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Wij Zijn Ons Brein: Van Baarmoeder Tot Alzheimer (2010)

by D.F. Swaab(Favorite Author)

3.7 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

902543522X (ISBN13: 9789025435226)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Uitgeverij Contact

review 1: This controversial Dutch doctor says that everything about human beings can be explained by the biology of our brains. It was interesting, for example, to read that natural labor is triggered by the baby's brain communicating with the mother's brain, when the mother can no longer provide enough nutrition to sustain the baby. He is also quite matter-of-fact about gender orientation being determined in the brain before birth. He condemns boxing, which is quite popular in where I live, as a form on inflicting deliberate neurological damage on one another and says that all religious experiences can be explained as hallucinations. He also explains the biology of schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. It is a very readable book, even funny toward the end of many chap... moreters.
review 2: Brain science is a fascinating topic, and as I started reading this book I was thinking it would be a four-star. The first few chapters read like a slightly more technical Oliver Sacks, where the author describes various strange brain conditions. Swaab's worldview is materialist/reductionist, which becomes increasingly obvious as the book moves forward. The chapter on sexual orientation was particularly interesting; I liked learning about how much and what parts of the brain develop still in the womb. As I kept reading, though, I started to like the author less and less.I disagree with his fundamental worldview, but that wasn't a problem because I could still get behind the science. But eventually, his statements of opinion rather than fact started to overshadow the text and actually diminish his credibility in my eyes. My other minor complaint is that I don't think the translation was done particularly well. There were some awkwardly worded sentences and odd repetition. There is probably a lot of good information here for people who are interested, but the author's agenda-driven rhetoric undermines the research. For how technical this gets, you could probably find a more fact-centered and unbiased work. less

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