Book Description
An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they've transformed—people whose mental limitations or brain damage were seen as unalterable. We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed. Using these marvelous stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.
Customer Reviews:
Very interesting.......2007-10-05
Although this book gives a lot of valuable information, you will have to wade through the usual psychological jargon.
Superb writing on a complex and fascinating subject.......2007-09-12
What a fantastic and absorbing subject, so very well explained and defended by the author.
I believe this book to be a must read for everyone interested in, or subject to, some of the strange and intricate brain disorders we see developing and spreading in Amercian society.
Doctor Doidge has done an excellent job in brining this material to life while breaking down a complex subject into a highly readable format.
Great and easy to read.......2007-09-02
One of the best "brain" books out there.
Each chapter introduces it's own seperated brain related topic. Felt like I read many book--for my many interests, this is a good thing.
As an educator this helps explains many different behaviors and learning styles.
I have recomm this book to many.
When Change is Possible - Miracles Can Happen.......2007-08-27
If you're like me - a rank amateur in the field of brain science - you'll find that Dr. Doidge has authored an interesting and compelling text to explain the science of neuroplasticity. More importantly, you'll discover the implications of the "new" discoveries that show that the human brain is malleable throughout our lifetime.
While I sometimes got lost in the details, Dr. Doidge provided enough easy to understand nuggets to allow me to grasp that the science of neuroplasticity has life altering applicability to all human beings. The text provides many stories of personal triumph that could be seen as unimaginable miracles to those who have no background in this exciting science. The stories have not only been useful in my own life, they have shown themselves to be useful to others as I share these exciting discoveries with friends who have children who struggle with similar stories as those depicted in the text.
I would not classify this text in the self-help genre. It is a detailed exploration of the brains ability to change itself and it prepares the reader with sufficient knowledge and encouragement to seek solutions that just a few years ago were thought to be the stuff of miracles.
Fascanating.......2007-08-20
The Brain That Changes Itself is a collection of fascinating stories that shows the plasticity of the brain. For much of history, it was believed that the brain you were born with was hardwired and you were pretty much stuck with what you had at birth. Doidge has put together an interesting collection of stories that demonstrate that 1) the brain is indeed very plastic and 2) we have just begun to understand the capacity of the brain to change itself.
Woven in with the different stories is the history of the scientific and medical community theories about the brain. For most of history, it was accepted theory that the brain was hardwired. The scientists that advanced new theories were met with collective resistance. There was a real effort to cast the new theories as so much baloney.
Fortunately for everyone, the new theory about the plasticity of the brain has proven correct. There are stories of a woman who was born with half a brain but has learned to function in life. There are heart warming stories of stroke victims who had gone through traditional rehabilitation but after extensive rehab based on the theory of the brain's plasticity have made remarkable additional improvements.
It is well worth reading. We truly do need a better understanding of our brain, how it works and what can be done when it is not functioning properly. This book provides a great lesson in how the brain can change itself.
Book Description
Collaborative Brain Injury Intervention: Positive Everyday Routines illustrates collaboration and thereby integration in several important ways. The authors succeed in integrating different perspectives into a coherent view of the nature of the problem and the approach to treatment. They suggest a collaborative treatment that helps unify the work of different disciplines and services over time in the service of the client's real-world needs. They also provide the possibility of an integrated approach to treating a broad range of problems.
Customer Reviews:
A truly collaborative approach to brain injury rehab.......2007-02-27
When we were organizing a community reentry program for adults with brain injury eight years ago, this book became our bible. Based on rich research in the area of positive behavioral supports for students with behavioral challenges, and focused primarily on the brain injury community, the book provides an organized and well-reasoned approach to working with individuals and families coping with cognitive-behavioral issues. I especially love their important lessons that all behaviors are efforts at communication, that "setting events" may be adapted to help people avoid harmful behaviors rather than punish them after they occur, and their believe in working within communities rather than clinical settings. All brain injury therapists should read this book and consider its implications for practice.
This one is a gotta have.......2004-12-20
For parents of learning disabled kids and adolescents in particular, . this book sheds new insight on how to help them help themselves. I have read dozens of books on learning disabilities and this one is the most practical, most accurate and most informative of any of them.
Book Description
Here is the ONLY text to bridge the gap between current motor control theory and research, and its application to clinical practice. Motor Control prepares therapists to examine and treat patients who have problems related to balance, mobility and upper extremity function, based on the best available evidence supporting the clinical practice. A systems theory of motor control and a clinical or "task-oriented" approach to examination and intervention are presented. The perfect BALANCE of features: / Functional approach provides a practical model of rehabilitation. / Specific examples of theoretical models apply theories to clinical practice. / Drawings, charts, tables and photographs clarify postural control and functional mobility. New features provide added FUNCTION: / Chapter 6 presents factors affecting the control of movement and the types of patients likely to have these impairments. / Upper extremity assessment and intervention techniques are addressed from occupational therapy and physical therapy perspectives. / Laboratory activities and case studies demonstrate key concepts.
Customer Reviews:
Total information about the motor control.......2006-02-19
I recommend that this book is useful to understand and teach
the patient with the central nervous system lesion and study
to physiotherapist "What's the motor contol?"
Integrating theory and practice.......2003-11-27
This book is a delightful experience of reading. It has the main merit of integrating the motor control theories and clinical practice under a historical and scientific point of view.It brings us a honest view of many methods appreciating the positive and negative aspects of each. I believe it is one of the best publications in motor control area of the last years.
Great reference.......2002-10-30
This text provides brief but comprehensive information on theories of motor control and how to apply them to clinical practice. It also discusses normal and abnormal postural control, mobility, and reach/grasp/manipulation. It is a great reference for treatment, especially if you are developing a theoretical framework within which to practice. I recommend it to any student or novice clinician.
Amazon.com
"Alan's brain got run over by a speedboat," Cathy Crimmins writes. "That last sentence reads like a bad country-western song lyric, but it's true. It was a silly, horrible, stupid accident." And so begins the harrowing tale of a family vacation gone awry when a speedboat collides with her husband's small craft, changing their lives forever. Crimmins (The Seven Habits of Highly Defective People and When My Parents Were My Age They Were Old... or Who Are You Calling Middle-Aged?) is used to writing with wit, self-effacing humor, and a warmth that can bring readers to their knees--or at least to tears of laughter. But in this stunning memoir about her husband's brain injury and the subsequent fallout, Crimmins has outdone herself, bringing all her sharply honed narrative skills into play as she tackles the life-wrenching drama of witnessing her husband's near death and ensuing rebirth as a very different person.
Crimmins takes readers inside the drama with all the right details and interior feelings to keep us fully mesmerized: her 7-year-old daughter's ashen face, her husband's twitching body, the paramedic's alarming question, "Is your husband one of these people that ordinarily has large pupils?" As deftly as she takes readers inside this personal story of not-quite recovery--more like discovery--she is also able to pan back and show readers the comedic silver lining (the self-important doctors, the moments of mishaps, and of course, the whereabouts of the mysterious Mango Princess) that lies within the cloud of her family's tragedy. Anyone who has endured a head trauma or loved someone who has will be engrossed by this wise and knowledgeable storyteller. The rest of us will have a captivating lesson about the rejuvenation of the brain as well as the human heart. --Gail Hudson
Book Description
Humorist Cathy Crimmins has written a deeply personal, wrenching, and often hilarious account of the effects of traumatic brain injury, not only on the victim, in this case her husband, but on the family.
When her husband Alan is injured in a speedboat accident, Cathy Crimmins reluctantly assumes the role of caregiver and learns to cope with the person he has become. No longer the man who loved obscure Japanese cinema and wry humor, Crimmins' husband has emerged from the accident a childlike and unpredictable replica of his former self with a short attention span and a penchant for inane cartoons.
Where Is the Mango Princess? is a breathtaking account that explores the very nature of personality-and the complexities of the heart.
Customer Reviews:
Well-written, Powerful and Excellent!.......2007-09-20
I read this book in four nights, right before bed. I tore through it like no other memoir before. This book, for me, was like reading my own parents' memoir. My father suffered a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) when I was four/five years old. Of course, so much of what was available to the author's husband was simply not around 45 years ago. I understand so much more why my father acted the way he did for the remaining 16 years of his life. This book is powerful. It is honest, raw, intense, lighthearted at times, funny, sad, well written and easy to read (though the subject matter is quite painful at times)... an all around excellent book. I am so glad that I read it, and plan to keep this one.
Very moving memoir.......2007-08-30
I found this account of a severe brain injury and the bumpy road to recovery very moving. I ask will there be more to Cathy and her husband's experiences
written as a memoir at some later date? Maybe not this book was published in September 2000. Worth the read!
spot on.......2007-08-23
Wonderful, spot on writing and observations about Brain Injury and recovery. This is a must-read for any family member dealing with a loved one with a TBI, or for anyone experiencing the ups and down post-TBI or rehabilitation.
The observations are keen, and accurate, and just spot on. Written in an easy-to read and follow style, it never veers into the morose, and is refreshing.
I am a neuropsychologist who runs a rehabilitation day program for brain injuries, and I have often recommended this book to my families. On the other hand, I recommend Claudia Osborne's Over My Head to the actual patients themselves.
Valuable .......2007-05-08
I bought this book for a friend with a recent (skiing) brain injury. But I read it myself when I was in a similar situation 6 years ago. It is a great book! Every brain injury is different, but there are many consistent themes. Reading this book helps you understand what living with brain injury is - and how it may be different from your preconceptions. I certainly had no idea, beforehand. It is terrific and I recommend it for anyone is affected by traumatic brain injury and their families and friends.
Carsten
Awesome book.......2007-02-13
I had to read this for a class at school. It was a lot more of a pleasure to read than a stuffy old textbook. The author has a great sense of humor but is very informative about TBI's and how the family deals with this situation is very helpful since I am going to be working with this in my profession.
Book Description
An introduction to the innovative therapy that restores optimal functioning of the brain after physical or emotional trauma
• Provides an alternative to the more invasive therapies of electroshock and drugs
• Shows how this therapy helps ameliorate anxiety and depression as well as childhood developmental disorders
• Includes extraordinary case histories that reveal the powerful results achieved
According to the Centers for Disease Control, each year 260,000 people are hospitalized with traumatic brain injuries. The Brain Injury Association reports 1.5 million injuries, many of which go undiagnosed but which lead to all kinds of cognitive and emotional impairments. While neuroscience has learned an enormous amount about the connection between brain trauma and personality changes, the methods proposed for resolving these alterations are generally limited to drug therapy or surgeries.
This book explores a much less invasive but highly effective technique of restoring brain function: the Low Energy Neurofeedback System (LENS). Developed by Dr. Len Ochs in 1992, it has had extraordinary results using weak electromagnetic fields to stimulate brain-wave activity and restore brain flexibility and function. The treatment works across a broad spectrum of human activity, increasing the brain’s abilities to adapt to the imbalances caused by physical trauma or emotional disorders--both on the basic level and in the more subtle areas of cognitive, affective, and spiritual processes that make us truly human. While the treatment has had remarkable results with individuals who have experienced severe physical trauma to the head and brain, Stephen Larsen sees it also as an important alternative to chemical approaches for such chronic behavioral disorders as ADHD and monopolar and bipolar depression.
Customer Reviews:
LENS feedback system.......2007-05-14
I am a Family Physician in group practice for the past 25 years and have used traditional neurofeedback since 2003. Since 2006 I have used the LENS system, described quite well in Stephen Larsen' book. The LENS technique is effortless for the patients and much faster in time and number of sessions needed to train compared to traditional neurofeedback. We are not programming the patients, as the feedback given is their own EEG pattern, at a slightly different frequency. Homeopathy on the scalp? Perhaps. The signal sent to the brain is weak- yet the brain responds to the signal, and changes can be seen immediately. I liken it to a conductor giving the orchestra a tone to get in tune or a mirror being held up to the patient.
I am wary of new age treatments and their various claims, yet switched to the LENS technique based on recommendations from fellow neurofeedback practitioners, as no double blinded studies exist to prove its efficacy. Out of the 35 patients I have trained with sofar, 20 have had astonishing improvements in daily life functioning after minor to major head injuries, seizures, ADHD, Tinnitus, Aspergers syndrome, Retts syndrome, CFS, anxiety and depression. They generally report that they can resolve issues with much less worry and consternation and their sleep improves. Time will show if it is a placebo effect that will wear off. So far the effects have been lasting after an average training of 10-12 sessions. One of the 35 patients has had abject reactions to the treatment, and I have learned why -too much stimulation given by me - so yes, it requires patience and skill from the provider- LENS isn't a system that a lay person can purchase and hook themselves up to.
Training patients with LENS at the end of the day is a treat! I highly recommend this book.
Steven Crozier MD
Norway
Not about neurofeedback.......2007-05-03
LENS is a technique of using short duration, low intensity radio waves at the same frequency of the brain, or with a specific offset, applied through an external scalp electrode to break up stuck brain patterns. The brain adapts and assumes a more flexible or more functional pattern, and the patient gets better. This book is about the results of a specific neurotherapy technique. It's not neurofeedback, although the author seems to think this verbal slight of hand is OK. The author claims that LENS is neurofeedback because it takes a signal from the brain and "feeds that same signal back to the brain." Under this definition, we should now call homeopathy a type of biofeedback.
I am not in a position to definitively say what neurofeedback is or is not. Anyone, including the author, is entitled to define what neurofeedback is. All I can say is that his definition is, at the very least, at the periphery of what the self-regulation disciplines of bioefeedback and neurofeedback are about at their core. Neurofeedback provides feedback to the person so that they can change a behavior or response. The LENS technique makes no attempt whatsoever to include the person in their treatment. It is something that is done to them, not with them.
It is not a "how to" book by any measure. It is an "about" book, from start to finish. The writing is light and easy to read, with only minimal detail about the specifics of the concept, and almost nothing about the actual implementation of the concept. So you won't learn much, other than LENS is wonderful and can help with many intractable conditions.
I believe the book has been given an inappropriate title. In fact, the proper titles are alluded to many times in the text itself, as well as the fact that LENS is a third or fourth generation acronym for the process. Some of the previous names describe it accurately by including the phrase disentrainment technique. The author refers to this throughout the book, so it remains a mystery as to why the technique has now been renamed LENS. Maybe he wanted a sexier title. Maybe he wanted to honor his mentor with an acronym that mimics his first name (Len). Who knows. In any case, I found both the title and subtitle misleading. The process is not neurofeedback. It is a type of electronic homeopathy. Second, the subtitle says "technique' but the book completely ignores the how to of LENS. It is almost entirely about the effects of LENS as presented by anecdotes of individual case studies.
I think this title creates more confusion than clarity, as does the subtitle. But it may be that the author believes it most closely resembles neurofeedback, or that their most likely group to recruit for this specific technique are those who are interested or practice neurofeedback, because they can most readily recognize how or why it would be helpful. But they are philosophically very different in one very critical aspect. In LENS, it is the operator or clinician who is making the choices and going through a learning process. The patient is 100% passive to the process. In biofeedback and neurofeedback, the patient or trainee is actually trying to learn something, or more accurately, to surrender or direct themselves in a way that something their brain is already capable of can more readily or more appropriately happen. With LENS you just get better. The downside of this is that you also become more dependent on a clinician with his black box and proprietary software. If it doesn't work, or if you get worse, then it's back to the clinician for more treatment, which is fundamentally the opposite of learning to self regulate. Yes, it is true that LENS is a method for regulating the brain. To call it self-regulation, when the word `self' refers to the patient's brain, as opposed to the patient who participates in the process of self regulation, is misleading.
This is another "aren't I wonderful, please come to my clinic" book. That's fine, sales and marketing are legitimate business functions and these sorts of books seem to be very popular in alternative medicine circles. But my preference is for books that provide me with useful skills. This book is merely an interesting read about a powerful new technique that is not accessible to the lay person. Neurofeedback, on the other hand, is accessible to the lay person. There are books, training is available, and I can buy hardware, software, and instructional materials so I can do it myself. LENS is only available at special clinics.
Do I think the technique is good? Yes, clearly it is widely beneficial. But this extended sales brochure is neither informative to someone who wants to learn how it is done (that's another seminar / book); nor is it informative to the potential patient who wants to fully understand what is being done to him by the clinician. But it sounds like a very good process, and if I were willing to pay $200+ per hour, wanted to travel somewhere far away, and didn't know what to do with myself for 15 hours of treatment, I would seriously consider it. As of the book's publication in 2006, there were supposedly 200 practitioners worldwide.
The author openly states that those who criticize LENS (Len?) are jealous of his process because they can't figure out how low intensity doses of radio waves for an average of less than 6 seconds per treatment (1 - 5 sites on the scalp) can be so helpful. I hope they are wildly successful, but with the total treatment time so extraordinarily short, they could just as easily make it available to 3 or 4 clients per hour, for 10 minutes of evaluation and 6 to 30 seconds of treatment. I think it is a probably a revolutionary, albeit (author agrees) not new treatment. Approaches to healing that are homeopathic in style have been around for a long time.
The book is simply the author's way of promoting their work, without actually saying much about what they do. Magical proprietary software and hardware do that. LENS' entry onto the alternative therapy scene will be slow and limited, the same as most other alternative therapies that are rolled out in this fashion, available to a select bunch who shell out big bucks for the real training, as opposed to the introduction that you received by buying the book. I strongly believe that if someone goes to the trouble of writing a book, he should also go to the trouble of empowering people to the greatest extent possible. This author doesn't necessarily fail this test, because after all, you now know there is a wonderful new therapy out there, you are creating the demand that future credentialed practitioners need to support a full time practice. But it doesn't pass the empowerment test, either.
Is the author a good guy with good intentions? I'm sure he is. Is the book well written, given what it actually covers? Yes. But is the topic worthwhile, worth sitting down, buying this book, and reading through it? Depends on what your goals are.
healing power well worth it.......2007-02-26
Anyone who has been through the trials and tribulations of dealing with any condition or trauma that includes neurological disfunctions will find this book full of good advice and hope. It won't hurt to have a good up-to-date medical dictionary handy while reading. However, most of the text is written in narrative form so that even if you don't recognize all the terms, the ideas and suggestions aren't hard to follow. Dr. Larsen himself called me in response to an e-mail inquiry I sent to him about his program , and in subsequent conversations I have found the staff at the Stone Mountain Center extremely helpful and cordial.
Valid Approach or Infomercial?.......2006-08-16
I purchased this book based upon its title, "The Healing Power of Neurofeedback," while noting its subtitle, "The Revolutionary LENS Technique. . ." To be honest, these are misleading as they should have been inverted. It would have been better to have named the book, "The Lens Technique: One Approach to Neurofeedback." The book, sadly, reads like an infomercial for the "LENS Technique" created by Len Och and was written by one of his disciples, Stephen Larsen, who expounds upon the wonders of this interesting, but certainly controversial approach to neurofeedback that uses extremely low-level radio ways to help "drive" each individual's EEG. Dr. Larsen constantly refers throughout his book something to the effect that "Len Och says this" or "Len Och says that." It almost seems as if Len Och should have written the book, rather than Stephen Larsen. Interestingly, "treatments" are often no longer than one second (!) in length which would appear to be almost nothing.
While the book contains some truly amazing stories where the LENS treatment has allegedly worked wonders, it does, as noted above, read like an advertisement for this approach. Unless this approach does provide a panacea for treating so many illnesses and disorders (which, for all I know, it may do), it would have been appropriate for Larsen to to adopted a more academic tenor as this is the introductory book on LENS.
Another disturbing factor is that neurofeedback DOES seem to offer many, many benefits that are not yet fully (or rightfully) recognized as a genuine treatment modality for a variety of health issues. It is for this reason, alone, that books that focus on various methods of neuro/biofeedback need to be extraordinarily cautious in reporting on their benefits. While Larsen, generally, attempted to do so, he did stray into areas that raise BIG RED FLAGS to those that are skeptical of Neurofeedback. Specifically, he discusses how the LENS allegedly helped bolster a patient's "chakras," may enhance "ESP", and references questionable sources such as, "Vibrational Medication," by Richard Gerber. Having just read Gerber's book, my suggestion is that readers should RUN not walk from anything written by Gerber as he appears to be a real quack. It doesn't serve the Neurofeedback community well to reference such New Age mumbo-jumbo.
While the book is, overall, quite interesting, I would very much like to see others conduct genuine studies on the efficacy of the LENS approach.
A valuable resource for those researching neurotherapy.......2006-07-09
I have been a layman advocate of Neurotherpy since the mid-nineties. My youngest son was a low performing high school student who had been diagnosed with attention deficit disorder. All total he had approximately 40 treatments of eeg-neurofeedback using the EEG Spectrum protocol after trying Ritalin, which he could not tolerate. After neurofeedback treatment, but still with very little confidence, he reluctantly entered college. One day in an algebra class he realized that for the first time in his academic life that not only was he paying attention, he was following what the professor was saying, and he then realized that the change was probably due to the neurotherapy treatments. He is now a confident, capable college graduate doing a complicated job that he loves and went after himself. He is a highly funtional person and I am a proud father.
I became somewhat obsessed with keeping up with this field and all the variations of treatments, and I have directed many people to various practioners in my state. I have attended multiple conferences as a layman just to keep up with advances and spin-offs from this treatment. My bookshelves at home are full of publications on this subject because I so strongly believe in the physiological principles being discovered in this area. This book finally explains in clear, understandable language what Len Och's protocol does, or at least what is known up to this point. Most importantly,it brings together a comprehensive view that needs to be understood both by the public and practitioners of the trade. Chapter Twelve discusses all the other modalities of treatment of disorders and how all of them are important and how possibly none of them alone is the only answer to many complicated disorders. This field of treatment addresses many things that mainstream medicine presently is not addressing, and this book offers other avenues to explore. I think the author explains that enigma as well as anyone I have read. For anyone practicing, or for anyone trying to decide if it is a protocol that might improve their lives or a loved one's life, this is a must read.
Book Description
Vision Perception and Cognition, Fourth Edition is a concisely structured text that expertly addresses clinical reasoning and decision making for the entire evaluation and treatment process of the adult with acquired brain injury. Provided are theoretical information, guidelines for both static and dynamic assessment, information on specific standardized evaluations, guidelines for adaptive and restorative treatment based on described theoretical and evidence-based information, and information on environmental impact of client performance.
Inside this best-selling book, Barbara Zoltan, MA, OTR/L addresses visual, perceptual, and cognitive evaluation and treatment, providing structure, clarity, and content suitable for both students and experienced clinicians.
Updated and expanded to reflect current practice and relevant research,
Vision, Perception, and Cognition, Fourth Edition is a unique resource that takes the reader from theory to practice in a practical and detailed way.
Students and clinicians will benefit from the numerous tables, figures, and extensive references presented throughout the text, as well as the inclusion of a glossary, for easy reference to terminology used throughout
Vision, Perception, and Cognition, Fourth Edition. Faculty will be impressed by the addition of an on-line instructor’s manual for additional classroom learning objectives and activities.
Component areas covered include:
• Primary visual skills
• Apraxia and agnosia
• Visual discrimination skills
• Orientation
• Attention
• Memory
• Self-awareness and monitoring
• Planning and organization
• Problem solving and decision making
• Categorization
• Mental flexibility
• Abstraction
• Generalization and transfer
• Acalculia
New topics addressed in this Fourth Edition:
• Constraint-induced therapy
• Brain plasticity/Functional reorganization
• Neuroimaging
• Specific occupation-based models and evaluations
• Contextual influence on client performance
• Client-centered practice
• Client learning capacity
• Clinical reasoning
• Interviewing
• Standardization
• Visual vestibular processing
• Pupillary response
• Contrast sensitivity
Whether you are a student or clinician in the area of occupational therapy, physical therapy, neuropsychology, optometry, or speech pathology,
Vision, Perception, and Cognition: A Manual for the Evaluation and Treatment of the Adult with Acquired Brain Injury, Fourth Edition will continue to be an invaluable resource for exploring theory and practice in the evaluation and treatment processes.
Customer Reviews:
a must have.......2007-01-17
a must have for health care providers especially OTs and PTs. excellent format and content
Customer Reviews:
outdated.......2007-06-28
The factual material - including medical information and Internet resources - is largely outdated. In my opinion the book should be updated or removed from current printing. It seems unfair to sell health care consumers who seek information on treating brain injury with factual information that is not useful.
Take this book as an understanding of the sciences as they existed fifteen years ago.
TBI assessment .......2007-05-29
A necessity for anyone going through TBI or close to one who is. It really helps you understand what's going on with their situation, but isn't the elaborate, detailed medical that I would have liked. But get this anyway if you need it!
Encyclopedic.......2006-02-18
For the person new to the subject, this sincere book is a wonderful tour of the important topics. It can help others be compassionate and understanding, and help the person with a traumatic brain injury cope and progress more effectively. From understanding the time that recovery takes, to the many upsetting symptoms that one may face, this book has answers, perspectives and suggestions that everyone should know, and that the injured and their family members sorely need to know.
Great Understanding Of MTBI!!!.......2005-10-02
In July 2004 I was hit by a jet-ski, almost drowned, broke my back and neck, and was suppose to be paralyzed for the rest of my life. Luckily after a couple weeks I started walking and I was able to start school in September. But, after I started school I realized I couldn't do my work as well, I couldn't remember things, I couldn't pay attention, I had a short temper, many things that you probably have as well if you get this book. My coucelor let me borrow it and it helped me understand MTBI so well!! I couldn't beleive...I finally had an understanding (and excuse) to why my life was a little harder. I had to buy the book for myself and I suggest you do too....it's wonderful.
A Valuable Tool for Family.......2004-11-12
My late husband suffered an MTBI in an auto accident. He wasn't diagnosed until 1 1/2 years later. He had a difficult time expressing what he was feeling and experiencing day to day and it was difficult for me to understand why he acted the way he did. This book helped us communicate. It filled in the gaps so I could see what my husband was trying to tell me and it made him feel "normal" to know others were going through similar experiences. There are many resources for people with "serious" traumatic brain injuries, but few for mild injuries. This is a must-read for anyone who has a loved one with an MTBI.
Book Description
In January 1996, a van speeding through a red light ended the life Kara Swanson had known. She suddenly joined the 2 million Americans who suffer brain injury each year. It was like being thrust into a foreign country with no map, no way to speak the language, no directions home.
"This is the book I wish I could have read when I was first diagnosed with a brain injury," Kara writes. I tried to take the information that it took me months and years to learn and put it into a short, easy-to-read book that would help survivors and their loved ones better understand the process of recovery."
Written with laugh-out-loud humor, candor, and technical input from medical and legal profesionals, "I'll Carry the Fork!" offers inspiration and practical help to anyone dealing with the aftermath of brain injury. Because as Kara says, "Sometimes when your life ends, you don't actually die."
Customer Reviews:
I'll Carry the Fork!.......2006-10-21
A great read for a survivor or family member of TBI. Slightly larger print and easy to follow story line. This book puts you in touch with the TRUELY important things in life. Showing some of possitive and humorious bumps in her new learning curve keeps this book from reading like a text book. Wow does it feel better knowing that others share similar experincies.
I have purchased several of these, one for my daughter, and a couple for friends to help them understand me now.
If you ever get the chance to meet Kara DO IT, she is uplifting to speak with.
I'll Carry the Fork! Recovering a Life After Brain Injury.......2006-03-03
A delightful book which takes the author from a tragedy and life change to making her new life the best it can be. A wonderful message for those of us having a family member who is a recent traumatic brain injury survivor. It is written with humor but with a valuable message. The chapters are short and written in a manner our TBI survivor is able to read and comprehend it. Thank you for this book.
I'll Carry the Fork! Recovering a Life After Brain Injury.......2006-03-03
A delightful book which takes the author from a tragedy and life change to making her new life the best it can be. A wonderful message for those of us having a family member who is a recent traumatic brain injury survivor. It is written with humor but with a valuable message. The chapters are short and written in a manner our TBI survivor is able to read and comprehend it. Thank you for this book.
Great for the family of a TBI victim.......2005-11-01
I never fully understood my dad's head injury, but after reading this humorous story of Kara it made me realize the frustrating effects of brain injury. Just a great book over-all and written on the level of a sixth grader, so it makes it an easy read.
No real medical details, just sentimental mush.......2005-07-15
A personal story of brain injury presented in a sentimental mushy story line. I too am dealing with my brain injury and the process of acceptance, understanding, coping, and movement toward a fulfilling, happy, and peaceful life. It is a difficult process. The author most certainly conveyed her story.
I found the book to be a shallow pep talk with no redeeming qualities. It lacked depth in articulation or any substance to medical fact or rehabilitation. If you are interested in a book with a survivors story that has meat to it read "Over my Head" by Claudia Osborn. I've read it five times and will read it many more times. My family and friends have praised the book for giving them an understanding that I could not communicate so precisely and eloquently. "Over my Head" is simply the best book coveying personal experience with brain injury that I have ever read.
Average customer rating:
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Neuropsychology of Art: Neurological, Cognitive, and Evolutionary Perspectives (Brain Damage, Behaviour, and Cognition)
Dahlia Zaidel
Manufacturer: Psychology Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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Similar Items:
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Neurology of the Arts: Painting, Music, Literature
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Art and the Brain (Journal of Consciousness Studies: Controversies in Science & the Humanities)
ASIN: 1841693634 |
Book Description
The significance of art in human existence has long been a source of puzzlement, fascination, and mystery. In Neuropsychology of Art, Dahlia W. Zaidel explores the brain regions and neuronal systems that support artistic creativity, talent, and appreciation.
Both the visual and musical arts are discussed against a neurological background. Evidence from the latest relevant brain research is presented and critically examined in an attempt to clarify the brain-art relationship, language processing and visuo-spatial perception. The consequences of perceptual problems in famous artists, along with data from autistic savants and established artists with brain damage as a result of unilateral stroke, dementia, or other neurological conditions, are brought into consideration and the effects of damage to specific regions of the brain explored. A major compilation of rare cases of artists with brain damage is provided and the cognitive abilities required for the neuropsychology of art reviewed.
This book draws on interdisciplinary principles from the biology of art, brain evolution, anthropology, and the cinema through to the question of beauty, language, perception, and hemispheric specialization. It will be of interest to advanced students in neuropsychology, neuroscience and neurology, to clinicians and all researchers and scholars interested in the workings of the human brain.
Customer Reviews:
A list, not a synthesis.......2007-04-04
Intrigued by the promise of its title, I zipped over to my local university library as soon as this book came in. Alas, this is not only the last word on the topic, it is not even an adequate summary of recent work.
The author is a neuroscientist herself, but the usual penetrating and synthesizing insight of such specialists seems lacking here. In her chapters on musical art and brain damage, I miss the central focus of this kind of study: the scientist learns about brain function from those who have lost a specific piece of it. Zaidel refers to some interesting studies and historical anecdotes (musicians who sustained this or that kind of brain damage), but I the reader do not learn what I want to from the discussions. I learn details, but the stories and studies do not cumulate in a big picture. Of course modern brain research is still developing, yet other researchers give me more of a sense that they can intuit a big picture beyond what they can clearly see.
Also in the music section, Zaidel's end-of-section paragraph of summary does not include major insights derived from Isabelle Peretz, one of the foremost neuroscientists of music, though Zaidel cites a couple of Peretz' publications in her bibliographies. Peretz gives a significantly better explanation of currently understood brain processing of musical phenomena than Zaidel does, but you wouldn't know from this book. It's not a bad book, just not a great one.
Book Description
"I didn't even recongize my own face in the mirror. Nothing felt right. Dazed. Paralyzed by fear, my first instince was to run but I had nowhere to hide... Voices echoed, rococheting across the room. I wished they sounded familiar."
At the age of 14, Lynsey Calderwood suffered a traumatic brain injury that left her physically unmarked but destroyed her memory. Thrust back into an apparently nonsensical world of which she had no recollection, Lynsey spiralled downwards into depression and eating disorders as she became socially ostracized.
This is the story, in her own words, of Lynsey's quest to discover her identity and, eventually, to come to terms with her disability. She faces devastating setbacks and her sense of loss, grief and rage is movingly recalled. Courage and perseverance, coupled with her engaging sense of humor, see her through. Her tale will be an inspiration to anyone who has faced similar obstacles.
Customer Reviews:
Not so good.......2007-07-03
This book was difficult to read because it is so disjointed and un-clear. It has some good experience information, but is more like her personal discombobulated diary than a clear story.
Cracked and cracking.......2003-03-16
Why is this book important? Many reasons - but one is that it's by and about disability, and it proves beyond doubt that people generally considered 'crackers' have much to say, and much to offer.
More than that, it's a cracking story - full of pain, courage sadness, and hilarious moments of comedy.
The author tells her story in broken bits of narrative, fragments of memory, and simple heartfelt poems (that get more complex and sophisticated as time passes) Like Humpty Dumpty she has to pick up the broken pieces of her mind as the kings' horses - psychiatry, education and state 'care' - try to trample her into the ground.
It's an internal and an external journey that should shatter all our beliefs, if we have them, that there's anyone out there to help if the same thing happened to us.
Not just an interesting autobiography, but the first work by a major new author, Cracked will have your brain reeling.
Books:
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- The Cereal Box Mystery (Boxcar Children)
- The Child's Story Bible
- The Cosmic Code: Book VI of the Earth Chronicles
- The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage
- The Day the Voices Stopped: A Schizophrenic's Journey from Madness to Hope
- The Demon Princes, Vol. 1: The Star King * The Killing Machine * The Palace of Love (Demon Princes)
- The Gladiator (Crosstime Traffic)
- The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
- The Last Siege, The Final Truth (Star Wars: Clone Wars, Vol. 8)
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