PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewKandel’s well-constructed narrative smoothly blends historical perspective and first-person accounts with explanations of recent experiments ... Kandel is particularly focused on the importance of genetics ... Kandel’s enthusiasm for genetics reflects the current priorities of many psychiatric researchers, but it also drives him to occasional exaggerations ... The sober truth, some of which emerges elsewhere in the book, is that the relationships between genes and most psychiatric diseases are still far from clear ... the new humanism Kandel admirably invites might require...a departure from purely brain-focused views of mental life ... It is misleading to suppose, with Kandel, that \'every activity we engage in, every feeling and thought that gives us our sense of individuality, emanates from our brain.\' Nature does not see the brain as a prime mover ... The cultural norms surrounding mental health are also increasingly questioned by \'neurodiversity\' advocates. Like Socrates, they argue that people with unusual brains and minds should be celebrated for their traits, rather than overly medicalized and stigmatized. Acknowledging this view in no way strikes at the need to find treatments for truly debilitating mental problems, or at the significance of the groundbreaking research Kandel covers in his excellent book. It does, however, highlight the need to consider our brains in the social, environmental and bodily contexts in which they operate—contexts that help make us who we are, in both sickness and health.
