The Human Mind and How to Make the Most of It

Have you ever wondered how you can see, or what makes you fall in love with someone? The human mind is one of the most powerful, yet least understood organ in the human body. How is it that it can control so many voluntary and involuntary processes and control things such as love and hate? In Robert Winston’s The Human Mind, Winston gives background of how the brain works, major scientists who contributed to these discoveries and how the brain works in certain circumstances.

In The Human Mind, Winston analyzes everything having to do with the brain ranging from the basic anatomy of the brain to the psychological disorders and case studies dealing with those certain ailments. He does all of this while including a lot of background and history of the brain and the people involved in the research of this amazing organ. In the opening chapters Winston touches on a brief history of the ancient peoples and their perception of the brain and then the anatomy of the brain. He continues to touch on the senses and how each of the senses is accomplished in the brain while looking at some psychological disorders dealing with the senses such as synaesthesia or the blending of the senses. He then begins discussing elements of the brain that are more practical to everyday life such as paying attention and learning. He then finishes the book by summing up with deeper issues of the brain concerning love, creativity, and intuition.

I chose this book because I have always been fascinated by the human mind. I think that it’s an amazing thing that if understood more could unlock unlimited potential to do amazing things. I am currently taking A.P. Psychology and wanted to learn more about some of the topics that we have discussed both in Biology and A.P. Psychology. The part of the book that I learned the most from was the basic history of brain research and psychology in general. The book mentioned named people who I was already familiar with such as Freud and Chomsky but elaborated both on their findings and the findings of their predecessors. I also learned a lot more about the anatomy of the brain both as a whole and broken up into their respected parts. These are all things that we brushed over in class but never gotten too in depth over due to time constraints.

In addition to the history and anatomy of the brain I learned more about some psychological disorders such as epilepsy, Asperger’s, and autism. I was especially interested in his part about epilepsy. He talked about famous people who had this ailment such as Julius Caesar and Lord Byron, and the experiments dealing with applying electrodes to the brain itself. Through these experiments scientists have concluded that epilepsy is a result of electric waves concentrated in one area that produce a variety of results. In one experiment, electrodes were applied to a woman who later claimed that she was having an out of body experience. When asked to extend her arm she thought that she was punching herself. In other experiments, subjects would begin to show symptoms of Tourrette’s syndrome.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I thought that it was a very interesting topic and the author did the best job that he could to explain the material it but, it dragged on way too long. Some of the things that he said were very funny but they were few and far between. Sometimes it felt as though I was reading a textbook rather than a regular book. The author was very competent with the material and he would be very interesting to hear him lecture on the topic.