The Brain's Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the Frontiers of Neuroplastic

This book is about the discovery that the human brain has its own unique way of healing. For centuries we believed that the price we paid for our brain's complexity was that, compared to other organs, it was fixed and unregenerative - unable to recover from damage or illness. In his revolutionary new book, Norman Doidge turns this belief on its head.

The phenomenon of neuroplasticity - the discovery that the brain can change its own structure and function in response to mental experience - is the most important development in our understanding of the brain and mind since the beginning of modern science. Here, Doidge shows how the amazing process of neuroplastic healing really works. When it is understood, it is often possible to radically improve - and even cure - many conditions thought to be irreversible.

Doidge introduces us to the doctors, therapists, and patients who are healing the brain without surgery or medication. We meet patients who have alleviated years of chronic pain; children on the autistic spectrum, or with ADD or learning disorders, who have used neuroplastic techniques to complete a normal education and become independent; and sufferers who have seen symptoms of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, brain injuries, and cerebral palsy radically diminish; and we learn how to lower our risk of dementia by 60 per cent. Through hopeful, astonishing stories, The Brain's Way of Healing explains how mind, brain, and body, and the energies around us, work together in health and healing.



'With unassuming respect for all he observes, Doidge profiles the pioneers and practitioners of neuroplastic therapy and healing ... Each extraordinary story features an extraordinary doctor with their own extraordinary experience ... Doidge's passion for healing might be expected, given his own medical training as a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst but, as he says, "the true marvel is ... the way that the brain has evolved, with sophisticated neuroplastic abilities and a mind that can direct its own unique restorative process of growth". You can read a lot about it in this book.'
-Lancet Neurology

'This is a book of miracles. Fascinating ... An absorbing compendium of unlikely recoveries from physical and mental ailments offers evidence that the brain can heal.'
-Lisa Appignanesi, The Guardian

' Doidge writes in an urgent, enthusiastic voice ... He couples anecdote with science- describing patients and scientists with respect and warmth, explaining complex neuroscientific theories clearly and in great detail.'
-The Australian