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	• Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind V. S. Ramachandran, Sandra Blakeslee Harper Perennial, 1999 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 90 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Phantoms in the Brain

I am a long-time admirer of Dr Ramachandran's work (and Sandra Blakeslee's writings).

Dr Ramachandran's work is frequently references in literature about neuroscience.

I found the book first in Islamabad, where it had been published in New Delhi and sold for P Rupess 295. The illustrations in that edition were slightly smudged.

I ordered it from the United States hoping that the illustrations would be clearer. However, in this paper back edition, they are not that much clearer than in the Indian edition.

The wonderful content is the same, of course. Perhaps a hard back edition would have better reproduction of the illustrations.

Guy B. Scandlen

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If you're reading this ...

If you're reading this review, then you're wasting your time by not reading the book. A friend gave me his copy of the book and I literally could not put the book down. Later, I decided that I wanted a copy for myself.

The book is extremely well written; not only Ramachandran is one of the leading scientists, he also possesses an affinity for writing. It even gets better, you will be delighted by his sense of humor which adds to the joy of reading.

The most important aspect of the book is of course the science content. While one or two sections might seem a bit technical (I am fairly certain anyone can handle those sections), the science in general is well explained and is highly awe spiring. I will never forget my excitement and sense of wonder while I was reading through this book. If you want to have an idea of how we see, how we think, how our brains operate then this book is highly recommended.

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Ramachandran: the optimist

This book has an apparent modest sub-title: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind. Actually, it seems that the main aim of author is to uncover the way the brain produces a mind. Since all mental phenomena are biological phenomena, one can say that Ramachadran defends a kind of biological naturalism about the mind-body problem. All mental phenomena are in deed biological phenomena. Even when the Ramachandran is critical about evolutionary psychologists, he accepts that our brains are composed of relatively independent modules which were built by the blind hand of evolution. The same way, Ramachandran is sometimes critical about philosophical theories about the mind, but one can conclude that is deeply interested in philosophical ideas and he likes to speculated about it. Ramachandran is not one of those brain scientists that like to use sophisticated instruments to run their experiments. Simple, but intelligent, experiments are the core of this book. Presenting uncommon cases of brain lesions, the author goes one showing that those strange cases (persons with amputated limbs, persons who suffer from Capgra's syndrome, persons who feel deep religious experiences, ...) are logical consequences of the fact that the "self" is an illusion produce by our brains.
This is a splendid book to read. If you have some scientific and philosophical culture it is no difficult to understand the main thesis of the book. Perhaps Sandra Blakeslee gave a good help to the clarity of the book. A final word for Ramachandran's humor: clever and informative.
The optimism of Ramachandran must be balanced with a pessimist position like the one advanced by The Mysterious Flame: Conscious Minds in a Material World.

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ehh...

I'm a huge fan of Oliver Sacks. This book kept appearing as a recommendation on all the bookstores & online bookstores I've come across. While phantom situations is an extremely interesting topic, I found this book very dry compared to Oliver Sacks' books.

I'm not trying to say 'Don't read the book'. It's still an okay book because it's an interesting topic. But, it was tough reaching the end of the book -- I probably only kept reading in hopes that something amazing would come forth...

I'm a mean reviewer, I know. I'm not from the medical field whatsoever, so maybe that's why I don't have a deep appreciation for this book. The book is worth a chance if someone gives it to you, but it's definitely not worth the full retail price.

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Absolutely Fantastic Book

While this book may not be for everyone, I believe that most people will have a hard time putting it down. Ramachandran's ability to explain absurdly complicated concepts with simple language and simple methods is just one of the facets of his genius. After readking Phantoms I burned through at least 4 other books he wrote, but still Phantoms is by far the best.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments -- using such low-tech tools as cotton swabs, glasses of water and dime-store mirrors. In Phantoms in the Brain, Dr. Ramachandran recounts how his work with patients who have bizarre neurological disorders has shed new light on the deep architecture of the brain, and what these findings tell us about who we are, how we construct our body image, why we laugh or become depressed, why we may believe in God, how we make decisions, deceive ourselves and dream, perhaps even why we're so clever at philosophy, music and art. Some of his most notable cases:

A woman paralyzed on the left side of her body who believes she is lifting a tray of drinks with both hands offers a unique opportunity to test Freud's theory of denial. A man who insists he is talking with God challenges us to ask: Could we be "wired" for religious experience? A woman who hallucinates cartoon characters illustrates how, in a sense, we are all hallucinating, all the time.

Dr. Ramachandran's inspired medical detective work pushes the boundaries of medicine's last great frontier -- the human mind -- yielding new and provocative insights into the "big questions" about consciousness and the self.

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