“And so it turned out that only a life similar to the life of those around us, merging with it without a ripple, is genuine life, and that an unshared happiness is not happiness.”
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―
“A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.”
― Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics
― Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics
“Last night, you became flagrantly psychotic. It will happen again tonight. Before you reject this diagnosis, allow me to offer five justifying reasons. First, when you were dreaming last night, you started to see things that were not there—you were hallucinating. Second, you believed things that could not possibly be true—you were delusional. Third, you became confused about time, place, and person—you were disoriented. Fourth, you had extreme swings in your emotions—something psychiatrists call being affectively labile. Fifth (and how delightful!), you woke up this morning and forgot most, if not all, of this bizarre dream experience—you were suffering from amnesia. If you were to experience any of these symptoms while awake, you’d be seeking immediate psychological treatment. Yet for reasons that are only now becoming clear, the brain state called REM sleep and the mental experience that goes along with it, dreaming, are normal biological and psychological processes, and truly essential ones,”
― Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams
― Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams
“We have learned that trauma is not just an event that took place sometime in the past; it is also the imprint left by that experience on mind, brain, and body. This imprint has ongoing consequences for how the human organism manages to survive in the present. Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way mind and brain manage perceptions. It changes not only how we think and what we think about, but also our very capacity to think.”
― The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
― The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Aswin’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Aswin’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Biography and Non-fiction
Polls voted on by Aswin
Lists liked by Aswin















