[.ca] Altered Egos: How the Brain Creates the Self (ISBN 0195152425)

From Amazon.co.uk:
Stroke victims who think their limbs belong to someone else. Alzheimer's sufferers who believe their wives have been swapped. Blood clot victims convinced all their possessions have been replaced with inferior products. These are the kind of frightening yet fascinating cases encountered by American neurologist Todd Feinberg in a lifetime's work in Manhattan's top hospitals: cases he has now used, like Oliver Sacks, to explore his concept of individual "selfness", how the brain perceives itself and the body as an organic whole. The first few chapters are full of case histories like the above: bizarre, macabre, intriguing. With these building blocks Feinberg coolly and persuasively constructs his thesis: that our sense of ourselves is a fragile thing dependent on mental and physical health, and yet is flexible enough to absorb and adapt to catastrophic changes in circumstance. Along the way Feinberg cites Descartes alongside Doctor Strangelove, the Wizard of Oz next to Immanuel Kant, in a style that is personable, humane, concerned and very readable. In the end this is a kind of testament, by a man at the coal face of the human condition, to the strange and extraordinary uniqueness of homosapiens. --Sean Thomas

Not as interesting as I thought:
I thought it was too clinical, I prefer books on the mind more in the line of "The Man Who Tasted Shapes", which is written more as a story than a clinical book. Did offer good insight into the way the mind works. Especially fascinating was the research on the front temporal lobes. - Kristy Welsh, author of "Good Credit is Sexy"

Great Brain Food:
A facinating account of how the mind operates. I was captivated by the stories of Dr. Feinberg's patients, whose odd behavior makes compelling reading. I could not put it down!!! I especially liked the story about the patient who identified her own image in the mirror as a woman who was stalking her. Dr. Feinberg's eloquent and compassionate stories are instructive as well as entertaining. A must read for anyone who is interested in the subject, from the professional to the layperson. I simply loved it!!! Thank god for enlighted and sensitive author/doctors like Feinberg!!! This book deserves a Pulitzer Prize!!!

Dr. Feinberg's masterpiece:
Altered Egos by Todd Feinberg is a superbly written, fascinating account of a doctor's observations of his brain injured patients. Dr. Feinberg compassionately portrays their histories in riveting case reports and subsequently anchors the rich case material in philosophical and neuroscientific theories. Examination of alterations in the self that result from damage to the brain provides the basis for Dr. Feinberg's groundbreaking discussion of the complexities of the self. Dr. Feinberg artfully presents his theory of the nested hierarchy of consciousness. This book is a must read.

Disapointed.:
The title, the reviews, the praise in the back cover, all make you expect a grand theory of the self and mind-body interaction. Instead you get last years philosophy trend. After 100 pages of case studies, and brilliant summaries of all kinds of brain disorders and damages, high hopes arise that a theory of brain function will make clear the mechanisms by which the self arises. At the final moment, Feinberg, having emptied his resources, calls for a face-saving emergence theory to his aid. The self, then, emerges from the nested organization of the brain. Wow. So the self is an emergent property? O.k now what is the interesting part? This has been done to death, just ask Walter Freeman. Feinberg constantly asserts he is not a dualist, or in this case, an emergentist dualist. But his philosophical stand contradicts such assertion. Yes, he falls into the oldest of philosotraps. Qualia are irreducible, so is first person perspective, we cannot know what is like to be a bat, mary the colorblind learns a new truth about the world, and intentionality is something nearly supernatural. Now, it has to be admitted that the use of strange concepts in favour of the theory colors it, if not help it. Meaning and purpose are the key to understanding the self. (if this sounds dualist, or new agy, well, it almost is). Of course, meaning is just intentionality and purpose function, but so what? I agree with most reviewers about the quality of the case studies, but remember that the authors purpose (or function)was theorethical. Guys, read this for fun, and if afterwards you want to know about how the brain creates the self, look elsewhere.

Disapointed.:
The title, the reviews, the praise in the back cover, all make you expect a grand theory of the self and mind-body interaction. Instead you get last years philosophy trend. After 100 pages of case studies, and brilliant summaries of all kinds of brain disorders and damages, high hopes arise that a theory of brain function will make clear the mechanisms by which the self arises. At the final moment, Feinberg, having emptied his resources, calls for a face-saving emergence theory to his aid. The self, then, emerges from the nested organization of the brain. Wow. So the self is an emergent property? O.k now what is the interesting part? This has been done to death, just ask Walter Freeman. Feinberg constantly asserts he is not a dualist, or in this case, an emergentist dualist. But his philosophical stand contradicts such assertion. Yes, he falls into the oldest of philosotraps. Qualia are irreducible, so is first person perspective, we cannot know what is like to be a bat, mary the colorblind learns a new truth about the world, and intentionality is something nearly supernatural. Now, it has to be admitted that the use of strange concepts in favour of the theory colors it, if not help it. Meaning and purpose are the key to understanding the self. (if this sounds dualist, or new agy, well, it almost is). Of course, meaning is just intentionality and purpose function, but so what? I agree with most reviewers about the quality of the case studies, but remember that the authors purpose (or function)was theorethical. Guys, read this for fun, and if afterwards you want to know about how the brain creates the self, look elsewhere.