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Brain and Mind Made Simple
For students old and new, Brain and Mind Made Simple makes sense of the brain, mind and consciousness. The book is packed with examples, patient histories and explanations, exploring for instance the strange case of Phineas Gage who survived brain injury but with a new personality. An expert, scientific and highly accessible guide.
Most people know David Nutt as the UK’s sacked Drug Czar – ‘kicked out’ for speaking truth to power i.e. that UK policy on drugs and alcohol was not fit for purpose, driven by politics not science. But in a life outside politics Nutt is an academic, psychiatrist and researcher who studies the brain to help understand how it goes awry in mental and neurological illnesses. A few years ago, before Covid, he started giving public lectures explaining how the brain works and how alterations of the mind can occur as a result of changes in brain function. They were extremely popular — usually over 150 people at each — with lots of questions. So, he decided to write up the lectures in this book for the general public, and anyone else with an interest in the field, especially university students of psychology, medicine and neuroscience. As well as educating these groups, all royalties from Brain and Mind Made Simple will help support the charity Drug Science that David Nutt set-up after his sacking to continue to promote the cause of bringing scientific evidence to improve drug policy.AuthorDavid Nutt is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, founder of Drug Science and Chair of its Scientific Committee. He is the Edmund J Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology and Head of the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit in the Centre for Academic Psychiatry in the Division of Brain Sciences, Department of Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College London. His leadership positions have encompassed the presidencies of the European Brain Council, British Neuroscience Association, British Association of Psychopharmacology and the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, as well as his time as the UK’s Drugs Czar. His publications include Nutt Uncut (Waterside Press, 2020).
Most people know David Nutt as the UK’s sacked Drug Czar – ‘kicked out’ for speaking truth to power i.e. that UK policy on drugs and alcohol was not fit for purpose, driven by politics not science. But in a life outside politics Nutt is an academic, psychiatrist and researcher who studies the brain to help understand how it goes awry in mental and neurological illnesses. A few years ago, before Covid, he started giving public lectures explaining how the brain works and how alterations of the mind can occur as a result of changes in brain function. They were extremely popular — usually over 150 people at each — with lots of questions. So, he decided to write up the lectures in this book for the general public, and anyone else with an interest in the field, especially university students of psychology, medicine and neuroscience. As well as educating these groups, all royalties from Brain and Mind Made Simple will help support the charity Drug Science that David Nutt set-up after his sacking to continue to promote the cause of bringing scientific evidence to improve drug policy.AuthorDavid Nutt is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, founder of Drug Science and Chair of its Scientific Committee. He is the Edmund J Safra Professor of Neuropsychopharmacology and Head of the Neuropsychopharmacology Unit in the Centre for Academic Psychiatry in the Division of Brain Sciences, Department of Medicine, Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College London. His leadership positions have encompassed the presidencies of the European Brain Council, British Neuroscience Association, British Association of Psychopharmacology and the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, as well as his time as the UK’s Drugs Czar. His publications include Nutt Uncut (Waterside Press, 2020).
227 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2021
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About the author
David J. Nutt
44 books82 followersDavid John Nutt is an English neuropsychopharmacologist specialising in the research of drugs that affect the brain and conditions such as addiction, anxiety, and sleep. He is the chairman of Drug Science, a non-profit which he founded in 2010 to provide independent, evidence-based information on drugs.
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January 7, 2022
I attended a talk from David Nutt in London some years ago and I was deeply impressed. It was about endogenous DMT in humans, and it was incredibly well-researched and presented. While I didn't know who he was, it was obvious that he was famous since I had to listen to the talk standing, like many others, given that the room was well beyond capacity.
I later learned David Nutt is fairly famous in the UK, she's a neuropsychopharmacologist who was involved in some controversy in 2009. He published a paper showing that the risks associated with horse-riding (1 serious adverse event every ~350 exposures) were compared to those of taking ecstasy (1 serious adverse event every ~10,000 exposures).
This started a debate about drug policy, in which Nutt claimed that it's solely based on politics and not science. He claimed that drug classification should be done according to the evidence for harm, which they aren't. He was at the time the chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), and following this controversy he was dismissed. He now runs Drug Science, a non-profit organization drug advisory committee, which I have written for.
This is how I came to know the book. It is an unnecessarily long background, but I felt it was a good opportunity to share the story. Not only because it is worth knowing and an important topic, but also because this book was published by Drug Science in order to raise money, so the book's existence is directly tied to the topic.
About the content itself, as stated by the title, it's meant as an introduction to the brain. I liked the format and the fact that it's pretty short, although the cover is unfortunately horrendous.
Like almost all books of its kind, it starts with the very basics of the brain by explaining neurotransmitters and their receptors. Not the most exciting, but it was well done. And trying to link specific neurotransmitters when a phenomenon that people understand (eg mental illness) is helpful.
A lot of the book is very similar to almost any other book of its kind. Although a surprising difference I found was some relatively insignificant and yet interesting gold nuggets about the evolution of how the brain works. I've read a lot about neuroscience and a lot about evolution, but somehow I have never seen the two being talked about very often. At best the evolution of the brain compared to other animals, but from time to time he mentioned the evolution of the actual architecture of the brain for example how a certain neurotransmitter came to be. Both where it comes from and how we know its origin.
Then the book gets into a more macro perspective, such as thinking, feeling, emotions, etc. All of it is somewhat standard stuff that you have been exposed to if you read anything on psychology. Generally speaking, it was well written, although I found that in some cases the basics weren't explained well enough, which is fairly problematic for a supposed introduction. However, this was a minority of the content.
While I was familiar with most of the content covered, there were tiny aspects which I never knew about. Not only were they interesting, but I was surprised that I didn't know it. For example it is commonly reported in near-death experiences of seeing nothing but pure light. He explains that is likely because when most of the functions of the brain have collapsed, there is nothing but light for it to process. It is in some sense raw sensory data that the brain no longer has the functionality to make sense of.
The first half of the book was how the brain works in general, and in the second half it focused on when the brain goes "wrong". It covers mental illnesses, such as PTSD, depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, OCD, and addiction.
Throughout the book, psychedelics are mentioned often, which is not surprising given the background of the book and the author that I mentioned. I was afraid that this would feel too forced and biased, but fortunately, that wasn't the case. While it's certainly a heavy theme, it was properly placed into explaining how the brain works and how psychedelics are relevant as treatments for various mental illnesses.
Overall it is a solid book for anyone interested in learning about the brain and the mind. It takes a very typical approach in what it covers and in what order, and as a whole it is fairly easy to read. The chapters are fairly short which makes the book not intimidating, which is often a problem for people trying to learn the topic.
I later learned David Nutt is fairly famous in the UK, she's a neuropsychopharmacologist who was involved in some controversy in 2009. He published a paper showing that the risks associated with horse-riding (1 serious adverse event every ~350 exposures) were compared to those of taking ecstasy (1 serious adverse event every ~10,000 exposures).
This started a debate about drug policy, in which Nutt claimed that it's solely based on politics and not science. He claimed that drug classification should be done according to the evidence for harm, which they aren't. He was at the time the chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), and following this controversy he was dismissed. He now runs Drug Science, a non-profit organization drug advisory committee, which I have written for.
This is how I came to know the book. It is an unnecessarily long background, but I felt it was a good opportunity to share the story. Not only because it is worth knowing and an important topic, but also because this book was published by Drug Science in order to raise money, so the book's existence is directly tied to the topic.
About the content itself, as stated by the title, it's meant as an introduction to the brain. I liked the format and the fact that it's pretty short, although the cover is unfortunately horrendous.
Like almost all books of its kind, it starts with the very basics of the brain by explaining neurotransmitters and their receptors. Not the most exciting, but it was well done. And trying to link specific neurotransmitters when a phenomenon that people understand (eg mental illness) is helpful.
A lot of the book is very similar to almost any other book of its kind. Although a surprising difference I found was some relatively insignificant and yet interesting gold nuggets about the evolution of how the brain works. I've read a lot about neuroscience and a lot about evolution, but somehow I have never seen the two being talked about very often. At best the evolution of the brain compared to other animals, but from time to time he mentioned the evolution of the actual architecture of the brain for example how a certain neurotransmitter came to be. Both where it comes from and how we know its origin.
Then the book gets into a more macro perspective, such as thinking, feeling, emotions, etc. All of it is somewhat standard stuff that you have been exposed to if you read anything on psychology. Generally speaking, it was well written, although I found that in some cases the basics weren't explained well enough, which is fairly problematic for a supposed introduction. However, this was a minority of the content.
While I was familiar with most of the content covered, there were tiny aspects which I never knew about. Not only were they interesting, but I was surprised that I didn't know it. For example it is commonly reported in near-death experiences of seeing nothing but pure light. He explains that is likely because when most of the functions of the brain have collapsed, there is nothing but light for it to process. It is in some sense raw sensory data that the brain no longer has the functionality to make sense of.
The first half of the book was how the brain works in general, and in the second half it focused on when the brain goes "wrong". It covers mental illnesses, such as PTSD, depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, OCD, and addiction.
Throughout the book, psychedelics are mentioned often, which is not surprising given the background of the book and the author that I mentioned. I was afraid that this would feel too forced and biased, but fortunately, that wasn't the case. While it's certainly a heavy theme, it was properly placed into explaining how the brain works and how psychedelics are relevant as treatments for various mental illnesses.
Overall it is a solid book for anyone interested in learning about the brain and the mind. It takes a very typical approach in what it covers and in what order, and as a whole it is fairly easy to read. The chapters are fairly short which makes the book not intimidating, which is often a problem for people trying to learn the topic.
Displaying 1 of 1 review