The Man Who Wasn't There

The Man Who Wasn't There: Tales from the Edge of the Self - Anil Ananthaswamy

 This book of popular science is toward the harder end of the spectrum, in contrast to ‘gosh wow [long pause] let’s change [longer pause] the world’ TED talks. In this book Ananthaswamy studies how pathological conditions point to how the brain works.

For example, some patients feel that a limb is not “really” a part of their body and they arrange off the books amputations with a surgeon in another country. Some lose the sense of agency over their own actions. Alzheimer’s patients may lose their sense of self and say to their caregivers, probably the painful statement we would hear from an elderly relative “I don’t know who I am.” Other patients may feel they have died, other may feel depersonalized (outside of their bodies). The personal stories illustrating these catastrophic situations will call to mind Oliver Sacks’ way of explaining neuroscience.

In fact, the neuroscience is hard material, not easily comprehended though the cases are always presented with clear theories and research about what is going on with the brain, which makes the book rich and challenging.