The Body Has a Mind of Its Own: How Body Maps in Your Brain Help You Do (Almost) Everything Better
Random House, September 2007
In this compelling, cutting-edge book,
two generations of science writers explore the exciting science of "body
maps" in the brain -- and how startling new discoveries about the mind-body
connection can change and improve our lives. Why do you still feel fat after
losing weight? What makes video games so addictive? How can "practicing" your
favorite sport in your imagination improve your game? The answers can be found
in body maps.
Just as road maps represent interconnections across landscape, your many body
maps represent all aspects of your bodily self, inside and out. In concert, they
create your physical and emotional awareness and your sense of being as a whole,
feeling self in a larger social world.
Moreover, your body maps are profoundly elastic. Your self doesn't begin and end
with your physical body but extents into the space around you. This space morphs
every time you put on or take off clothes, ride a bike or wield a tool. When you
drive a car, your personal body space grows to envelope it. When you play a
video game, your body maps automatically track and emulate the actions of your
character onscreen. When you watch a scary movie, your body maps put dread in
your stomach and send chills down your spine. If your body maps fall out of
sync, you may have an out-of-body experience or see auras around other people.
The Body Has a Mind of Its Own
explains how you can tap into te power of body maps to do almost anything
better: play tennis, strum a guitar, ride a horse, dance a waltz, empathize with
a friend, raise children, cope with stress.
The story of body maps goes even further, providing a fresh look at causes of
anorexia, bulimia, obsessive plastic surgery, and the notorious golfer's curse
"the yips." It lends insights into culture, language, music, parenting,
emotions, chronic pain, and more.
Filled with illustrations, wonderful anecdotes, and even parlor tricks you can
use to reconfigure your body sense, The Body
Has a Mind of Its Own will change the way you think -- about the way you
think.
hardcover | ISBN: 9781400064694 | Publication Date: September 2007
Reviews:
"The Blakeslees have taken the latest and most exciting finds from brain
research and have made them accessible. This is how science writing should
always be."
--Michael S. Gazzaniga, Ph.D., author of The
Ethical Brain
"A marvelous book. In the last ten years there has been a paradigm shift in
understanding the brain and how its various specialized regions respond to
environmental changes. In addition to providing a brilliant overview of recent
revolutionary discoveries on body image and brain plasticity, the book is
sprinkled with numerous insights."
--V.S. Ramachandran, M.D., director, Center for Brain and Cognition, University
of California, San Diego
"This book is a revelation: You'll never think about your body -- or your mind
-- in the same way again. Sandra Blakeslee and Matthew Blakeslee have a gift for
making the most esoteric discoveries in neuroscience both fascinating and fun."
--Daniel Goleman, author of Social
Intelligence
"This is scientific reporting at its best -- the sort that not only imparts
knowledge, but also evokes curiosity and wonder."
--Larry Dossey, M.D., author of The
Extraordinary Healing Power of Ordinary Things
"A delightfully original, understandable, and mind-stretching work from the
first family of American science journalism."
--William Safire, columnist, The New York
Times
"You will breeze through this accessible. practical overview of an important
scientific story and will certainly agree that the body is not an innocent
bystander in this mind business."
--Antonio Damasio, author of Descartes' Error
"A fascinating exploration of senses we didn't even know we had, this compelling
account of new research findings underscores how much of our human nature is
meditated not by thinking but by profoundly somatic ways of knowing. This new
science strongly suggests that we can trust and train various aspects of
awareness to our immediate and enduring benefit."
--Jon Kabat-Zinn, author of Coming to our
Senses
