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Projections: The New Science of Human Emotion Spiral-Bound | March 28, 2023
Karl Deisseroth
★★★★☆+ from 1,001 to 10,000 ratings
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Projections: The New Science of Human Emotion
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In this groundbreaking portrait of the human mind, a renowned psychiatrist and neuroscientist explores the biological and physical nature of our inner worlds through poignant, and at times shocking, clinical stories.
Karl Deisseroth has spent his life pursuing truths about the human mind, both as a clinical psychiatrist and as a researcher developing the revolutionary field of optogenetics, which allows us to decipher the brain's workings using light. In Projections, he combines his groundbreaking access to the brain's inner circuitry with a deep empathy for his patients to examine what mental illness reveals about the origin of human feelings--how the broken can illuminate the unbroken.
Deisseroth is an internationally acclaimed professor of bioengineering and psychiatry at Stanford, but his true passion is clinical psychiatry, and it is the stories of his patients that form the backbone of Projections. Through these case studies, he tells the larger story of how we can understand the physical and biological origins of human emotion in the brain. As such, he describes vividly how humans experience feelings in the ancient circuits of our brains and in the poignant moments of suffering in our daily lives. The stories of Deisseroth's patients are rich with humanity and shine an unprecedented light on the self and the ways in which it breaks down. A young woman with an eating disorder reveals how the mind can rebel against the brain's most primitive drives of hunger and thirst; an older gentleman, smothered into silence by depression and dementia, shows how humans evolved to feel joy and its absence; and a lonely Uyghur woman far from home teaches the importance of deep social bonds.
An illuminating, literary, and essential work, Projections transforms the way we see the brain as a biological and emotional object, grounded in universally-resonant human stories and our common search for understanding.
Publication History:Random House HC (6/21)
Karl Deisseroth has spent his life pursuing truths about the human mind, both as a clinical psychiatrist and as a researcher developing the revolutionary field of optogenetics, which allows us to decipher the brain's workings using light. In Projections, he combines his groundbreaking access to the brain's inner circuitry with a deep empathy for his patients to examine what mental illness reveals about the origin of human feelings--how the broken can illuminate the unbroken.
Deisseroth is an internationally acclaimed professor of bioengineering and psychiatry at Stanford, but his true passion is clinical psychiatry, and it is the stories of his patients that form the backbone of Projections. Through these case studies, he tells the larger story of how we can understand the physical and biological origins of human emotion in the brain. As such, he describes vividly how humans experience feelings in the ancient circuits of our brains and in the poignant moments of suffering in our daily lives. The stories of Deisseroth's patients are rich with humanity and shine an unprecedented light on the self and the ways in which it breaks down. A young woman with an eating disorder reveals how the mind can rebel against the brain's most primitive drives of hunger and thirst; an older gentleman, smothered into silence by depression and dementia, shows how humans evolved to feel joy and its absence; and a lonely Uyghur woman far from home teaches the importance of deep social bonds.
An illuminating, literary, and essential work, Projections transforms the way we see the brain as a biological and emotional object, grounded in universally-resonant human stories and our common search for understanding.
Publication History:Random House HC (6/21)
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Original Binding: Trade Paperback
Pages: 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1984853716
Item Weight: 0.4 lbs
Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.5 x 8.0 inches
Customer Reviews: 4 out of 5 stars 1,001 to 10,000 ratings
“Because of his experiences as a physician and researcher, Dr. Deisseroth recognizes the limitations of science and medicine and the transcendent value of elemental human connection. . . . In life’s most difficult moments, it might be everything.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Deisseroth achieves the difficult feat of moving and enlightening the reader at the same time.”—The Guardian
“[Karl Deisseroth’s] imaginative narrative flows effortlessly. . . . There is a first love of reading and writing and hints of a literary imagination that draws on James Joyce and Toni Morrison. . . . His narratives are always sensitive. . . . An admixture of fact and fiction, reality and imagination, damage and desire.”—Science
“Poetic, mind-stretching, and through it all, deeply human.”—Daniel Levitin, New York Times bestselling author of The Organized Mind
“Karl Deisseroth intertwines neuroscience and human stories in a way that is altogether new: technical, lyrical, and deeply compassionate all at once.This is a crucial book for anyone who loves science, anyone who loves someone who is suffering from a disorder of the brain, or anyone who, like so many of us, loves both.”—Lucy Kalanithi
“Projections asks probing questions about some of our most fundamental human traits to shed light on the origins of our emotions. Why, for instance, do we shed tears? How did this show of weakness survive millennia of evolution? Deisseroth writes of heartbreaking and desperate medical cases with a doctor’s knowledge and a novelist’s skill for narrative. I was fascinated, and could not put this book down.”—May-Britt Moser, Nobel Laureate
“We are living during a revolution in our understanding of the human brain, and Karl Deisseroth has been at the forefront of these advances. This magisterial work, Projections, shows that not only is he one of our leading scientists, but also a gifted writer and storyteller. With precise yet luminous prose, he merges stories of cutting-edge neuroscience with a deep reverence for his patients’ humanity.”—Neil Shubin, author of Some Assembly Required
“Unique and utterly riveting . . . This is a masterpiece written for each and every one of us.”—Patricia Churchland, author of Conscience
“I’ve known Karl as a colleague, a scientist whose discoveries in the lab have been breathtaking and revolutionary. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised to discover he’s also a stunning writer . . . Projections is a tour de force.”—Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone
“An engaging, accessible blend of psychology and science, which sets itself apart with Deisseroth’s lyrical writing and the empathy of his storytelling.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“Deisseroth achieves the difficult feat of moving and enlightening the reader at the same time.”—The Guardian
“[Karl Deisseroth’s] imaginative narrative flows effortlessly. . . . There is a first love of reading and writing and hints of a literary imagination that draws on James Joyce and Toni Morrison. . . . His narratives are always sensitive. . . . An admixture of fact and fiction, reality and imagination, damage and desire.”—Science
“Poetic, mind-stretching, and through it all, deeply human.”—Daniel Levitin, New York Times bestselling author of The Organized Mind
“Karl Deisseroth intertwines neuroscience and human stories in a way that is altogether new: technical, lyrical, and deeply compassionate all at once.This is a crucial book for anyone who loves science, anyone who loves someone who is suffering from a disorder of the brain, or anyone who, like so many of us, loves both.”—Lucy Kalanithi
“Projections asks probing questions about some of our most fundamental human traits to shed light on the origins of our emotions. Why, for instance, do we shed tears? How did this show of weakness survive millennia of evolution? Deisseroth writes of heartbreaking and desperate medical cases with a doctor’s knowledge and a novelist’s skill for narrative. I was fascinated, and could not put this book down.”—May-Britt Moser, Nobel Laureate
“We are living during a revolution in our understanding of the human brain, and Karl Deisseroth has been at the forefront of these advances. This magisterial work, Projections, shows that not only is he one of our leading scientists, but also a gifted writer and storyteller. With precise yet luminous prose, he merges stories of cutting-edge neuroscience with a deep reverence for his patients’ humanity.”—Neil Shubin, author of Some Assembly Required
“Unique and utterly riveting . . . This is a masterpiece written for each and every one of us.”—Patricia Churchland, author of Conscience
“I’ve known Karl as a colleague, a scientist whose discoveries in the lab have been breathtaking and revolutionary. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised to discover he’s also a stunning writer . . . Projections is a tour de force.”—Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone
“An engaging, accessible blend of psychology and science, which sets itself apart with Deisseroth’s lyrical writing and the empathy of his storytelling.”—Library Journal (starred review)
Karl Deisseroth is professor of bioengineering and psychiatry at Stanford University. The winner of the Kyoto Prize and the Heineken Prize, Deisseroth has five children and lives near Stanford University, where he teaches and directs Stanford's undergraduate degree in bioengineering and treats patients with mood disorders and autism.
Author Residence: Palo Alto, CA
Author Hometown: Boston, MA
Author Residence: Palo Alto, CA
Author Hometown: Boston, MA