The second book, “The Brain’s Way of Healing,” is by a Canadian, Norman Doidge, M.D. Dr. Doidge is described on his website as a “psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, researcher, author, essayist and poet.” His clinical and research background includes an interesting mix of scientific research and psychoanalytic therapy and he has received some prestigious awards for his contributions. Dr. Tallis discussed how Dr. Doidges’s book describes “how the brain can alter its own structure and function in response not only to environmental stimuli but also to mental activity” and “clinics where miracle cures are seemingly an everyday occurrence, as patients are treated with light, sound or electrical therapy.”
Dr. Tallis clearly is concerned about the claims in the book, writing, “Dr. Doidge’s pen portraits of patients facing neurological adversity with courage and determination, and of their charismatic healers, are disarming. Yet the reliance on anecdotes and testimonials, without much clinically and scientifically relevant detail, is exasperating.” He goes on to eviscerate Dr. Doidge’s references in support of his claims, and he conclude, “ It seemed reasonable to conclude that, while using what we currently know of neuroplasticity may deliver modest therapeutic advances, we need to learn much more about the brain before we can hope to regularly achieve the results that Dr. Doidge reports.”
Doidge is cherry-picking his case reports - assuming they are true, and then saying all patients have the potential to heal themselves.
ReplyDelete