Phantoms In The Brain - V.S. Ramachandran

This book was a recommendation by a friend. And boy was it a great reco.
It’s very easy to fall into the trap of assuming that like all medical books, this one, being on neurology, is as boring, dull, with unnecessary medical jargons and details. You couldn’t be more wrong. The author candidly confesses about how medical authors could get into that mould and steers clear of it. And while some details of the brain structure are required, no where does it get too lengthy for you to lose interest.
The book is not really an expedition to teach the laymen the working of the brains. But what it serves to do is elucidate us with the fact that a lot of strange behavior that we ignore, or worse, viciously hate, are no more than physical shortcomings of the brain. That, therefore, would merit some sympathy from the normal section of the society who can differentiate a vertical mail slot from a horizontal one and who do not see cartoons and animals out there in the world.
It is indeed very moving to read about some of the problems people have when some interconnections of the brain go awry. Imagine the fear of the lady whose left hand (or was it right?) kept trying to strangle her. Or like Memento or Ghajini, this guy could not form any new memories. There are a lot of cases described in the book. And the least we could do is be sensitive to their problems.
The book starts off with the discussion on phantom limbs, something that I wasn’t aware of before I read this book! What a strange concept, isn’t it, for the brain to think that an amputated leg or a hand, or even removed breasts, still exist! And to register physical signals to those phantom body parts! The entire genesis, problems, potential cure for the phantom limbs is beautifully explained. And did you know that when a body part gets amputated, physical stimulation on other parts will make you feel that something is touching that missing body part. For example, if someone gets a hand amputated, and if you run a feather on a section of his face, he will feel that your brushing his palm. What a strange thing the human brain is, isn’t it?
The book tackles phantom limbs, and other strange aspects of brain functioning, like visual responses, neglect and denial symptoms, the part of brain that gives you a religious experience (it’s grossly under-developed in me) and concludes with the question of how to define the “Self” in context of the brain. The last chapter is the only one where it gets really heavy and the discussion is a mixture of philosophy as much as it is about neurology. But then, that’s the nature of brain and how we live and think isn’t it?
Think Matrix. There a whole pseudo world was created was created for people by feeding electrical signals to the brain. Does then, consciousness have any meaning? No one is doing anything really, but they are living a complete life lying in a tube.
This book will make you look at life a lot more humbly. We are all a function of our brain. But how it reacts is a function of us. It’s a relationship hard to comprehend. And I really believe that the whole exercise, however intellectually stimulating, is completely futile. But then neurology can not be completely objective with it’s only aim being curing brain ailments. Philosophy is bound to get mixed up. And in this book, V.S. Ramachandran coexists peacefully with Freud.