| Details | | Publication Date: | 1997-09-25 |
| Size | | Length: | 187 pages | | Height: | 9.8 in | | Width: | 6.5 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 17.6 oz |
Industry Reviews
If increasing specialization is a hallmark of modern science, then this book is a throwback to an earlier era. Brothers (social cognition, UCLA Medical Sch.) purports to synthesize natural and social science perspectives on the human brain into a new paradigm in which the mind is viewed as inherently social rather than as an isolated mental construct. The author carefully reports primate research, case studies of autistic and aphasic persons, and experimental studies; "Isolated Brain Research," the section on specialization of function within the organ, for instance, is particularly fascinating. On the downside, facile assertions do appear (e.g., natural science searches for causes, social science for reasons), and the author covers the natural science research more thoroughly than some other aspects. Still, the book quite successfully tackles big ideas with implications for biological psychiatry. Best suited to research collections, since general readers will find it heavy-going. Antoinette Brinkman, Southwest Indiana Mental Health Ctr. Lib., Evansville
Moore
If increasing specialization is a hallmark of modern science, then this book is a throwback to an earlier era. . . . The author carefully reports primate research, case studies of autistic and aphasic persons, and experimental studies; 'Isolated Brain Research,' the section on specialization of function within the organ, for instance, is particularly fascinating. On the downside, facile assertions do appear (e.g., natural science searches for causes, social science for reasons), and the author covers the natural science research more thoroughly than some other aspects. Still, the book quite successfully tackles big ideas with implications for biological psychiatry. Best suited to research collections.
Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company.
Brinkman
Under the influence of sociology, some philosophers have argued that science is culturally determined, and there is no such thing as truth. The psychiatrist Leslie Brothers wants to have it both ways. She believes in scientific truths, independent of cultural consent, but argues that our minds are developed and shaped by our social interactions. So if our perception is culturally determined, where does that leave objective truth? . . . Despite its half-acknowledged return to behaviourism, this is a thoughtful, if difficult, book. And prophetic: it claims that if 17th-century neuroscientists had had access to brain scanners, they would have worked on 'godly behaviour and prayer'. Ironically, 20th-century neuroscientists have just discovered a brain region that underlies religious belief.
Annotation copyright H.W. Wilson Company.
Sutherland
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