Detailed item info | Synopsis | Harvard Medical School psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Schiffer theorizes that, just as we have two hemispheres of our brain, we also have two minds, one associated with each hemisphere. In OF TWO MINDS, he suggests that some mental illness--for example, some types of depression--may be caused by an imbalance between those two minds. By stimulating one half of the brain, one can strengthen the more positive memories, emotions, and behaviors associated with one mind, and weaken the more negative aspects of the other.
| | Size | | Length: | 243 pages | | Height: | 10.0 in. | | Width: | 6.5 in. | | Thickness: | 0.8 in. | | Weight: | 18.4 oz. |
| | Publisher's Note | Dr. Schiffer shows how an imbalance between the right and left brain can lead to such common psychological disorders as depression, anxiety, and panic.
Most people experience themselves as two-sided: one side seems mature and stable, the other emotional and impulsive. But have you ever wondered if there really are two minds in each of us? If so, do traumatic as well as ordinary experiences affect the way our minds grow and interact? According to Fredric Schiffer, a leading Harvard psychiatrist and researcher, advances in science prove what many of us have always intuited is true: We are of two minds, each one with a different degree of maturity, and each one associated with the left or the right brain. This brilliant, provocative book illustrates how the interaction of these two minds -- whether they sabotage each other or work in harmony -- actually determines our psychological nature and ultimately the emotional problems or progress we may experience in life. Drawing on his own twenty-five years of research on the brain and behavior, Schiffer gives us overwhelming evidence that each side of our brain possesses an autonomous, distinct personality -- with its own set of memories, motivations, and behaviors. In working with his patients, Schiffer discovered that strategically altering someone's visual field can positively or negatively affect that person's sense of well-being. He shows how using this technique of visual stimulation can activate the specific regions of the brain that harbor both traumatic and joyful memories. This dramatic breakthrough demonstrates how it is possible to access, isolate, and work with the memories encoded on one side of the brain. Dr. Schiffer's dual-brain approach has yielded remarkable results with a wide range of emotional disorders, from anxiety and depression to addiction and stress-induced heart disease -- offering an exciting new perspective on therapy. Just as earlier investigations of the brain and its cognitive functions revolutionized our understanding of how we think, Of Two Minds transforms our understanding of how and why we experience emotional distress and conflicts, and suggests a path to a more harmonious, balanced relationship between our two selves.
| | Industry reviews | Drawing on studies in neuroscience, Schiffer (associate attending psychiatrist, McLean Hosp.; psychiatry, Harvard Medical Sch.) has developed a dual-mind hypothesis of mental disorders. According to Schiffer, each side of the brain has a distinct mind or personality with its own memory, emotions, and interpretations. One side of the brain may see the world through a distorted perspective, perpetuating the effects of trauma, while the other side has a more objective memory of the same event. Dual-brain therapy, which combines drugs and psychotherapy, is designed to strengthen the mature side of the brain and get both sides to work together. As an adjunct to diagnosis and treatment, the author uses lateralizing glasses that limit vision to one side, thus activating the opposite side of the brain. This restricted vision often prompts positive or negative emotions in people with psychological disturbances, providing evidence for two minds. Schiffer does not elaborate on neurological studies to support his hypothesis; most of the text describes case studies supporting dual-brain therapy in the treatment of depression, addiction, anxiety, panic, posttraumatic stress, and other mental disorders. Recommended for public libraries. Lucille M. Boone, San Jose P.L., CA
Kakutani
Taking cues from 19th-century English physician Arthur Wigan (whose seemingly normal friend, it turned out when autopsied, had only a single brain hemisphere), contemporary neuroscience asks whether normal people, who possess both left and right brains, can be said to be literally of two minds. Schiffer, an associate attending psychiatrist at McLean Hospital and a Harvard Medical School psychiatry instructor, believes the answer is a resounding yes, and argues that psychiatric disorders are best understood as the unhappy result of two warring brain halves. Transcripts of psychotherapy sessions Schiffer conducted while his patients wore specially designed goggles that allowed them to see out of only one hemisphere at a time support this sci-fi-sounding thesis, as do some but by no means all studies pertaining to hemispheric specialization (shifts in ear temperatures, for example, correlate with shifts in EEGs). Unfortunately, while provocative, the patient transcripts, which form the linchpin of the evidence, are bland and curiously unconvincing, and Schiffer's therapy techniques seemingly await further clinical trials. Readers not yet familiar with the famous studies of so-called "split-brain patients" epilepsy sufferers whose corpora callosa were severed in an experimental therapy technique in the 1960s may find Schiffer's review of that material, and his reports from his own work with some of those patients, the most interesting portions of the book. (Sept.)
Bukey
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