Pictures of the Mind: What the New Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are

“An engaging and compelling read that illustrates how the new brain science can help us understand elements of our basic humanity.”

–Zindel Segal, Author of The Mindful Way through Depression and  Cameron Wilson Chair in Depression Studies at the University of Toronto and the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

“Miriam Boleyn-Fitzgerald has given us a remarkably clear and engaging account of the ways that the new brain imaging technologies can give us deep insights into our gravest maladies. Her conclusion, that healing may often lie with us, joins science with the wisdom of the ages.”

–Jonathan D. Moreno, Author of Mind Wars, David and Lyn Silfen University Professor, and Professor of Medical Ethics and of History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania

Who are we?

What’s going on inside us when we think, feel, hope, or imagine?

Can we change?

Can we become happier, smarter, healthier, more altruistic–better?

For thousands of years, people have wondered about questions like these. Now, using the latest brain scanning technologies, neuroscientists can watch your brain at work–and they’re amazed by what they’re seeing. Now, you can see it, too. Pictures of the Mind presents the images that are revolutionizing neuroscience and offers you a personal tour of the frontiers of brain research.

You’ll discover why scientists are becoming increasingly excited about your brain’s abilities to keep growing, learning, changing, and healing, all through life. You’ll follow cutting-edge researchers as they blaze new trails toward potential cures for everything from depression to dementia and brain injury to addiction. And you’ll preview what could become the greatest scientific revolution of all: the one that finally explains mind, emotion, and consciousness.

Related Article

Watching Our Minds Watch Themselves: The Health Benefits of Present-Time Awareness

Online Sample Chapter

Life, Death, and the Middle Ground: What the New Neuroscience Tells Us About Who We Are

Sample Pages

Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 1 and Index)

Table of Contents

Introduction     ix

Part I: Snapshots

Chapter 1: Life, Death, and the Middle Ground     3

Chapter 2: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Powerful Emotions and Our Power to Work with Them     21

Chapter 3: Happiness on the Brain     37

Chapter 4: Cooling the Flame: Pictures of Addiction, Chronic Pain, and Recovery     53

Part II: Landscape

Chapter 5: Where Does Morality Live, and When Is It Home?     69

Chapter 6: The Making and Breaking of Memories     89

Chapter 7: Where Am "I"? Experiences of Self, Other, and Neither     109

Resources     141

Notes     145

Acknowledgments     163

About the Author     165

Index     167