A User's Guide to the Brain

Since the brain is the seat of thought, it's easy to believe that we know what's going on in there. Reading A User's Guide to the Brain by John Ratey, however, shows that there's more to thinking than you may think.

Ratey sees the operation of the brain as having four 'theatres', starting with perception and then attention and consciousness. The third theatre is brain function, such as memory. emotion and language as well as social abilities, and the fourth is our sense of identity. The structure of the book reflects this ordering, with short a chapter at the end on how to get the best from your brain.

Ratey is keen to emphasise the importance of what might be thought of as 'lower' brain functions, explaining how some of his patients, who have been previously diagnosed with dubious Freudian phobias, have turned out to actually suffer from problems with basic perception. He also explains how movement isn't just a case of activating our muscles but gets to be involved in many aspects of thinking.

It's a fairly long book, but it's certainly worth the effort of reading it. Ratey includes plenty of real life case studies, resulting in a book which is highly informative but still accessible to a wide readership.