This is an excellent book, on several levels. Firstly the book begins by describing the two different thinking systems used by our brain, which Gardner calls ‘Head’ and ‘Gut’. He does so in a beautifully lucid and interesting way, linking it clearly to our evolution. His description is next-to-identical with the model we use in […]

I think Mirror Neurons are one of the most exciting and important discoveries in neuroscience, and I have a feeling they could turn out to be the fundamental building blocks of consciousness itself. Marco Iacaboni has been involved in this area of research since they were first discovered and fascinatingly details the discoveries since and […]

This book’s subtitle is ‘The haphazard construction of the human mind’, and the author builds his case brilliantly well. In the first few pages he demolishes the idea of Intelligent Design by his simple demonstration that our brain is anything but designed intelligently. The word Kluge is an engineering term for a makeshift solution – […]

Paul Ekman is probably the world’s leading researcher into emotions and their relationship to expression. It was he who discovered that all humans non-verbally express seven basic emotions using the same facial muscles; they’re hard-wired in our brain, not taught culturally. What he has to say in this area is interesting enough, but his findings […]

Read Montague explores the new field of Computational Neuroscience. Does that sound like it’s going to be easy? You’re right, it’s not, but Read Montague writes well, and with a light touch. There are definitely useful things to come out of this book for us therapists, and my small brain needs to read it again […]

I have a feeling that this will turn out to be one of the most important books I’ve read, Gerd Gigarenzer provided much of the research material the Malcolm Gladwell used when writing his brilliant book, Blink. GG lays out rules of thumb the brain uses as short cuts to make decisions and create beliefs. […]

Richard Wiseman is one of my favourite authors. He writes in a really engaging way and always brings interesting things to the table. In Quirkology he excels himself in the range of weird and wonderful experiments he’s conducted or reports on that shed a fascinating light on the vagaries of being human. Entertaining and educational, […]

I’ve mentioned this book at length in a blog article called the Psychobiology of Suggestion. I found the first half of the book an utter revelation as Bruce Lipton shatters the central dogma of biology – that genes drive behaviour, by showing intriguing evidence for the primacy of the environment. If he’s right it offers […]

Ian Robertson does a fabulous job of bringing the ‘trembling web’ of the brain to life. He gives a real sense of its plasticity and our ability to grow it productively. I first read it about three years ago and I still find myself recommending it to my students on a regular basis despite having […]

I love Stephen Johnson as a writer, I’d read his shopping list. He presents ideas in a beautifully coherent way, in this case by cleverly using an examination of his own brain as a structure for exploring the latest theories from neuroscience. Stunningly relevant on many levels, and a lovely read.