The Brain, The Story of You by David Eagleman
When I sat down to write my first blog post in “the Brain and Body” series I fell hard into the idea of “the more you learn the less you know.” I’ve talked about the brain with many clients before but when I sat down to write about it I felt I surely didn’t know enough.
So I checked out several books from the library about the brain, all of them by David Eagleman.
I had heard David Eagleman’s podcast with Brene Brown on Unlocking Us. I really enjoyed the podcast and immediately put Livewired, David Eagleman’s book that the podcast is over, on hold. Unfortunately, when Brene Brown features a book on her podcast the hold line at the library is long, and with a baby I wasn’t able to read it all and I had to return it before I finished.
But, when I knew I wanted to learn more about the brain for this series I knew I wanted to go back to his books.
I checked out two from him:
I started with Incognito and, unfortunately, struggled to get into. I found there was a fair amount of overlap between Livewired so I struggled to keep my attention focused and with a baby running around the house often it was not a good combination. Somebody had also checked out the book before and underlined literally every single line of the book, which was really distracting, but they apparently loved every bit of the book!
Due to struggling to get into Incognito, I switched to The Brain: The Story of You. And this one I got into much quicker. There was still some overlap but I found I could focus more and make it through the concepts I had already read about and make it to some new content of his I hadn’t come across yet.
David Eagleman has a special interest in sensory substitution. So, looking at how the brain adapts when we lose, substitute, or add senses. Which is interesting to read about, but I prefer to learn more about our brain processes emotions, trauma, and mental health. He did touch on this a little bit in The Brain: The Story of You, but it wasn’t as much as I was hoping. He is able to incorporate different practices with sensory substitution into his books which is really fun and engaging to experience firsthand what he is writing about.
David Eagleman also wrote about our unconscious and the significance of the numerous functions our brain engages in without our awareness. While this isn’t necessarily emotions or trauma focused conversations with the brain, I did find these parts really interesting and increased my fascination with our brain and what it does for us.
In terms of writing style, I enjoy David Eagelman’s style. He dives into studies that back up his concepts, which I appreciate. I do wish his books varied in content as I sometimes struggled through the repetitive parts. But he explains in a way that helps you understand and appreciate the complexity of the brain, which I appreciate.
If you find yourself interested in the brain and wanted to learn more, I’d give David Eagleman’s books a shot!
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