman's Bright Air, Brilliant Fire, Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit, and Jonah Lehrer's Imagine.

Easy to understand for beginners in neuro psychology....very interesting for advanced people too ! Witty, well written and very accurate.

A highly entertaining, thought provoking, and pleasant read. It's sort of a blend of science and popular philosophy, the musings of a creative and bright guy. Mr. Johnson addresses a subject that is of great interest to me, namely neurotransmitter systems such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine. He also touches upon Peter Kramer's "Listening to Prozac" and the neurotransmitter personality model of C. Robert Cloninger. Mr. Johnson points out that low serotonin may be the cause of the psychological condition of rejection sensitivity, although this may actually be caused by a high level of norepinephrine as well. My only significant criticism is that Mr. Johnson may be speculating a bit much, and making somewhat of sweeping generalizations to suit his own ideas. Nonetheless, this book is well worth reading. Author of Adjust Your Brain: A Practical Theory for Maximizing Mental Health.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Clear and readable primer on the latest in brain science
I'd recommend this highly to anyone who wants a lucidly written book on what we know about the brain. Actually I'd go further than that. Lisez davantage

Published on Nov 18 2006 by Book Nut

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't Stop There!
A delight and a disappointment. Steven Johnson opens the door (briefly) to many of the brain's multi-level functions and then closes it before the reader can fully grasp the... Lisez davantage

Published on July 1 2004 by Ned C. Smith

3.0 out of 5 stars Clear writing, interesting content grinds to a sluggish end
Maybe I shouldn't dock the book a star or two on account of the sheer drudgery and pointlessness of the final 35+ pages, but unfortunately, it was like having a tasty meal and... Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 24 2004 by J. Jones

5.0 out of 5 stars Ask The Man Who Owns One
It is the most complicated object in the solar system, and each of us gets to carry one around at all times. Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 2 2004 by R. Hardy

1.0 out of 5 stars What a disappointment.
I really expected to like this work, but I was sadly disappointed to find a book about the brain that's neither well-written nor informative. Lisez davantage

Published on Jun 1 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars Open wide the mind's black box.
In MIND WIDE OPEN, Steven Johnson gives new meaning to the phrase, "you ought to have your head examined. Lisez davantage

Published on May 15 2004 by G. Merritt

5.0 out of 5 stars Features cutting-edge brain research
Steven Johnson's study of the neuroscience of everyday life features cutting-edge brain research, blending experiential reporting and personal storytelling with scientific... Lisez davantage

Published on May 5 2004 by Midwest Book Review

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting read into some aspects of mind's functioning
The author got curious about how his brain (and human brains in general) worked. He decided to find out. Lisez davantage

Published on April 1 2004 by Doshi

5.0 out of 5 stars Dr. Michael L. Johnson
In one word.......Brilliant! If you're interested in why we do the things we do, author Steven Johnson covers it. Lisez davantage

Published on Feb 28 2004 by Michael L. Johnson

4.0 out of 5 stars A great start and a refreshing perspective
Johnson does a good job of taking concepts that could potentially be very confusing, and lays them out in an easy to read format. Lisez davantage

Published on Feb 25 2004 by Mark Rockwell

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