“Doidge leads the field in an extraordinary era for
popular-science books about the brain…. This has
to be explained in layperson’s terms, no easy task,
but there’s a host of neurologists, psychologists,
cognitive scientists and journalists explaining and
interpreting the latest research….Two years ago,
when the journal Cerebrum at the Dana Foundation
in the US updated its list of great books about the
brain for the general reader, it found there were
already 30,000 brain-related books in English (and
the total would no doubt be higher now). Aided by
scientific advisers and readers, it produced a new list
– with The Brain That Changes Itself at No. 1.”
- The Melbourne Age, March 31, 2012
“Only a few decades ago, scientists considered the
brain to be fixed or ‘hardwired’ and considered most
forms of brain damage, therefore, to be incurable.
Dr. Doidge, an eminent psychiatrist and researcher,
was struck by how his patients’ own transformations
belied this and set out to explore the new science of
neuro plasticity by interviewing both scientific
pioneers in neuroscience, and patients who have
benefited from neuro rehabilitation. Here he
describes in fascinating personal narratives how the
brain, far from being fixed, has remarkable powers
of changing its own structure and compensating for
even the most challenging neurological conditions.
Doidge’s book is a remarkable and hopeful portrait
of the endless adaptability of the human brain.” —
Oliver Sacks, M.D. Author of The Man Who
Mistook His Wife For a Hat.
“Brilliant…Doidge has identified a tidal shift in
basic science and a potential one in medicine.
The implications are monumental.”
— London Times
“Superb. Brilliant. I devoured it.”
— V.S. Ramachandran, M.D., Ph.D.,
Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition,
University of California, San Diego
Author of Phantoms in The Brain
“One of the best books of 2008.”
—The Guardian
“In bookstores, the science aisle generally lies well
away from the self-help section, with hard reality
on one set of shelves and wishful thinking on the
other. But Norman Doidge’s fascinating synopsis of
the current revolution in neuroscience straddles this
gap: the age-old distinction between the brain and
the mind is crumbling fast as the power of positive
thinking finally gains scientific credibility. Mind-
bending, miracle-making, reality-busting stuff…a
kind of word-made flesh outcome far more
characteristic of Lourdes than the National Institutes
of Health… with implications for all human beings,
not to mention human culture, human learning and
human history.”
— The New York Times, Science Times
“Lucid and absolutely fascinating…engaging,
educational and riveting. It satisfies, in equal
measure, the mind and the heart. Doidge is able to
explain current research in neuroscience with
clarity and thoroughness. He presents the ordeals
of the patients about whom he writes—people born
with parts of their brains missing, people with
learning disabilities, people recovering from strokes
—with grace and vividness. In the best medical
narratives—and the works of Doidge… join that
fraternity—the narrow bridge between body and
soul is traversed with courage and eloquence.”
— Chicago Tribune
“Doidge tells one spell-binding story after another as
he travels the globe interviewing the scientists and
their subjects who are on the cutting edge of a new
age. Each story is interwoven with the latest in brain
science, told in a manner that is both simple and
compelling. It may be hard to imagine that a book so
rich in science can also be a page-turner, but this one
is hard to set down.”
— Jeff Zimman, Posit Science, e-newsletter
“Doidge… slowly turns everything we thought we
knew about the brain upside down.”
— Publisher’s Weekly
“A rich banquet of brain-mind plasticity,
communicated in a brilliantly clear writing style.”
—Jaak Panksepp, Ph.D.,
Bailey Endowed Chair of Animal Well-Being
Science, Washington State University;
Head, Affective Neuroscience Research,
Falk Center for Molecular Therapeutics,
Northwestern University;
Distinguished Research Professor of Psychobiology,
Emeritus, Bowling Green State
”This book is like discovering
that the earth isn’t flat.”
—Gretel Killeen, Sun Herald,
“The Books That Changed Me”
“The Brain That Changes Itself…is without
question the most important book of the year,
and maybe the most important book
we have ever read.”
— Kiril Sokoloff, 13D Research Inc.
“Brilliant…This book is a wonderful and engaging
way or re-imagining what kind of creatures we are.”
—Jeanette Winterson, novelist,
OBE, Order of the British Empire,
Guardian, Best Book of 2008
“In the intrepid tradition of Oliver Sacks,
Norman Doidge embarks on a fantastic voyage
through the labyrinth of the human brain.”
—Simon Hughes, AFR,
Australia Financial Review Magazine
“A masterfully guided tour through the burgeoning
field of neuroplasticity research.”
— Discover Magazine
“A riveting, essential book. Doidge covers an
impressive amount of ground and is an expert guide,
a sense of wonder always enriching his skill as an
explicator of subject matter that in less able hands
could be daunting or even impenetrable. These
stories are most emotionally satisfying. Doidge
addresses how cultural influences literally “shape”
our brain. [And] it becomes clear that our response
to the world around us is not only a social or
psychological phenomenon, but often a lasting
neurological process.”
— Montreal Gazette, Liam Durcan, M.D.,
Neurologist & Novelist
“Doidge provides a history of the research in this
growing field, highlighting scientists at the edge
of groundbreaking discoveries and telling
fascinating stories of people who have benefited.”
— Psychology Today
“With example after fascinating example,
Dr. Norman Doidge shows how patients have
overcome deficits caused by trauma, strokes,
prenatal problems, and disease. The stories are as
instructive as they are inspiring.”
— Barnes & Noble: From Our Editors
“It takes a rare talent to explain science to the rest of
us. Oliver Sacks is a master at this. So was the late
Stephen Jay Gould. And now there is Norman
Doidge. A terrific book. You don’t have to be a brain
surgeon to read it—just a person with a curious mind.
Doidge is the best possible guide. He has a fluent and
unassuming style, and is able to explain difficult
concepts without talking down to his readers. The
case study is the psychiatric literary genre par
excellence, and Doidge does not disappoint. What
makes neuroplasticity so exciting is that it completely
upends how we look at the brain. It says that the
brain, far from being a collection of specialized parts,
each fixed in its location and function, is in fact a
dynamic organ, one that can rewire and rearrange
itself as the need arises. It is an insight from which
all of us can benefit. People with severe afflictions
— strokes, cerebral palsy, schizophrenia, learning
disabilities, obsessive compulsive disorders and the
like — are the most obvious candidates, but who
among us would not like to tack on a few IQ points
or improve our memories? Buy this book. Your brain
will thank you.”
— Jessica Warner, Ph.D., Globe and Mail
“Readers will want to read entire sections aloud and
pass the book on to someone who can benefit from it.
[Doidge] links scientific experimentation with
personal triumph in a way that inspires awe for the
brain, and for these scientists’ faith in its capacity.”
— Washington Post
“A hymn to life.”
— Panorama Italy
“The most readable and best general treatment of
this subject to date.”
— Michael M. Merzenich, Ph.D.,
Francis Sooy Professor,
Keck Center for Integrative Neurosciences
University of California at San Francisco
“Perfect for fans of Oliver Sacks”
—Quill & Quire
“Norman Doidge’s book is beautifully written and brings life and clarity to a variety of neuropsychiatric problems that affect children and adults. With case histories that read like excellent short stories to illustrate each syndrome…
It reads a bit like a science detective story and is fun
…and manages to humanize an often baffling area of
science and controversy. It is aimed at the well-
educated lay reader-you do not need a Ph.D. to
benefit from the wisdom imparted here.”
— Barbara Milrod, M.D. Psychiatry,
Weill Medical College,
Cornell University, New York
“A panoramic examination of plasticity’s profound
implications. Injured or dysfunctional cells and
circuits can indeed be regenerated and rewired; the
location of a given function can, astonishingly,
move from one place to another. The body’s lifespan
may not have to outpace its mental lifespan…
Everything that you can see happen in a young brain
can happen in an older brain. Deterioration can be
reversed by 20 to 30 years.”
— Toronto Daily Star
“An eloquently written book about the boundless
potential of the human brain. In addition to being a
fascinating, informative and emotionally powerful
read, it has the potential to enlighten parents about
the incredible learning-enhancing opportunities now
available to them and their children. Addresses
learning disabilities in a unique way and could
revolutionize the way educational issues are
addressed.”
— The Jewish Week
“Why isn’t this book on the top of the bestseller list
of all time? In my mind the recognition that the brain
in plastic and can actually change itself with exercise
and understanding is a huge leap in the history or
mankind, far greater than landing on the moon. Clear,
fascinating, and gripping. Dr. Doidge gives new hope
to everyone from the youngest to the oldest among us.”
— Jane S. Hall, International Psychoanalysis
“For years, the conventional wisdom has been that
the human brain remains fixed after early childhood,
subject only to deterioration. Children with mental
limitations or adults suffering from brain injury can
never hope to attain brain normality. Not so, says
Doidge. He outlines the brain’s ability to reorganize
itself by forming new neural connections throughout
life. Through numerous case studies, he describes
stroke victims who have learned to move and speak
again, senior citizens who have sharpened their
memories, and children who have raised their IQs
and overcome learning disabilities, among others.
The science, he predicts, will have ramifications for
professionals in many fields, but especially for
teachers of all types.”— Education Week
“Astonishing. This book will inevitably draw
comparisons to the work of Oliver Sacks. Doidge
has a prodigious gift for rendering the highly
technical highly readable. It’s hard to imagine a
more exciting topic–or a better introduction to it.”
— Kitchener Waterloo Record
“Norman Doidge has written a fascinating,
highly readable account of the new brain science.”
—John Cornwell, Literary Review, England
“You really should read this book…this remarkable
work will lead us to see ourselves in a new light.”
—Mail on Sunday, England
“An owner’s manual for the brain, giving advice on
how to maintain intellect and reasoning functions as
we grow older, Doidge's book gives the reader hope
for the future. I highly recommend this book to
anyone who enjoys stories of triumph against all
odds. Extremely engrossing, and always informative.”
— Curled Up With a Good Book
“An ‘essential primer’ for anyone who wants to
better understand their own brains and the
considerable advances in neuroscience of the past
two decades.”
—Gordon Farrer, Melbourne Age
“A fascinating glimpse into a new field … The Brain
That Changes Itself could signal an important
medical shift we’re in the midst of right now.
—Drew Turney, Sun Herald
“Anyone who has read Norman Doidge’s brilliant
The Brain That Changes Itself, in which the author
makes a convincing case for our brains being far more
“plastic” and malleable than previously supposed,
will suspect that our predispositions can be changed
through experience”
—Andrew Smith, The Sunday Times, UK
“Doidge has a knack for translating scientific jargon
into plain English … This is an enjoyable read, an
impressive translation of neuroscience for a lay
audience. It will interest anyone who wants to know
more about how the brain works.”
—Winnipeg Free Press
"The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge
provides a fascinating overview of the emerging
science of neuro-plasticity—the study of the capacity
of the brain to alter and reorganize itself under the
influence of learning and experience. Through a rich
tapestry of narratives about patients with some of the
most intractable neurological and psychological
disorders, and scientists with their inspiring, some-
times paradoxical cures, Doidge has accomplished a
rare feat. He has written a book that accurately
conveys cutting-edge scientific discoveries while
simultaneously engaging both scientific and popular
audiences.This book is in the same league as other
popular and influential neuroscience books such as
Antonio Damasio’s Descartes’ Error, Oliver Sacks’s
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and
Joseph LeDoux’s The Emotional Brain.”
—Douglas Watt and Eric A. Fertuck,
in Neuro-Psychoanalysis
“A remarkable book … a highly readable
exploration of a branch of science that has the
potential to change all our lives.”
—Hobart Mercury
“Fascinating synopsis of the revolution in neuro-
science shows that the age-old distinction between
the brain and the mind is crumbling fast as the
power of positive thinking finally gains scientific
credibility.”
—National Post holiday book guide
“This is a fascinating book which alters the way we
look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.”
—Suzy Wilson, South East Advertiser
“A book that everybody should read…
it is nothing short of miraculous. Get it!”
—Yoko Ono, Yoko Reads Book Recommendations
“The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge
shows us that at last neuroscience has caught up with
what mystics and meditation have taught for centuries
— the brain is infinitely changeable. Forget
mechanics: the brain is not a machine, nor is it a
computer made of meat. This book is a wonderful
and engaging way of re-imagining what kind of
creatures we are.”
—Jeanette Winterson, The Guardian,
Best Books of 2008
