The Body Has a Head

by Gustav Eckstein

Introduction
History
Life
Growth
Environment
Muscle
Heart
Blood
Lung
Digestion
Metabolism
Kidney
Endocrine
Defense
Nerve
Brain
Sense
Voluntary
Involuntary
The head
Index

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

823 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Audrey Kindred · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book in a stoop sale in the mid 90's. The title caught my eye, as a dancer, and the mysterious women whose books these were, sparkled at my choice. I knew I was on to something. This has become my treasured favorite book and periodically I go to Strand to buy every copy of the few collected on their shelf, so I can share it with the world. It is out of print. The voice of Gustav Eckstein is mighty, and suprising, and delightful, and poetic, and informative, and courageous and utterly fascinating.... intellectually WILD. I open it to any body part I am currently obsessed with to see what light his wild mind can shed for my inquiry. My world expands! It's not necessarily a read-through. It's a resource, a well to draw from. A deep rich well of insight, so fantastically expressed as to make me exclaim out loud as I read. Really.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just remembered reading this book almost 20 years ago. And this book was impressive. One of those books that was just what you're looking for at a certain time. How do the body's systems and organs work? I came away from it amazed at how every little part of the body operates within a precarious equilibrium--and operate it does for decades, a century if you're lucky. So much science is going on in the laboratory of the human body. Is the body a temple; are there bats in your belfry?

[nomdebuerre · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most beautifully written manual for the body, the barer of your mortal soul, anyone could ever own. A study in poetry can be found simply by reading the table of contents. My hardcover copy is one of my most treasured possessions.

[francesca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my all time favorite poetic rendering of the human machine, inside and out from top to bottom. It generously extrappolates on the body mechanic in metaphor and simile.

It makes learning the sometimes overly technical aspects of physiology an exploration in verse...Love it.

[Annie Rachele · Rating 5 out of 5]

when Ekstein compared the spleen to a wine cellar, he gained me as a reader for life

spleenless i am

[Anne Earney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why, yes, I did spend almost two years reading this 50+-year-old, almost-800-page book of rather poetic descriptions of the human body and mind, despite being well aware that much of the information is probably no longer considered accurate in light of newer research. Doesn't matter much anyhow, as I'm unlikely to find myself in a situation where what I know about, say, the thymus matters. I'm also unlikely to remember exactly what I read about any particular part/system/phenomena. Overall, though, this was a thoroughly enjoyable reading experience. I can't remember where I heard about this book, but whatever I read prompted me to buy it immediately. It's out-of-print, but I found an original 1970 copy.

I could have marked well-written, insightful lines on every page, but here are a couple examples:

From the section on stress (a subsection of the section on the endocrine system), about our awareness that we will die: "Each of us knows this, anticipates it, has written his will well ahead of time, though he rewrites parts of it, a phrase every day of the week, never allows himself to forget. We believe in our death no more than our birth, but at the back of our heads we do not forget, always have half in mind the dark figure that stalks round and round just outside the Carnival fence."

From the "Skin Path" section, under Sense: "Tickle is touch plus something slightly destructive."

And from a section called "A Case: Method in its Madness," which is under "The Head: The Rest Exists for This": "The line from a disturbed life to a disturbed mind to a disturbed body is seldom as straight as this, and the line here can be trusted, as far any such line can be."

On days I read, which was most excepting travel and evenings out, I read one section. I doubt I could have handled much more than that, as my attention for even the most well-written nonfiction is limited, but I really enjoyed reading this that way. Such an interesting mix of medical, history, philosophy and poetry.

[Patricia Joynton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being in and around medicine for most of my working life, I so appreciate this book. Eckstein makes the body a thing of: praise, mystery, poetry, wonder.... Anyway, if I want to read anatomy and physiology, or want to learn about a particularly boring "piece"--I turn to Eckstein. Also, I loved the picture of him on the cover: such a burdened man, or perhaps just thoughtful. He makes bones, flesh, and guts poetical. Sometimes it's hard when you need to understand the technical to do this, ie most anatomy books. And, surprisingly, I have found that this book is generally not appreciated by medical people. Oh well. That is why it needed to be written, for those poets who are cast in the working environment of the body and its woes and need to hyperfocus on this technical world. This is the body from the eyes of a poet and physician, reminder that the body is more than a machine. It has a head.

[William Crosby · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author has lots of commentary and play on words to make the "hard science" more realistic, less hard and more entertaining. Does sometimes go on and on without seeming to say anything scientific.

Excellent description of varieties of processes of the body.

[Ian Gloverzone · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book when I was 10, this is a phenomenal important book full of information you'll never forget. 11/10 would buy again and again and again!