Just Finished Reading: In Praise of Walking – The New Science of How We Walk and Why It’s Good For Us by Shane O’Mara (FP: 2019) [183pp] 

I’ve walked everywhere all of my life. I guess that part of that was because neither of my parents had learnt to dive and getting anywhere meant on my own two legs. My father was also a great walker. On weekends he’d take my older brother and I on LONG walks (I have clear memories of us kids both complaining and my dad saying – just around the NEXT corner) just about everywhere we could get to. As I grew up poor (but unaware of how poor we were) it was a very cheap day out. I liked it much more than my brother did which is probably why he did learn to drive as soon as possible and bought a car the moment he could afford one. 

We are an unusual species in the way we get around. Whilst other primates CAN walk for short distances and for particular reasons, we can walk mile after mile almost as efficiently as you can get. Through millennia of human evolution we have been designed to walk with minimal effort, and it shows in almost every facet of the human body. Once we learnt to walk (as a species) there was little that could stop us ultimately populating the planet. Distance certainly wasn’t any object. At a slow family pace of just 5km a day can cover 1500km in less than a year. To walk from the west coast of Liberia to the eastern Pacific coast of China – a distance of around 13,590km – would take a mere 9 year amble. So, it's not surprising that we spread far and fast once we started walking. 

The brain is wired to talk and walk. It is just a matter of time before bum shuffling becomes standing with assistance as nonsense words become language. I’m constantly amused when I see new walkers out in the world. I LOVE how indignant they get when a parent scoops them up or tries to persuade them back into their pushchair. They way they look (and complain) says VERY clearly: I learnt to WALK damn it! I’m going to walk everywhere at a snail's pace until I can RUN away from everyone! One thing that did honestly amaze me about toddlers learning to walk is that, on average, they fall something like 17 times an hour! If I did that today, in any other task, I’d have given up a LONG time ago. Toddlers are committed walkers. They’re tenacious! 

Going in I had assumed that it was obvious (and in obvious ways) that walking was good for your general health – cardio and all that. But it doesn’t stop there. Walking is, apparently, important for improving and maintaining your cognitive skills. One of the experiments that stuck out was were two groups of students (as usual) had been given some puzzles to solve. One group sat at a desk whilst the others took the test standing up. The second group scored consistently higher. Get them to take tests whilst walking – any test – and the scores go up again. The old idea of solving a problem by going for a walk has an increasingly understood scientific basis. 

Oh, I almost forgot... There's some pretty cool stuff in here about how we navigate and how to do it better!

For such a thin book this is PACKED with information and insight into an activity I’m sure that most of us take for granted. If you’re a walker already it’ll confirm many of the positive ideas you already have. If you’re a reluctance pedestrian it might change your mind about this simple pleasure with a built-in health benefit. Definitely recommended. You can thank me later.   

Just Finished Reading: The Art of Rest – How to Find Respite in the Modern Age by Claudia Hammond (FP: 2019) [264pp] 

I think I picked this up during a period of increased stress at work – or at least in the aftermath of a stressful time. I honestly don’t deal with stress very well and, as much as possible, avoid it where and when I can. I think I am pretty good at resting though! I don’t feel the pressure of constantly needing to DO something and most certainly don’t suffer (as some of my friends have done much to my bemusement) of FOMO – the ‘fear’ of ‘missing out’, which is something I’ve never really understood. Whatever and how much you do, you will ALWAYS be missing out on SOMETHING – so, get over it! 

Anyway, to the book itself. Rather typically it has taken me around 7 years to read it, which means I’ve actually been retired and living the LOW stress lifestyle for around 6 years now. But it was interesting to see what I could have done to lower or recover from stress by relaxing more. The contents of the book are based on the results of a global survey essentially asking people what they did to relax and then ranking them 1-10 in reverse order. Each section covered the relaxation strategy and, as much as possible, the scientific underpinnings of why and how it worked. I was somewhat surprised, although not completely, by how many of the 10 I actually practiced before reading this. Some of them I felt were pretty obvious whilst others seemed a bit more niche (if not exactly unique to me!). 

The 10th most popular made me laugh a little – Mindfulness. Although I’m aware of the ideas underpinning the idea, my only direct experience with it have been at work where we received advice and a few short training sessions to help us reduce our stress. Much cynicism resulted as we were all convinced that the ‘trendy’ idea was being used purely to tick boxes for Head Office. Number 7 was a Nice Hot Bath which made me smile. For speed and convenience throughout the week it was a shower for me. But on Sunday, as I had the time to take my time, I had a bath instead just to soak there and think about nothing in particular. Perfect. Number 4 was Listening to Music. This I do whenever I can and wherever I can. I used to wear headphones often, plugged into an MP3 player with my favourite downloaded music (or ripped from my CDs). It always made me feel like I was in an MTV music video. Music was on in my house during every waking moment – as it is at this very moment – and it certainly relaxes me (especially the Classical music I listen to 15 hours a day). The top method for relaxation honestly surprised me – Reading. It's not that I don’t think that reading IS relaxing – I certainly relax that way – but that so many people agree with me that it got to number ONE on so many people’s lists!  

So, if you’re struggling to relax and take time off from the daily grind this could be the book for you. It’ll certainly give you some ideas of how to wind down and may well help you achieve a slightly more relaxed outlook. Rather than buying it though I’d recommend you pick it up from your local library. Reasonable.   

Just Finished Reading: This is Your Mind on Plants – Opium – Caffeine – Mescaline by Michael Pollan (FP: 2021) [247pp] 

This was another of those books that turned out to be not what I expected. Much like my previous book, I was expecting a somewhat scientific discussion about what various drugs/substances did to the human brain and contrasting the effects of two heavily regulated/illegal substances with the all too common one (caffeine!). 

That wasn’t what I got, though I was far from disappointed with the result. Logically the book was split into three sections – one on each ‘drug’. The first was more than a little odd. Essentially it was an upgraded version of an article the author had produced some years previously for Harper's Magazine about the so-called ‘War on Drugs’ and how, as part of that ‘conflict’ the US Government was trying to quietly eliminate the Poppy from American gardens. Fuelled by a misinformation campaign – asserting that opium poppies could not be grown in the US (they can) or that ‘normal’ poppies don’t produce opium (they do in varying quantities) and even prosecuting people who grow colourful flowers in their gardens not realising that they ‘could’ be used for opium production. The author also contrasted this failing war (and all of the ridiculous side effects of controlling seed catalogue contents) with the opioid crisis in no small part caused by ‘legitimate’ drug companies feeding doctors and patients false information about their products. Interesting stuff. The last chapter was broadly similar where the author looked at the strange history of mescaline use in the US and the fight by Native Americans to have access to it for their religious ceremonies. Again, very interesting stuff especially when the author and his wife tried mescaline during such a ceremony. 

As I haven’t taken (nor plan on taking) either substance, the section on caffeine was the most relatable. Rather than taking in the substance, something most of us do on a daily basis, the author tried to wean himself off coffee or tea for a whole three months – something I certainly couldn’t contemplate. The results were VERY interesting to say the least and even more so when he got back on the wagon with some expresso...! His speculation on the effects of coffee (and later tea) on 17th century Western civilisation certainly need more investigation, so I’ll be following up on that. One thing that did make me laugh was about the physical health benefits of the growing popularity of coffee houses. As they necessarily had to boil water to produce the brew, it meant that any bugs contained therein were effectively killed. So, largely risk-free mental stimulation. A win-win I think.  

I enjoyed this quite a lot and am looking forward to reading more from the author. He has a very cozy style and you feel that you’re learning things with almost no effort (I approve!). A fun quick read that will probably make you look at your morning coffee, as well as poppies and cacti, in a slightly different way. Recommended for an off-the-wall read.

Just Couldn’t Finished Reading: This is Your Brain on Music – Understanding a Human Obsession by Daniel Levitin (FP: 2006) [267pp] 

This was quite the disappointment. I’m not 100% sure just how long this had been languishing in one of my book piles but I was looking forward to finally reading it. Things did not start well as the author spent multiple pages defining various musical terms – melody, tempo, pitch etc. - to the point where I was lost or unsure about what anything meant. I think it would have been much better to sprinkle the explanations throughout the text, even if he had to repeat himself from time to time. What was sprinkled through the first part of the book was some interesting observations and speculations but, I found, too few and too widely spaced. 

Once we moved out of musical definitions and explanations things did improve but then, I think, we hit another issue – the age of the book. At 18 years old, despite the advances made in the understanding of the human brain in the preceding years, it was really showing its age. Although the author didn’t say so specifically it did seem that the fMRI scanner used in some of the work cited was still fairly new technology. On top of that many of the ideas used were at least somewhat speculative. I couldn’t help but wonder what, in the following 18 years of investigation, had been proven to be correct – or wrong. 

Listening to music has always been a big part of my life for as long as I can remember. First on the radio (and TV) and later on records, cassettes and ultimately CDs. One of the things that has long intrigued me is why I like certain music but not others. I’m sure part of that it just what I grew up hearing, which is understandable. I also imagine that at least some of the reason why I like certain types of music is an accident of how my brain is wired. The author certainly hints at this ‘answer’ to my question but what I would love to know is why my brain LOVED a piece of classical music the moment it heard it for the first time. What’s all THAT about? Is it the melody, the tempo, the pitch? It's a good question. Maybe a more modern book might be able to answer it? I did give it a good ‘go’ – 147pages if memory serves – but it just wasn’t for me.  

[Oh, and only my 2nd review of the year and already my 1st DNF. I do hope that’s not a sign for what’s coming this year....!]   

Just Finished Reading: I, Warbot – The Dawn of Artificially Intelligent Conflict by Kenneth Payne (FP: 2021) [256pp] 

Anyone who has been paying attention to the news has, no doubt, witnessed the explosive increase in drone use and drone power on the battlefield – not only in Ukraine but elsewhere across the world. Drones, it seems, are it. Coupled with drones are the use of highly sophisticated missiles and (quite possibly) even more sophisticated missile defences. It's all VERY impressive. The smart missiles gain their smarts from the ability to self-guide after launch and some can even pick a second target if they ‘realise’ the first target has been destroyed. Some missiles can even respond with counter measures if detected. What they can’t do, of course, is think. They can’t really ‘decide’ what to do – they're programmed with a set of instructions which essentially follow a ‘IF this THEN...’ structure. They respond to the environment, sure, but only in a very limited fashion. 

Drones, no matter how good they are, are by and large, human controlled, human directed and human deployed. Generally, their ‘intelligence’ without human involvement is almost non-existent. Yet they are, as we’ve seen time and time again on video feeds VERY combat effective. Because of this both anti-drone and especially anti-missile systems need to be VERY good and, most importantly, VERY quick. This means that humans can’t really be ‘in the loop’ - they can’t really be given the final authority to engage an incoming target. With as little as a few seconds to respond, humans are just too SLOW. Machines, aided with still rudimentary AI is much better suited to this sort of thing and can detect, confirm and launch a response in the time it takes a human to start to recognise a threat. With the way things are clearly going that’s a BIG problem. 

Enter AI (Artificial Intelligence) or at least the hopes, the hype, the advertised AI. Its proponents and manufacturers tell us, and their military customers, that AI can (at least ultimately) solve their very real problems – kind of set a thief to catch (or shoot down) a thief. The problem is, naturally, that putting AI into a weapon – especially a disposable/kamikaze one – is going to be a LOT easier that putting one into a system to defend against them. Again, this will mean removing or reducing the humans in the loop to save vital seconds but there’s a real problem that militaries all over the world are facing – AI isn’t really all that good despite the hype. We are a LONG LONG way from Terminators or SkyNet (thankfully). AI is good, often VERY good, in narrow clearly defined tasks but take it just a bit out of its comfort zone and it falls apart or simply stops ‘unsure’ how to proceed. Not exactly something you want to happen with a missile defence network during a shooting war. 

These issues, and much more besides, are intelligently discussed in this fascinating book. The author certainly knows his way around the topic, not only from the military hardware side of things along with the tactical and strategic implications of such, but also AI research, breakthroughs in understanding the human brain, Game Theory, and the Philosophy of Mind. It was, for ME at least [grin], highly engaging. About the only ‘fault’ I could find – and it certainly wasn’t a fault of the author – is that despite its recent publication the pace of drone, missile and robot development has already made some observations in the book increasingly obsolete. But, that’s the danger of reading books, which take an appreciable time to become published (even in my hardback edition), on such topics. Taking this caveat into account this is still a very good accounting of the recent impact of AI on military technology and thinking both at the tactical and strategic level. Military AI is here to stay and will become ever more powerful and more deeply integrated into military forces across the world. I was particularly interested in the ‘half-way house’ of human-machine teams (such as the loyal wingman programme adding drones to aircraft to enhance their combined effectiveness) which are called Centaurs! How funky is that! Definitely recommended for science, technology and warfare geeks out there.  

Just Finished Reading: The Unthinkable – Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Why by Amanda Ripley (FP: 2008/2009) [229pp] 

When tragedy strikes why do some walk away when others die? Is it the luck of the draw? Is it just because they happened to be sitting next to the emergency exit or had popped out for a breath of fresh air during a fire? Or the fact that they went to the bathroom moments before the shooting started? Or is it something more and can that something be learnt? This is the heart of the authors investigation. 

Although the majority of the examples and interviews in these pages are US based, there’s a lot of general knowledge and advice throughout this intriguing book. Covering 9/11, a diplomatic hostage incident in South America, a stampede in Mecca, a fire at a club in Beverly Hills, the shooting at Virgina Tech and much besides the author shows what people do, how the human brain reacts to dangerous surprises and why such reactions – often (ironically) hardwired for survival – could determine life or death. Following the initial shock there is often a period of disbelief: this isn’t happening or why is this happening to me? Getting stuck there will, all too often, get you killed. Once disbelief has been banished the question is: what next? Strangely the most common reaction is to do nothing, to wait for direction or rescue. This too could get you killed. Once moving on to doing ‘something’, what exactly do you do? Again, the standard reaction is to see what others are doing. There is, often, safety in numbers – but it can also result in argument, discussion, group think and, again, death. What needs to be done is a quick analysis of what happened, where it leaves you and how to get out. So, where are your exits? Do you know how to get to the fire escape? Can you (or indeed should you) break that window? Do you know if it’s safe to open that door? Do you take anything with you? Do you help others? Surprisingly numerous studies have shown that people hardly ever panic but are actually very polite, will wait their turn and help others who are struggling. Which, ironically, can make evacuations take much longer than the buildings or aircrafts designers anticipated. 

This is an often fascinating and surprisingly multilayered look at how people react in ‘unthinkable’ situations. The author interviewed survivors asking them what they did, what they saw other people do (some of whom didn’t make it) and what they assigned their survival to. She also spoke to experts in the field to get their take on things including those who study the human brain to see why some people panic, some freeze and some take charge. I’m not sure if (as per the tag-line on my copy) that this book might save your life someday, but it does give a LOT of good advice and observations. One of my favourites is the idea of what to do after you check into a hotel. After you’ve dropped your bags in your room, you leave, find the nearest fire exit and follow it to reception discovering exactly where it goes and if there are any problems en route. Now THAT could indeed save your life! A very interesting read and definitely recommended. 

Just Finished Reading: How to Speak Whale – A Voyage into the Future of Animal Communication by Tom Mustill (FP: 2022) [249pp] 

When a seemingly peaceful whale almost kills you, it’s reasonable to ask why. When the author and a friend were kayaking off the Californian coast and encountered a number of whales, they rightly considered it a magical moment. But when one of them breached and landed almost on top of them (caught on camera below), capsizing their boat and almost killing them both it turned, momentarily, into a nightmare. But the author, a wildlife filmmaker, was more intrigued than afraid. Why had the whale acted that way? Was it afraid, annoyed or something else? Did it even know they were there and, most intriguingly, did it make a conscious effort to avoid landing directly on top of them – which would surely have killed them both. So, his journey began to find answers until one scientist made what appeared to be an off-hand comment that directed his investigation in a whole new and fascinating trajectory. When asked if the whale HAD made any effort to avoid them – after it breached and maybe for the first time noticed they were almost directly underneath it – the scientist responded: “Well, it’s not like you can *ask* it”. At which point the author mused: Why not? 

Whales have been known to ‘sing’ for centuries and probably gave rise to myths of mermaids and sirens. But no one, so far, has been able to determine why (we’re actually getting closer to the question of How though...) or if the ‘songs’ ‘mean’ anything. While whale song certainly isn’t just random ‘noise’ it’s far from clear if it's a form of communication, never mind a potentially understandable language that could, again potentially, be used for two-way communication with these elegant beasts. Many have tried, and failed, to understand what, if anything, the whales are ‘saying’ to each other but recent developments in cryptology and AI have opened a possible window to understanding. Together with much better methods of recording both songs and behaviour simultaneously for context clues there is hope that if enough song data can be accumulated it might enable the understanding of any ‘language’ structure which could lead to real communication between our species. Even the thought of such a breakthrough is mindboggling. 

This was a completely fascinating look at the numerous projects across the world trying to understand animal communication – mostly in regard to whales but in other species too. Most surprisingly there are groups out there making real progress and we could, within decades, be directly speaking to these creatures and really communicating with each other. The ramifications and potentials are immense – not only here on Earth but possibly for any future communication with aliens beyond our world. I did wonder if we’re seeing the very beginnings of a true Universal Translator! There is SO much going on between these pages that it's impossible to summarise it all, but needless to say, if you have any interest in whales or even the hint of a possibility of talking to them – plus primates, dogs or even birds – this is most definitely the book for you. Highly recommended.   

Just Finished Reading: Dark and Magical Places – The Neuroscience of How We Navigate by Christopher Kemp (FP: 2022) [198pp] 

From what I’ve been told and what I remember I was a bit of a nightmare as a child. My problem was that I would wander off and get lost. I was probably the worst in large department stores. I’d get bored and look for where the toy section was then I’d just wander off to find it. If my parents or siblings hadn’t been paying attention, they would have no idea where I’d just disappeared to. Meanwhile I was in a world of my own looking at toys I knew I could never have. After 5-10 minutes I’d go back to where I thought my family would be and, naturally, they wouldn’t be there – either I couldn’t remember where they had been or, more likely, they’d gone looking for me. Nightmare. For the longest time I thought that I had no sense of direction or that my internal compass was in the wrong way – that if I needed to go right, I’d inevitably turn left. That was just the way I was. Not so. My ‘problem’ was that I just wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. My sense of direction is actually fine. Once I know where I am (however rough that knowledge is) I can pretty much navigate anywhere. One of my proudest achievements was navigating from a holiday resort on the Algarve to Lisbon with a VERY sketchy map provided by the hotel. We did get lost initially, but as soon as I knew our exact location (after seeing a useful sign), we proceeded with confidence, got where we were going, had a great day, and got back in one piece. Likewise, my last job was based on a sprawling 54-acre business site, and I had few issues (bizarrely except in one particularly bit that always turned me around) getting around as I carried a detailed 3D map of the place entirely in my head, much to the amazement of my boss and new members of staff I was all too often tasked with showing around. But why am I telling you all this? 

It’s a simple fact that some people are good navigators (my older brother is very good) and some people get lost on the way back to their table from a McDonalds restroom. Why? It appears that around 84% of our navigational ability is genetic. If you have close members of your family who get lost in their own neighbourhood where they’ve lived their whole lives, there’s a very good chance that you get lost a lot too. But you can improve things. The comparatively recent addition of GPS (Global Position System) to cars and phones means that internal navigation skills are starting to atrophy. Driving into the ocean or off a cliff because our sat-nav's told us to has become the by-word for trusting technology way more than we should. It also means that when our tools fail us in some way, or we forget to bring them we’re MUCH more likely to get lost. Like most skills, if you don’t practice it enough you start to suck at it and if you’re hiking in the mountains and take a brief stroll off the path not being able to find it again could become a life and death situation. 

Using the very latest information from neurological studies across the globe this is a fascinating look at an ability most of us take completely for granted – finding our way from A to B. Explaining how the brain maps our environment, scopes for landmarks, imagines reverse routes and much else besides this will give you a very good idea of what’s going on (or NOT!) between your ears either when you land in a new town and need to find your hotel or why most of us don’t immediately forget where we live once we turn a corner. This is a MUST read for anyone interesting in how we find our way around an ever-changing world and why some of us get lost in our local supermarket. Highly recommended. One of the best Science books of the year (and my first book this year published in 2022).  

[Labels Added: 0, Labels Total: 73]    

Just Finished Reading: A Mind of its Own – How Your Brain Distorts and Deceives by Cordelia Fine (FP: 2005) [211pp] 

Do you think your brain has ever lied to you? Well, the short answer is: Yes. I’m not talking about optical illusions or anything like that. I’m talking about the real-time modification of everyday reality – minute by minute, second by second. Again, I don’t mean that your reality is being modified by outsiders, by the media or big business – no, you’re being manipulated from the inside, by your own brain.  

How do we know this? Essentially from hundreds of experiments undertaken over decades of research into how our brains operate and how they manipulate reality to make you feel good, to get you to do things and to get you through the day in (mostly) one piece. The brain can edit your memories to show you in the best light after you’ve messed up or had been caught doing something you shouldn’t - even something as simple as breaking your diet. The brain can blame others for your faults and see responsibility for other’s failures while waving away your own responsibility without a second thought. It will tell you that you can indeed drive that fast safely and that you are indeed above average (along with 85% of those surveyed) in a whole host of skills and abilities. Your odds of getting ill, according to your grey matter, is much lower than average as is the speed of recovery if you do, indeed, fall prey to a nasty bug. You will, naturally, live longer than average and may indeed live long enough that science catches up and makes you immortal. There is, of course, practically nothing to worry about and whatever goes wrong just isn’t you fault and never could be.  

I could go on, but I won’t. I picked this up last year along with another of the authors books in my favourite Indie bookshop. Overall, it was a fun read if a little repetitive looking at study after study and experiment after experiment showing that our brain just can’t be trusted to tell us the hard cold truth about ourselves or the world around us. What made it more that readable for me was the authors style which was very down to earth and often very funny. I did laugh out loud more than once at her observations regarding the hoops our brains jumped through to accommodate their version of reality. I think the biggest thing I took away from this slim volume is that when your brain/mind tells you something that seems ‘obvious’ about what’s going on around you – just pause for a second and think about what potential BS your brain is feeding you. Was what just happened REALLY out of your control or is that just a cover for you not paying attention or not thinking things through before you opened your mouth or pressed that button. Is that person ahead of you REALLY a deadbeat or is that just your deep-seated prejudice talking (or your parents' prejudice echoing inside your head). It’s time to pause and reflect. 

Of course, the only problem with a lot of Psychology and Social Psychology experiments is the fact that the tests are run on university students by and large in the USA or Europe. So, we have a small, self-selecting group that is supposedly telling us things about the WHOLE of humanity. Generally, these people are going to be above average intelligence (or they probably wouldn’t have made the grade to get into Uni) and more likely to be Middle Class or at least relatively wealthy. I’m also guessing that most of the experimental volunteers are male and white – and the results of these experiments are extrapolated to cover ALL of humanity is all of its diversity. So, pinch of salt required... But, saying that, this is an interesting read that will get you wondering exactly why you do, want to do, or think/believe in the things you do. I think we all know people who blame others for everything bad that happens to them but who absolve themselves of any responsibility for their own failings – now I know exactly why such things happen. Recommended and more to come from this author. 

[Labels Added: 0, Labels Total: 66] 

Just Finished Reading: The Nocturnal Brain – Nightmares, Neuroscience and the Secret World of Sleep by Guy Leschziner (FP: 2019) [315pp] 

I like my sleep and if I say so myself, I’m pretty good at it. My record, as a teenager naturally, is 16 hours. Thankfully my parents left me to it apart from some sarcastic remarks when I finally emerged from my room. Thankfully too I can say that I’ve had very few problems with my sleep apart from the odd, and sometimes very odd, nightmare (mostly when I was young) and the occasional (thankfully short) bout of insomnia generally as the result of work-related stress. In the last few years at work, I was almost constantly tired and relied on a regular coke intake – mostly Pepsi actually – to keep me awake. This was actually my own fault as I’d go to bed quite late – I'm most definitely a night-owl – and then struggle to get up at a ridiculous hour in the morning and have to function through a full day. Self-inflicted but I wasn’t prepared to give up my life so I’d be perkier at my desk each day. 

Anyway, to the book itself. I’m aware that sleep disorders are not exactly rare. Apart from my own minor issues (plus being told that I mumble in my sleep and tend to move about a bit in bed), my sister used to sleep walk as a child (we’d sometimes find her curled up on the sofa in the morning) and a friend at Uni apparently had sleep apnoea where he’d momentarily stop breathing which would wake him up (and scare the hell out of his girlfriend). But I wasn’t aware of the number of problems and the damage they cause until reading this fascinating and honestly frightening book!  

Circadian rhythms have long interested me ever since learning about them. The idea that we have a (roughly) 24-hour in-built clock that can sometimes malfunction is intriguing to say the least, especially discovering that ALL life – including plants and bacteria – have the same clock. It’s VERY old. But what’s really weird is when it malfunctions and you’re cursed with a 25-hour one. This doesn’t sound too bad until you realise that means slowly moving out of and then back into synch with the rest of the world. Disruptive or what! Then there’s sleepwalking and variations thereof – including sleep driving(!), sleep eating(!!), sleep sex(!!) and sleep crime(!!!). I’ve already mentioned sleep apnoea but imagine stopping breathing for a few seconds but HUNDREDS of times a night. You might not even remember most of it but imagine the damage it’s doing to your sleep patterns and your general health. Then there’s things like narcolepsy, falling asleep for a minute or so at random moments which, of course can be incredibly dangerous. There’s Restless Leg Syndrome, Night Terrors which put my piddling nightmares to shame, and other neurological disorders that threaten our need for sleep.  

This was honestly a riveting read. The author, a consultant neurologist at Guy’s Hospital in London, is an excellent communicator and has filled this slim volume with case studies, explanations and not a little humour. One of the things that struck me was his humility in stating time and again the present limits to our knowledge of the human brain. But we are learning fast and some of the seemingly intractable problems of today will, no doubt, be able to be addressed in the future. I most definitely count myself lucky that I haven’t had to manage any of the scenario's outlined in the book. But if you, or someone you know, is having serious and persistent sleep issues this book could point you in the right direction for possible solutions. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the grey-matter between our ears or for anyone dreaming of a good night's sleep. 

[Labels Added: 0, Labels Total: 49] 

Just Finished Reading: Splitting – The Inside Story of Headaches by Amanda Ellison (FP: 2020) [210pp] 

I can’t remember having that many headaches as a child, nothing notable anyway. I guess that I had them, probably, but nothing that springs to mind. Notable headaches started in my mid-teens, and it turned out that I needed glasses – eye strain and dehydration being two of the most common causes of headaches. Later, as I developed hay fever, my headaches revolved around sinus issues. Later still I had what I now consider to be mild migraines. They came in various shapes and sizes, sometimes in the classic thumping pain in the left temple behind the eye socket, sometimes preceded by the even more classic wavy lines on the edge of my vision and sometimes as what I referred to as my ‘molasses head’ where my brain seemed to be barely functioning although I felt no pain. This lasted for 24-36 hours and then went away helped by some pills. Interestingly, since I retired almost 3 years ago now, I’ve had like one very mild headache which passed barely noticed. It would seem that my most recent headaches (pre-retirement) were likely to have been stress related rather than a matter of low caffeine as previously thought. 

With the history of headaches briefly outlined above seeing this book for a mere £3 in my favourite Indie bookshop was a slam dunk. Rather oddly I’ve never actually done much reading or research regarding headaches before this. I suppose that I saw my long experience with head pain normal and, therefore, hardly worth thinking about. I’m glad I changed my mind and picked this one up. Covering 4 major types of headaches – Sinus (yup, in summer with hay fever and in winter with colds), Stress (yup, but not for a while now), Cluster (thankfully not as they sound truly horrible!) and Migraine (not for at least 3 years, not TOO bad when they do happen, not as bad as my brother who can be in bed with them for days, and not anywhere near as bad as the horror stories I’ve seen about them) - the author looks at the history of each type, how each type manifests in the brain and some of the methods of coping with the event itself, recovering as well as stopping them in the first place before they happen. 

Rather surprisingly, as the author herself mentions, despite all the research into the subject, there’s still a lot we don’t know about why headaches happen although we have a much better idea about how they happen whilst they’re in progress. Drugs can help, although they are generally anti-inflammatory so are really addressing a secondary effect rather than the cause itself. There are occasions where rather drastic surgery is the only answer to a truly debilitating series of Cluster headaches and I’m eternally thankful that I’ve never had to cope with that! But, unfortunately, there’s still a lot of work to be done understanding this often mundane but sometimes crippling condition. Proper hydration and stress reduction can help in many cases but that’s often nowhere near enough. If, like me, you suffer or have suffered from headaches this is definitely worth your time. It won’t offer you a solution to all of your problems, but it will give you a good idea of exactly what’s going on in your head and might give you some ideas of what you can do to mitigate the effects of your headache with or without medication. Recommended. 

Just Finished Reading: Proust and The Squid – The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf (FP: 2007) [229pp]

I can’t remember a time when I couldn’t read. It seems that I have always been reading signs, papers and books. Reading, to me, is as automatic as breathing. But weirdly there was a time when no one could read across the entire globe because reading, as a process, did not exist. Why? Because, not that long ago – in the grand scheme of things – there was nothing written that could be read. There was language but nothing written down – that had to be invented and then taught to others. It was a long and hard process and even had some early opponents who thought, rightly as it turned out, that the process of writing and reading would change things forever and would even change those exposed to it. Writing and reading would, hard as it is to believe at first glance, not only change the way people thought and remembered but literally change the structure of the human brain.

This fascinating book essentially had three streams starting with the various origins of writing in the ancient world and how some prospered while others fell into disuse and how writing (and reading) spread across the ancient world to aid commerce and record keeping. I did actually find it interesting that, like the invention of e-mail and Instant Messaging much later this official communication very quickly became much more personal with commentaries, love notes and graffiti quickly becoming as pervasive as book keeping and legal codes.

Teaching people to read turned out to be really hard and required intense effort both to teach and to learn that skill. This is one reason why early readers were so rare and so prized. It turns out that while we are ‘designed’ from birth to be talkers we are not ‘designed’ to be readers. That skill needs to be bolted on very much as an afterthought as it was not something that evolution made us ready for. In order for the brain to be able to read quickly enough for it to be of any use it needs to rewire itself in multiple ways. As in other realms one of the best ways to figure out who something works is to study when it doesn’t. Hence the in-depth investigation into reading ‘disorders’ gives a great deal of insight into how normally functioning brains learn to read text quickly and accurately to fully process the information it contains. As many people have discovered, both teachers and pupils, this is not always an easy path to follow and is one that takes years of concerted effort before it becomes, or at least seems, to be completely effortless.

Being a lifelong reader (or almost at any rate) I found this book to be completely captivating. Not only is the origin of writing fascinating in its own case I found myself most drawn in by the process of how brains teach themselves to read and I couldn’t help but relate it to my own childhood as well as watching other people struggle with the process. I remember my ‘a-ha’ moments when things suddenly made sense and that almost physical feeling of things falling into place and, of course, the joy of countless reading moments over the years that non-readers never experience. If you are a reader anything like me you will get a great deal from this book. Imagining how your own brain was re-wired from the inside by your own actions with the aid of parents and teachers who taught you to read is both weird and strangely satisfying. Definitely recommended. I shall be looking for her follow up book in 2021.  

Just Couldn’t Finish Reading: Descartes’s Error – Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain by Antonio Damasio (FP: 1994)

I’d be the first to admit that I’m not a scientist. The last time I studied science in an academic setting was when I was 19 and trying (for the 2nd time) to get into University. As that was over 40 years ago I’ll leave you to imagine how out of touch I am with most things scientific. I have, however, maintained a steady interest in science since my late teens – mostly things like Cosmology, Quantum Dynamics, Computers and Evolution but also things like Human Biology hence this book. Part of that interest is, to be honest, driven by the natural process of aging. I’m interested in what’s coming down the road at me and I’d like to be prepared for it. Mostly it’s just because I’m interested in things which just happens to include why and how I ‘tick’.

I think I tried to read this book back in the 90’s. I do have a vague bell going off (although that might just be my tinnitus) about picking this up at some point previously maybe from a library somewhere. The brain is, obviously, an interesting subject as we all have one and it’s where ‘we’ live. Now I’ve long held the belief that we are our brains and that there is no ‘mind stuff’ that’s separate from the physical brain. The reason why the mind/brain link hasn’t been found is that it isn’t there to be found. The mind and brain are essentially the same thing. Damage the brain and you change the person – you change their minds (often permanently). I know it’s in many ways more comforting to think of us just as ‘meat’ even if it’s as meat machines being driven around by controlling minds but I stopped thinking that a long time ago.

Anyway, to the book itself and why I DNF’d it. DNFing a book is a very rare event for me and I don’t do it easily. My ‘miss’ rate is often no more than 1 book every other year. I’m usually very good at picking books I’ll enjoy or at least finish. The problem I had with this wasn’t so much the content as the style. The author obviously knows his subject but I felt that this book wasn’t really directed as me as a reader. One thing was that I struggled with some of the terminology which slowed my reading too much as I had to ‘switch gears’ to understand or remember which bit of the brain he was talking about. I did speed through his descriptions of various accidents and patient histories held as examples of how brain injuries caused this behaviour and that but I found myself skipping through the more technical bits which I thought were primarily written for medical students. I did agree with his overall premise – that emotion cannot and should not be left out of the thinking equation but I couldn’t help thinking that he approached the idea too tentatively and too slowly to hold my attention. I suppose that what I’m saying overall is that this wasn’t the popular science book I was hoping it was and that other books ahead of it were calling to me – a case in point is that I stopped reading this about 100 pages to the end (160 pages in) and yet read 120 pages of my next book in a single day. Although interesting in many ways this just wasn’t the book for me so not recommended.     

Just Finished Reading: Migraine by Oliver Sacks (FP: 1970)

I’ve had headaches for as long as I can remember – way back into my childhood. Looking back on them I think that a goodly proportion were probably eye-strain related. They were always worse in the summer with the heat, dryness and strong light. Getting glasses in my late teens was probably more than a few years too late. But growing up the headaches were the least of my worries. From time to time, apparently randomly, the headaches would develop into something altogether more painful and disturbing – a migraine. For those of you lucky enough never to have experienced such a thing a migraine is not just a bad headache – even a very bad headache. A migraine is something much worse. Imagine the worst hangover you’ve ever had…. Now double it and double it again. Then extend it for 24-36 hours followed by another 24-36 hours of a brain filled with cotton wool. That’s the kind of migraines I used to get. But reading this book I realise that I’m one of the lucky ones.

My migraines were intermittent. I have no real idea what caused them – something I ate, weird summer weather, stress – but I could go months or more without one. In this interesting if difficult read I was appalled to discover than some people experience migraines weekly – or even more often. To me that sounds like Hell. Likewise I discovered that my symptoms are towards the milder kind – pounding head pain, nausea, and (sometimes) visual pyrotechnics. I could always feel one coming hours ahead of time. The quality of the light changed and things became hyper-real. There was a sense of unreality about things and an almost hushed anticipation. If I was lucky I could head things off with some serious pain killers (a codeine based pill was best I discovered) but too often the only solution was to go to bed and suffer through it. Often, after 24 hours, the storm would have (largely) passed and I could function again. A day after that and it was like it never happened. My brother, unfortunately, is usually flat on his back for 3 days before recovering and that’s with the strongest pain killers on the market. Again, compared to some poor brutes mentioned in the book, we both get off pretty lightly. Not only do some people need sedating during an attack but the after effect can last long enough to melt into the start of another attack. Heavy duty drugs are the only way to deal with it. I honestly hadn’t realised just how complex migraines are. Although the book was rather dated (although it did contain some postscripts from later editions) it did make a fair fist at trying to understand how migraines appear and how they progress through their leisurely development so unlike the lightening surge of epilepsy.

What I found both bizarre and fascinating were the visual effects of a migraine episode. I sometimes experienced flashing lights of brilliant intensity like star-shells going off on the edge of my visual field. Even in the last 6 weeks or so I experienced vivid zig-zag patterns marching across my visual field that failed to develop into anything further (edged off screen by a quick pair of Ibuprofen tablets I always carry with me). But these are very minor events compared to some who suddenly see things in black and white, in 2 dimensions, pixelated or with visual experiences not dissimilar to painting by Picasso. I couldn’t help wondering how many artists throughout the 20th century – especially after the physical and psychological shocks of WW1 – suffered from some type of migraine symptoms which gave rise to whole new art forms like Cubism. More research needed I feel.

Probably the only real downside to this book (apart from its age) is the fact that it felt like (and I believe it was true) that the book was written by a doctor for other doctors – in this case from a professor of neuroscience to a General Practitioner audience. The book is peppered with medical terminology none of which is explained and pointers about patient care are constantly brought up. I did find myself softly skimming some areas of dense language once I got the gist of things which was manageable after some effort and concentration. Most of the book naturally revolved around the biology and neurology of migraines with only a small section at the end offering some advice on particular drugs and other techniques to reduce the severity of the attack or to head it off at the pass completely. I’m not sure how useful this was but I’m going to try a few things if I ever suffer another migraine event. Presently (apart from the recent light show) I’m migraine free and have been for several years – probably in the region of 3-4 I think. If you are a sufferer or know/care for someone who is I think this book might be of some limited value but I’d look for something a bit more modern as well as something a bit more non-medical professional friendly. Interesting over all but definitely hard going in places. 

Just Finished Reading: Why We Sleep – The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker (FP: 2017)

I must admit that sleeping is one of my favourite pastimes. I must also admit that, too often, I don’t do it enough. Of course in that fact I’m far from alone. Seemingly most people in the West don’t sleep anywhere like enough and when they do sleep they tend to sleep badly. Most people, myself included, have just gotten used to being tired most of the time and use things like caffeine to get through the day. But it wasn’t always this way. Before electricity people generally went to bed soon after the sun went down and got up when the sun reappeared. For millennia we were asleep in the dark and awake in the light. Then came the incandescent bulb – and nothing has been the same.

But that’s OK, right? A bit of tiredness is a small price to pay for a modern life with light at the touch of a button, access to a 24 hour culture and an alarm clock to get us up in the morning and an expresso to get us over the post lunch slump. It’s all good really….. But unfortunately it isn’t. Studies show that lack of sleep leads to an earlier death, mental health issues, and an increased risk of accidents to mention just the highlights. Study after study has shown that having at least 7 or even better 8 hours asleep not only makes you far more awake during the day but saves societies potentially billions of pounds/dollars a year in productivity increases and health benefits. But how do we respond to this: with ‘I’ll sleep when I’m dead’ bravado and working longer hours than the already overworking boss to ‘show willing’. None of which helps either the individual or the bottom line. The author, a professor of Neuroscience and an expert on sleep, wants to change this state of affairs and puts a great deal of effort throughout the book pointing out empirical studies that show the damage done by lack of sleep especially in children and teenagers who still possess brains that have yet to be fully formed. Sleep is not a luxury not is it something you can catch up on at weekends and holidays. The benefits of 7-8 hours’ sleep each and every night are numerous – both physical and mental. From stress relief, improved memory, an improved immune system, weight loss and a whole host of other things sleep improves just about everything.

Personally, I usually get about 6 1/2hrs most week days and around 8hrs at weekends and holidays. Lately I’ve noticed that I’ve been going to bed slightly later so had been averaging 6hrs and sometimes less. After reading this book and understanding the risks/damage I am probably doing to myself I’ve starting pushing things back to 7hrs again. I’m still like the ‘Walking Dead’ in the morning but I do seem to be waking up faster and in a clearer mental state than without that extra 30-60 minutes in the sack. Long ago I stopped drinking anything with caffeine after 5-6pm (apparently in takes 10-12 hours for caffeine to completely clear the body) and I don’t look at ‘blue’ screens – iPads, phones etc – at all so that probably helps. Most nights (except Sunday’s typically) I can get off in around 15-20 minutes without much issue. I don’t remember waking up much in the night and I haven’t had a proper nightmare for years (apparently gaming helps there!). So in many ways I’m very lucky. I’ve never taken a sleeping pill in my life – and after reading this book never intend to – except some herbal remedies that might or might not work. I have bouts of ‘insomnia’ that can be irritating but it’s nowhere near as bad as the stories in this book (harrowing some of them!). Generally I’m just one of the lucky ones.

Although a little repetitive in places – the author comes at his simple message of *sleep more* from 20-30 different directions - this is an interesting and useful book. There’s lots of thought-provoking information here but it’s not primarily a book to give you clues or tips for a good night. Its primary focus is on the science of sleep, its evolution and its function. That accounts for well over half of the book. Most of the rest is the critical appraisal of how dysfunctional western society is from a sleep perspective. Only the final few sections look at what we can personally regarding our own lack of sleep issues. I did take issue with some of his advice – which I though was too tech heavy – but overall I was impressed. Definitely recommended for anyone with sleep issues – or those without too! Next up in Human Biology – Migraines: luckily something I haven’t suffered from in years and don’t miss one little bit.

Just Finished Reading: The Brain – The Story of You by David Eagleman (FP: 2015)

Being a sucker for such things – especially about my 2nd favourite organ – I couldn’t help picking this up especially after enjoying the BBC TV series based on it. Just like the series itself the book is rather on the light side. Although there is much talk about how the brain works, what happens when parts of it fail and much else besides there’s not a lot of hard science in here. If that kind of thing puts you off reading science books you have no fear with this volume! But that’s certainly not to denigrate it. It may be popular and breezy but it’s not slack or flabby. The author is a practicing neuroscientist and he knows his stuff. What he also knows is how to communicate his detailed knowledge to an educated audience.

So you’ll learn how brains grow from childhood until around 25 years of age and how they prune themselves over that time laying down the complex wiring that becomes you. You’ll also see the plastic brain can rewire itself the navigate around injury, how important memory is, why we mirror the emotions of others (even without consciously doing so), why we become addicted and what we can do about it, the deep seating roots of prejudice and group identification, as well as strange little facts like we’re much more likely to say nice things about people if we have a warm drink in our hands…..

The brain is a fascinating piece of evolutionary design. Giving rise to consciousness for an, as yet, unknown reason yet acting in the main beyond the reach of consciousness this most complex device is presently only just beginning to be understood. A clear indication of our early and faltering steps to understand the brain is our singular failure to create anything close to an intelligent machine. What we do easily, like walking, seeing, picking up objects, or catching them in flight, has proven to be incredibly difficult to recreate with our technology. It is only recently that we fully understood how complex and difficult apparently simple things are. Touching on this at the end of the book the author also muses on the great science-fiction idea of uploading people into computers. Presently, he freely admits, this is way beyond our present technology and is likely to remain so for decades to come. The amount of information held by an adult brain at any one moment is staggering and can only theoretically be stored is, as yet, undreamed of computers. Whether or not this uploaded personality would be ‘you’ is, again he admits, a whole other ballgame. But someday it will be attempted and the results should be illuminating at the very least.

Being a materialist I certainly agree with the author that your brain is you. The physical brains ‘wiring’ directs the electrical impulses that microsecond to microsecond create your mind out of emergent order – like an ants nest but considerably more complex. As each ant performs its task ignorant of the larger hive/nest so each individual cell in the brain does its set task but together – with the billions of others – creates a conscious creature: matter able to regard itself and ponder the meaning of things. Whilst not exactly ground breaking or life changing this is still a good entry port into the wonderful world of the brain and is a good starting point for getting down in the weeds of detail. More human biology to come. Recommended. 

Just Finished Reading: The Domesticated Brain by Bruce Hood (FP: 2014)

What is it that makes humans such social creatures? Why do we care what other people think? Why is shunning and being ostracised one of the worst things you can do to anyone? Why is solitary confinement a worse punishment than torture? Why are human brains so sophisticated for their size?

These are just a few of the questions that the author considers using brain physiology, the fossil record, evolutionary speculation coupled with primate studies, child development work and much else besides. With fascinating breadth, incisive in depth observations focusing on step-by-step physical development and a scattering of witty anecdotes the author shows what it is to be human, immersed in a social environment which forced our ancestors to put themselves in their neighbours paws and feel as they felt – to anticipate when an attack might come or when a sexual advance might be rejected (or accepted) by another males ‘partner’. Our brains became the powerhouse we know them to be by being required to cope with complex and overlapping social situations. When mistakes can get you killed – either in straight-up combat or being ejected from the group into a hostile environment without anyone literally watching your back – it most certainly paid to get along with the rest of the tribe and being able to do that, being able to learn and maintain that, effectively made us human. Consciousness, thinking, planning, identity, putting yourself in the minds of others, judging the moral content of actions, attributing agency to others – even other non-humans – ‘reading’ people and situations, memory, spatial awareness and a million other things (slightly exaggerating here) grew from that need – the need to domesticate ourselves to increase our chances of survival in a world where most other creatures appeared (at least on ‘paper’) to be far more dangerous than we were.

Almost every page turned resulted in a raised eyebrow or an exclamation of ‘so that’s why X happens’ and resulted in numerous conversations with some of my team members about their children’s development and those points where something has clearly ‘clicked’ into place and an ability suddenly manifests itself (the latest thing from a colleagues 1 year old daughter was suddenly understanding how pointing works – resulting in her pointing at everything!). This gem of a book is full to the brim with those sorts of things relating not only to cognitive development but experiments which show developmental stages in moral as well as ‘technical’ reasoning – from a surprisingly early age.

This book was a delight to read and I’m pleased to discover (yes, I really have so many books I don’t always realise that I have several books by the same author) that I have another book by this author to look forward too. This also reminded me that I really should be reading more up to date works of science (popular or otherwise) to keep up with things. I’ll certainly try to do more of this in future.

Just Finished Reading: Sleep – A Very Short Introduction by Steven W Lockley and Russell G Foster (FP: 2012)

Sleep is strange. We spend around a third of our lives in that state and apparently share it with all other living things – or at least with the majority of other creatures – yet there is no agreed definition or understand of what exactly sleep is. Sleep studies have made remarkable progress in understand the mechanisms of sleep yet the why of sleep continues to allude us. Lack of sleep results in progressive disorientation and eventual death yet still the why of sleep remains beyond our grasp. Is it a simple fact of biology that we must sleep to recover from the build-up of sleep toxins? Partly. Is there an evolutionary advantage in sleep? Arguably. Does sleep allow the formation of memories and the solidification of experience in the physical structure of the brain? Probably. But is that enough to explain the phenomena? Probably not.

This is the scope of this fascinating and intriguing little volume – the understanding of how and why we sleep and what to do about things when sleep alludes us. I certainly know a great deal about the mechanics of sleep: How sleep varies during the night, how brain waves and brain activity vary as the hours creep by, how forces under our control can enhance or degrade the amount or quality of sleep we get. It’s interesting to know that the standard 8 hours of continuous sleep which is the expected aim and norm is nothing of the sort and only really came into being with the Industrial Revolution. It’s interesting to know that teenagers do actually have different sleep patterns to adults and children. This book is full of pieces of information and pieces of the still incomplete puzzle of sleep.

Personally sleep is a very important part of my life. As far as I am concerned killing someone who is actively preventing me from sleeping is justifiable homicide. It’s not that I like to sleep (I do) or that I want to sleep (I do) but that I need to sleep. My record – back in my teenage years – is 16 hours. These days my maximum is probably 8-9 or maybe 10 if I’ve been particular active. During the working week I get by on around 7 if I get off straight away. Given the chance I’m generally a night owl and ‘hit the sack’ around midnight. In the mornings it takes me around 45-60 minutes to completely wake up. I hate getting up in the dark with a passion that’s hard to describe. As far as I’m concerned if it’s still dark it’s still night time and night time is for sleeping. Fortunately I’ve never had to work shifts (though it had been talked about a few times in previous jobs) which I think is a barbaric way to work. I would not like to see me or work with me on shifts. I think that I’d be unbearable!

Of necessity we all have a relationship with sleep – some good and some bad. As with all relationships a degree of understanding is a good thing. That’s what you’ll get from this book. It probably won’t save your life or give you a guaranteed good night’s sleep but it will arm you with useful information that could help or at the very least give you an appreciation of what’s going on inside your head when it’s in the Land of Nodd. Recommended.        

Just Finished Reading: Madness – A Very Short Introduction by Andrew Scull (FP: 2011)

It would appear that madness of all things is rather difficult to define. Thinking about it a bit more I suppose it makes perfect sense – since sanity appears to be equally difficult to pin down. In some ways madness is one of those ‘we know it when we see it’ sort of things but as with most ‘common sense’ rule-of-thumb definitions it really doesn’t help much.

Of course the origins and cures for madness in all its forms have been debated and struggled with since Ancient times. Most of the names for the conditions we all know – and some of us have experienced – are either Greek or Latin. In those days the mad tended to be housed in ‘the community’ or exiled if they were considered too mad to be safe. Madness was seen as an affliction of the gods – for good or evil. Much later in the 16^th and 17^th centuries European civilisation began the big lock-up in such famous ‘hospitals’ as Bedlam. No real attempt was made in these imitations and intimations of Hell to understand much less cure people of whatever ailed them. Indeed such places operated as a form of entertainment and morality tale for the rich and shameless. Only with the 19^th and especially the 20^th centuries was any concerted attempt to systematically and scientifically understand exactly what was going on, what had gone wrong and what could be done about it. Inevitably the early attempts were crude involving various forms of shock treatment to bounce people back to normal. The surprising thing was that sometimes it actually seemed to work.

Inevitably I suppose there emerged two competing philosophies which attempted to explain madness – the psychological and the physical. The psychological was exemplified by psychiatrists and psychoanalysts such as Freud. At first this seemed to hold out great promise but, after decades of trying didn’t really seem to solve very much at all. Such very public failure allowed the pharmacologists to try their various chemical solutions which, again at first, seemed to promise so much and ultimately to deliver so little. Neither ‘side’ of course has yet to admit defeat and both have promised that a breakthrough is just around the corner or that they simply need more time.

At the core of the whole problem is the seeming inability to get to grips with the thing itself. Madness seems as elusive as ever. We can, to one extent or another, control it or supress it. But ultimately we have yet to understand it. Scull’s book is interesting in that it does not propose trite answers to difficult problems. It looks at the problem head on and says something that the professionals seem either unable or unwilling to confront – the fact that we don’t yet (and have really never) actually understood what we’ve tried to deal with and that it’s about time we started. Recommended for anyone interested in this equally fascinating and frightening subject. 

Just Finished Reading: Dreaming – A Very Short Introduction by J Allan Hobson

Dreams have long fascinated mankind and our species has spent a great deal of time and effort attempting to discover what they mean: Which has all been a monumental waste of time – according to the author of this interesting little book! In the 143 closely argued pages Hobson makes the case for looking at the brain and the mind as purely material entities (which I strongly agree with) and analysing dreams as by-products of this materialism. Dreams, he contends, are not messages from the Gods nor are they shape shifted entries into the workings of the subconscious as Freud would have us believe. Freud indeed comes under special and very critical analysis for leading dream research in the wrong direction for the majority of the 20^th Century.

Dreams can, the author proposes, tell us a great deal – but not about what they have long believed to inform us about. What dreams and dream research can tell us about is the functioning (and sometimes malfunctioning) of both the brain and the mind it produces and especially about the operation of human consciousness. The contents of dreams – such as they are – are red herrings which will, to mix my metaphors here, lead the unwary down various garden paths. Rather than the content once the form of dreams is considered, along with various scans (CAT, MRI etc.), they give vital clues to how the brain/mind operates when we’re asleep – basically attempting in vain to bring some order and structure out of the chaos that is our sleeping brains whilst the very centres dedicated to rational analysis have been decoupled and are unavailable. With these areas of the brain off-line the remaining centres try their best to weave a narrative using disparate images, memories and other elements we are all familiar with (at least briefly) on awaking.

The author certainly makes a convincing case – OK I was already starting from the purely materialist stand-point but it’s still a valid point – that old ideas of dream analysis are bunk and have prevented the real analysis of what’s actually going on in our brains to move much beyond modern versions of shamanism. With our increasing knowledge of how the brain works we are beginning to understand what function dreams uncover behind their often bizarre outward appearance. If you want an interesting and thought provoking view of something we all do for a considerable amount of time during our lives then this is a very good place to start. More on sleep (and dreams) to come.