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The Man Who Tasted Words: A Neurologist Explores the Strange and Startling World of Our Senses
In The Man Who Tasted Words, neurologist Guy Leschziner leads readers through the five senses and how, through them, our brain understands or misunderstands the world around us.
Vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch are what we rely on to perceive the reality of our world. Our five senses are the conduits that bring us the scent of a freshly brewed cup of coffee or the notes of a favorite song suddenly playing on the radio. But are they really that reliable? The Man Who Tasted Words shows that what we perceive to be absolute truths of the world around us is actually a complex internal reconstruction by our minds and nervous systems. The translation into experiences with conscious meaning―the pattern of light and dark on the retina that is transformed into the face of a loved one, for instance―is a process that is invisible, undetected by ourselves, and, in most cases, completely out of our control.
Leschziner explores how our nervous systems define our worlds and how we can, in fact, be victims of falsehoods perpetrated by our own brains. In his moving and lyrical chronicles of lives turned upside down by a disruption in one or more of their five senses, he introduces readers to extraordinary individuals, like one man who actually “tasted” words, and shows us how sensory disruptions like that have wreaked havoc, not only on their view of the world, but also on their relationships. The cases Leschziner shares are extreme, but they are also human, and they teach us that both our lives and what we perceive as reality are ultimately defined by the complexities of the nervous system.
Vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch are what we rely on to perceive the reality of our world. Our five senses are the conduits that bring us the scent of a freshly brewed cup of coffee or the notes of a favorite song suddenly playing on the radio. But are they really that reliable? The Man Who Tasted Words shows that what we perceive to be absolute truths of the world around us is actually a complex internal reconstruction by our minds and nervous systems. The translation into experiences with conscious meaning―the pattern of light and dark on the retina that is transformed into the face of a loved one, for instance―is a process that is invisible, undetected by ourselves, and, in most cases, completely out of our control.
Leschziner explores how our nervous systems define our worlds and how we can, in fact, be victims of falsehoods perpetrated by our own brains. In his moving and lyrical chronicles of lives turned upside down by a disruption in one or more of their five senses, he introduces readers to extraordinary individuals, like one man who actually “tasted” words, and shows us how sensory disruptions like that have wreaked havoc, not only on their view of the world, but also on their relationships. The cases Leschziner shares are extreme, but they are also human, and they teach us that both our lives and what we perceive as reality are ultimately defined by the complexities of the nervous system.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published February 22, 2022
About the author
Guy Leschziner
6 books114 followersGuy Leschziner is a consultant neurologist at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals in London, where he leads the Sleep Disorders Centre, one of the largest sleep services in Europe, and professor of neurology and sleep medicine at King’s College London.
Alongside his clinical work, he is the presenter of the "Mysteries of Sleep" and "Senses" series on BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service, is editor of the forthcoming Oxford Specialist Handbook of Sleep Medicine (OUP), and is Neurology Section editor for the next edition of Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine (Elsevier).
Alongside his clinical work, he is the presenter of the "Mysteries of Sleep" and "Senses" series on BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service, is editor of the forthcoming Oxford Specialist Handbook of Sleep Medicine (OUP), and is Neurology Section editor for the next edition of Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine (Elsevier).
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March 3, 2022
…sensation is not simply a process of gathering information from the periphery and funnelling it to the brain, but that actually the brain can influence the data being captured. This is referred to as bottom-up and top-down processing, respectively. But this two-way flow of information is not limited to sensation, or even our senses; it is a feature of how every tenet of our nervous system works.--------------------------------------
…when we listen, what we hear is the result of the process of making sense of these pressure waves all around us, ascribing meaning to these tremblings of molecules. It is an early warning system, an awareness of what lies in wait immediately beyond our bodies or outside our field of vision. It is also an effective mode of communication. As the authors of the textbook Auditory Neuroscience state, ‘Every time you talk to someone, you are effectively engaging in something that can only be described as telepathic activity, as you are effectively “beaming your thoughts into the other person’s head,” using as your medium a form of “invisible vibrations”.’We tend to think of our senses as pure forms of data gathering. Physical sense encounters external stimuli and transfers that information directly to the brain, where the info is incorporated. Seems simple and direct, no? It might be were it actually the case. But it is most certainly NOT the case. We know for a fact that people believe whatever they want to believe, regardless of extant reality. January 6, 2021 and your crazy, Fox-addicted uncle offer prime examples of that. But it is also the case that believing is, literally, seeing, on a much more immediate, personal, sensate level, extending far beyond the willful ignorance of political (and reportorial) bubble-think.
Dr. Guy Leschziner - image from his Goodreads profile
Dr. Guy Leschziner, a consultant neurologist in the Departments of Neurology and Sleep Disorders Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals (where he runs the Sleep Disorders Centre) and at several other London institutions, presenter of several series for BBC on the brain and sleep, reports on a collection of people with unusual sensate experiences. (Sadly, none look anything like the amazing sense-connections of the characters on the fabulous TV series Sense8), If you were expecting an entire book on synesthesia, (which you might, given the somewhat misleading book title) you might have to feel that elsewhere. Yes, there is a bit of that in here, but mostly the book explores the interactions between our senses and our brains, and even considers the nature of reality as it is, versus how we might perceive it.
And if you thought the doctor would limit himself to our five senses, well, mostly, but not entirely. He does write a bit about other elements of our being that might be considered senses beyond the five. Generally, the book is about the doctor figuring out what is causing strange sensations for his patients. Case histories abound.
Mark hears his personal noises (chewing, breathing, and other) at way too high a volume, while the sounds of the external world are muffled. A TV personality has lost his ability to hear bird songs above a certain pitch, then starts hearing loud sounds everywhere, and a musical playlist that holds no appeal.
Abi can experience basic tastes, but not flavor, as she has never had a sense of smell. Leschziner riffs on the difference between the two, offering a very surprising (to me, anyway) conclusion about the latter.
There is a wonderful section on how smell impacts a wide range of human activities, including, but not limited to, the obvious ones about the edibility of food, and repulsiveness of rot, but how we make many social decisions based on an unconscious (mostly) reactions to personal odors. It certainly manifests in language. This look at olfaction passes the smell test, does not at all stink to high heaven, or smell fishy, and if called by any other name, it would smell as sweet. It is not to be sniffed at, or do you smell a rat?
A sommelier loses her sense of taste, making it a bit of a challenge to do her job. You will learn a lot about how flavor informs our lives, and how it is actually constructed.
Miriam’ s feet always feel burning hot. No matches in shoes involved. Alison’s feel for temperature is reversed. Dawn experiences massive pain in her face hundreds of times a day. Paul feels no pain. You might think this is a good thing, with obvious benefits. But the downsides can really hurt.
Synesthesia does put in an appearance. For James, sounds have taste and texture. Valerie sees color associated with sound. Sometimes colors do seem too loud, even to those of us with the usual sense experiences. Is this a case of synesthesia in language?
‘My favourite Tube station was Tottenham Court Road, because there’s so many lovely words in there. “Tottenham” produced the taste and texture of a sausage; “Court” was like an egg – a fried egg but not a runny fried egg: a lovely crispy fried egg. And “Road” was toast. So there you’ve got a pre-made breakfast. But further along the Central Line was one of the worst ones, that used to taste like an aerosol can – you know, the aftertaste you get from hairspray. That was Bond Street.’It is the associations our sensate experiences have with our past, with our emotions with our thought processes, that give them value far beyond the immediate physical information they provide, whether one is a Proustian character recalling a large chunk of his past prompted by dipping a madeleine in a cup of tea, or one is a less literary sort, recalling a moment from early parenthood, prompted by the particular scents in the baby products section of a store.
not only is there an overlap between olfaction and emotion, but also olfaction and emotional memory. Those regions of the brain involved in olfaction and emotional processing also have a strong role in memory.Ranging beyond, Leschziner writes of a woman’s inability to construct internal visions, and of the phantom limb experience of many who have endured amputations. Our sense of ourselves in space gets a look as well, prompting you to wonder just what the criteria might be for defining what does and does not qualify a bodily experience to be called an actual sense.
Leschziner has an engaging writing style and keeps the intel delivery at an accessible pop-science level, for the most part. On occasion, a bit too much technical jargon does find a way in, but just skip past when it does. There are occasional moments of humor, one actual LOL, for me, anyway. But this is not a significant feature of his writing.
This book is brain candy of the first order (another synesthetic bit of language. Once you get a taste for the stuff, examples do start to stand out.) Not only does Leschziner point out the ways in which what we consider normal, or at least typical, human sensation works, he shows how some senses work through intermediaries, while others get a direct-to-brain, no-TSA-line channel from input to processing. That was news to me. He also offers a discussion about how our brains function as biological time delays, in a way, gathering information to create a picture in the now based on data gathering of conditions in the immediate past, as our brains and senses have far too little bandwidth or supercomputer speed to gather and process all the incoming information in real time. There is another fascinating consideration of the actual nature of reality. It makes The Matrix seem a lot less fantastical.
‘Perception is nothing more than a controlled hallucination.’ This is a commonly used sentence in the world of cognitive neuroscience. Essentially, our brains work as guessing machines, interpreting what is coming in through our senses in the context of our model of the world. What we perceive relates to our existing beliefs about the world, to how what the information our senses provide us interacts with our virtual-reality simulation of the universe.Very much worth a look or a listen, maybe a touch, if you read braille, The Man Who Tasted Words is a treat for your brain, and your senses, however they work.
the brain is not simply an absorber of information. It is a prediction machine. Our perception of the world is based upon predictions of how we expect our world to be, a necessary shortcut to deal with those three flaws, of data capacity, inherent delay and ambiguity.
Review posted – February 25, 2022
Publication date – February 22, 2022
I received an ARE of The Man Who Tasted Words from St. Martin’s Press in return for a fair review. Thanks, folks. It smelled and tasted great.
This review will soon be cross-posted on my site, Coot’s Reviews
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, Instagram, and Twitter pages
Leschziner is a consultant neurologist in the Departments of Neurology and Sleep Disorders Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals (where he runs the Sleep Disorders Centre) and at several other London institutions. He has presented several series for BBC on the brain and sleep. The Man Who Tasted Words is his third book, the second intended for general readers.
Interviews
-----The Observer - Guy Leschziner: ‘Reality is entirely a construct of our nervous system’ by Andrew Anthony
-----Intelligence Squared - Exploring the Senses, with Guy Leschziner by Helen Czerski – audio – 47:59
Items of Interest from the author
-----BBC Radio - Mysteries of Sleep - Three lectures,, about a half hour each
-----BBC – The Compass - The Senses - audio – 26:29
-----The Daily Mail - The bizarre condition that keeps a choir singing Land of Hope and Glory inside Bill Oddie's head: New book reveals what happens when our senses go haywire... including a woman who smelled rotting flesh for years, and another who felt scalded by cold water- an extract
-----Owltail - 17 Podcast Episodes
Item of Interest
-----WebMD – on Synesthesia
Currently reading
March 2, 2022In my unregretted youth, I tripped out on acid many times and each time one of the great pleasures was seeing music in colours and shapes dancing to their own rhythm not the rhythm of the music. Is synasthesia simply a quirk we all have that is suppressed and only brought to light when drugs remove the filters or for those people who do not have them? Or is it something we mostly lost from our evolutionary past? It makes me wonder if any animals do this as a matter of course and it helps them in their lives? And how on earth we could test for this?
__________
I got this because Guy Leschziner's first book The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep was so good. I very much like the way the author writes and his thoroughness in exploring a subject.
__________
I got this because Guy Leschziner's first book The Nocturnal Brain: Nightmares, Neuroscience, and the Secret World of Sleep was so good. I very much like the way the author writes and his thoroughness in exploring a subject.
March 21, 2022
Another GR friend posted a stellar review on this very well written book about a series of highly unusual neurological disorders. Her review intrigued me, so I immediately requested and happily was granted an ARC of this book from NetGalley.
Try to imagine someone who can not feel pain of any sort - and then read the explanation or pathology as to WHY the patient has no physical sensory perception. The psychological impact of this disorder was just as engrossing to read about as the description of the physical ailment. Note: The author obtained permission from his patients to write about their respective neurological anomalies. It makes for riveting reading.
A truly fascinating read that made me realize that our eyes, ears and senses work together to inform - and sometimes misinform - our thinking. I highly recommend this collection of case studies, written in an engaging anecdotal style. You will never take your five senses for granted again!
My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Try to imagine someone who can not feel pain of any sort - and then read the explanation or pathology as to WHY the patient has no physical sensory perception. The psychological impact of this disorder was just as engrossing to read about as the description of the physical ailment. Note: The author obtained permission from his patients to write about their respective neurological anomalies. It makes for riveting reading.
A truly fascinating read that made me realize that our eyes, ears and senses work together to inform - and sometimes misinform - our thinking. I highly recommend this collection of case studies, written in an engaging anecdotal style. You will never take your five senses for granted again!
My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Read
November 24, 2023In the Oliver Sachs bracket of 'weird stories of bizarre medical conditions', this one about the senses. It's well written and compassionate. There's inevitably something of a Channel 4 freakshow documentary quality in books about weird conditions, but the author has as much empathy and humaniy as one could reasonably expect to survive a medical career, and it's interesting to see the resilience of many of the subjects: people just living with the world they perceive. Includes synasthesia and a truly horrifying account of people who don't feel pain. This is not a thing to wish for.
Lots of interesting philosophical questions. The author addresses the question of what reality really means when our experience of it is necessarily filtered through our perception and stresses how limited or offbeat that perception can be, and how much of 'reality' is subjective. And then he turns around and calls covid deniers an unfiltered 'morons'' because of course reality exists, you fuckwits.
Interesting read, from a good writer.
Lots of interesting philosophical questions. The author addresses the question of what reality really means when our experience of it is necessarily filtered through our perception and stresses how limited or offbeat that perception can be, and how much of 'reality' is subjective. And then he turns around and calls covid deniers an unfiltered 'morons'' because of course reality exists, you fuckwits.
Interesting read, from a good writer.
November 18, 2022
In brief - Fascinating insight into our senses and the "reality" of our lives! 4.5/5
In full
In this book the author, a neurologist, takes us through our senses from his perspective. He starts by looking at the idea of which sense we might be prepared to do without. Given there are generally considered to be five senses this seems like quite a challenge from the start. Indeed the further you delve into this book and the subject the more complex it gets. Are there really only five senses and what would being without one be like? The introduction has me more than interested very quickly.
The book combines specific cases, generally the author's own, with related aspects of neurology. It also looks at some of the more general challenges he has faced in his career. Certainly one of his general points is how badly doctors communicate with their patients at times.
In terms of cases and among others, we meet Paul who has no feeling of physical pain at all. The challenges of living life without necessary danger signals through pain are very big. Rahel is unable to walk/stand as she has no perception of her movements. Dawn has a "benign" tumour. Despite it being benign it is affecting her vision and this is during the pandemic which simply adds to the problems of treating patients. There are a number of other patients and cases mentioned. While I found them all interesting these ones seemed to stand out for me. The challenges of attempting to help people with some of these sort of conditions are substantial. All too often there is little that can be done.
In terms of general neurological issues a number are covered in the course of this book. I found the insights into how our brains offer us reality very interesting. During a chapter largely on vision I discovered that "blind spots" are actual a reality. The author tells us how we can check this and sure enough you can find your blind spot. What is remarkable is that we generally don't realise it as the brain "fills in" the gaps.
Aphantasia is discussed in a later chapter which concerns an artist in the main. After she had a stroke she lost her internal visualisation ability which helped her with her painting. I guess what I hadn't realised before I read this book is that something like this ability may not be common to everyone anyway. Until you ask someone what they can see/feel/experience they may have no idea that they lack something that others take for granted.
I guess no review of this book would be complete without referring to Synaesthesia. This is the state where the man in the title can taste words. However there are other forms of synaesthesia. The colours that some people find in music of music would be one and the chapter was again very interesting.
Towards the end of this book the author points out to the reader that "the way we experience the world is reliant upon the chemical and physical properties of our bodies (...) as much as on the physical properties of objects". In that alone the book is fascinating - what is reality? The epilogue continues considering that theme in part. It reflects on "what is reality" really even name checking The Matrix. Indeed it is clear from the book that the reality we each perceive might not be experienced the same way as others regardless of whether we are considered medically "normal". If no one asks us how we see/feel the world in its broadest sense we may be unaware that our senses are different to other peoples.
I did find some of these chapters quite dense. I would honestly suggest trying to read a whole chapter at a time for some ease of understanding. At times the reintroduction of cases I'd already read about in later chapters felt a little awkward. This may well not be a book for a real layman although I feel it should be appreciated by anyone with an interest in the subject. Allowing those thoughts this is a book that I really enjoyed reading. Parts of it were really fascinating and I learned a lot about senses generally and mine too. 4.5/5
Note - I received an advance digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review
In full
In this book the author, a neurologist, takes us through our senses from his perspective. He starts by looking at the idea of which sense we might be prepared to do without. Given there are generally considered to be five senses this seems like quite a challenge from the start. Indeed the further you delve into this book and the subject the more complex it gets. Are there really only five senses and what would being without one be like? The introduction has me more than interested very quickly.
The book combines specific cases, generally the author's own, with related aspects of neurology. It also looks at some of the more general challenges he has faced in his career. Certainly one of his general points is how badly doctors communicate with their patients at times.
In terms of cases and among others, we meet Paul who has no feeling of physical pain at all. The challenges of living life without necessary danger signals through pain are very big. Rahel is unable to walk/stand as she has no perception of her movements. Dawn has a "benign" tumour. Despite it being benign it is affecting her vision and this is during the pandemic which simply adds to the problems of treating patients. There are a number of other patients and cases mentioned. While I found them all interesting these ones seemed to stand out for me. The challenges of attempting to help people with some of these sort of conditions are substantial. All too often there is little that can be done.
In terms of general neurological issues a number are covered in the course of this book. I found the insights into how our brains offer us reality very interesting. During a chapter largely on vision I discovered that "blind spots" are actual a reality. The author tells us how we can check this and sure enough you can find your blind spot. What is remarkable is that we generally don't realise it as the brain "fills in" the gaps.
Aphantasia is discussed in a later chapter which concerns an artist in the main. After she had a stroke she lost her internal visualisation ability which helped her with her painting. I guess what I hadn't realised before I read this book is that something like this ability may not be common to everyone anyway. Until you ask someone what they can see/feel/experience they may have no idea that they lack something that others take for granted.
I guess no review of this book would be complete without referring to Synaesthesia. This is the state where the man in the title can taste words. However there are other forms of synaesthesia. The colours that some people find in music of music would be one and the chapter was again very interesting.
Towards the end of this book the author points out to the reader that "the way we experience the world is reliant upon the chemical and physical properties of our bodies (...) as much as on the physical properties of objects". In that alone the book is fascinating - what is reality? The epilogue continues considering that theme in part. It reflects on "what is reality" really even name checking The Matrix. Indeed it is clear from the book that the reality we each perceive might not be experienced the same way as others regardless of whether we are considered medically "normal". If no one asks us how we see/feel the world in its broadest sense we may be unaware that our senses are different to other peoples.
I did find some of these chapters quite dense. I would honestly suggest trying to read a whole chapter at a time for some ease of understanding. At times the reintroduction of cases I'd already read about in later chapters felt a little awkward. This may well not be a book for a real layman although I feel it should be appreciated by anyone with an interest in the subject. Allowing those thoughts this is a book that I really enjoyed reading. Parts of it were really fascinating and I learned a lot about senses generally and mine too. 4.5/5
Note - I received an advance digital copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review
February 26, 2022
It's absolutely fascinating how fragile we are and how the tiniest lesion in the brain or the nervous system can cause havoc in our lives. We take our senses for granted and every day we have them is a day we should consciously appreciate them.
The last section about the true nature of reality as a completely different thing than the construct our brains create was also particularly poignant. Having read a few books about this topic and quantum physics, I've made my peace with the idea that we're all just playing pretend with the illusion of free will, and that everything is ridiculous. The Absurdists had a point.
The last section about the true nature of reality as a completely different thing than the construct our brains create was also particularly poignant. Having read a few books about this topic and quantum physics, I've made my peace with the idea that we're all just playing pretend with the illusion of free will, and that everything is ridiculous. The Absurdists had a point.
November 16, 2021
Fascinating, exciting, wonderous, WOW! The author does a great job at telling how the 5 senses create our reality and if one of the senses is off-kilter it will/could be disastrous.
I was fascinated with the stories, Paul and his no feeling of pain really made me stop and think about what it would really be like to not feel pain.
The seeing of colors while playing music, I felt like I was in a garden.
The toxin poisoning making the lady feel the opposite of hot and cold was fascinating.
There is so much that we don't know still about the human body.
I felt that the author did a great job at telling the stories, relating how it applies to the real world and even geeking out (seeing as how the author is a Doctor this is understandable) with medical terminology.
This is a must read book for anyone curious about our senses and how we perceive the world.
Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for allowing me this ARC in exchange for this honest review.
I was fascinated with the stories, Paul and his no feeling of pain really made me stop and think about what it would really be like to not feel pain.
The seeing of colors while playing music, I felt like I was in a garden.
The toxin poisoning making the lady feel the opposite of hot and cold was fascinating.
There is so much that we don't know still about the human body.
I felt that the author did a great job at telling the stories, relating how it applies to the real world and even geeking out (seeing as how the author is a Doctor this is understandable) with medical terminology.
This is a must read book for anyone curious about our senses and how we perceive the world.
Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for allowing me this ARC in exchange for this honest review.
March 16, 2022
The Human body builds its perception of reality on the basis of 5 senses (eyesight, hearing, taste, touch and smell), the efficacy of which creates our reality. So the keenness of my sense of smell differentiates my reality different from yours. Also, the mind gathers all the information from these senses fills up the gaps in the information, and creates an altered reality. But the big question is; is the mind creating a reality that is closer to the truth or is it lying to us? From the evolutionary perspective, I think a bit of both. Suppose we decide to take a nightly walk in the African Savanna and see a hedge in the dark that looks like a crouching lion, will our mind encourage us to investigate further or will it tell us to run to save our life? On the other hand similar walk taken in a busy city centre where the mind knows there is less likelihood of wild animals, the mind will encourage us to ignore the hedge. I think the determining factor is fear. The mind will decide which reality to present based on the level of fear in any situation.
Overall the book was extremely thought-provoking and balanced.
Overall the book was extremely thought-provoking and balanced.
March 25, 2023
Imagine a book revolving around a line of poetry by Sir Walter Scott. That's what we have here, despite neither Scott, or the poem, being mentioned. Here's the line: All was delusion, nought was truth. The line comes from "The Lay of the Last Minstrel."
Similarly, the book could be an exegesis about a line from the Beatles' song "Strawberry Fields Forever": Nothing is real.
On page four of "The Man Who Tasted Words" we get this
Guy Leschziner breaks down the problem into three parts: Brains are overloaded with incoming data, so they have to pick and choose; the time factor for the information to reach the brain, process it, and act means we are in a constant time lag; the last is ambiguity, where, for example, we see a tiger but are confused whether it is real or a stuffed animal.
The author convinced me that we are duffers stumbling from one illusion to the next. However, while I was reading this, particularly the visual 'blind spot' that we all suffer from, I wondered if our brains have an inbuilt 'blind spot' that propels us to idiocy or mass delusion.
Guy provided evidence for my theory:
Similarly, the book could be an exegesis about a line from the Beatles' song "Strawberry Fields Forever": Nothing is real.
On page four of "The Man Who Tasted Words" we get this
What we believe to be a precise representation of the world around us is nothing more than an illusion...Multiple examples are given from each sense showing how the brain is creating an approximation of reality.
Guy Leschziner breaks down the problem into three parts: Brains are overloaded with incoming data, so they have to pick and choose; the time factor for the information to reach the brain, process it, and act means we are in a constant time lag; the last is ambiguity, where, for example, we see a tiger but are confused whether it is real or a stuffed animal.
The author convinced me that we are duffers stumbling from one illusion to the next. However, while I was reading this, particularly the visual 'blind spot' that we all suffer from, I wondered if our brains have an inbuilt 'blind spot' that propels us to idiocy or mass delusion.
Guy provided evidence for my theory:
I am filled with anger at these morons, those who are anti-vaxxers and anti-scientists...I wonder if Guy would be so cocksure today? https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons...
August 11, 2022
Synesthesia is fascinating but was looking for more scientific explanations rather than personal experience. When it comes to science, idc about human experience but the deeper scientific concepts. It’s why I’m a chemist and not a doctor. But I swear I am still a cuddly n friendly fren
August 1, 2023
Entusiasmante
February 15, 2022
via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐬. 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫- 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭, 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭.
It’s an interesting thing to consider, what sense you would give up. Personally, I would like to keep all of mine. This is a fascinating, intelligent study of the senses. My interest in neurology has been born of neurological disorders in my own family, including my meningioma, which can be a terrifying reality. I know all too well about not being able to function after a severe migraine episode, one that had me behaving as if I was having a stroke. I also have always been drawn to the subject of mental health, how our brains are wired. The most amazing truth I take away from this book is that people are incredible and resilient, some of the patient stories are uplifting and others crushing, devastating. As stated within these pages, “As ever in the world of neurology, it is through understanding the system when it goes wrong that we gain insight into normal functions.” Those of us whose systems have crashed realize how vital every single function is and thank our lucky stars there are people out there looking for answers.
It’s fascinating to me how our nervous system runs much of our lives, how we rely on all of our senses for survival, they keep us safe from danger, give us warnings about our own health. No one wants to feel pain, but what would we do without it? Not feeling pain isn’t quite the superpower one would suppose it to be. We experience the world with our senses and losing even one can upend our lives. The senses are tied up in memories from birth, what we taste, touch, smell, see, hear. Learning, we learn with our senses, don’t we? What about the state of our mind, how our emotions alter our senses? How can that be? There is a reason they say the mind is a powerful thing, that it can change our reality. Why do depressed people often have dampened senses? How can someone taste words or see without eyes? Why do people experience auditory hallucinations, even after hearing loss? How does our brain process certain information and know what to discard? How can we trust our senses when they are often deceptive?
Randomness (like accidents, injuries), genetic mutations, auto-immune diseases, seizures, blindness, strokes, loss of taste, smell, illnesses, trauma-there is no end to causes that can disrupt our senses. How is the attention that we give to them an important factor? This is a provocative read, I was pondering the senses in a different light and learning much more about the brain and the circuitry of our nervous system than I imagined. What a mystery the human body is, despite all our scientific advances. I was engrossed by the patients, the journey each was on and all that they shared with the reader. Many people are unique and present a challenge to doctors. It is through studying these deviations from the ‘norm’ that understanding expands, hope is born that help is on the horizon for so many of us. An intelligently written book.
Publication Date: February 22, 2022
St. Martin’s Press
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐬. 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫- 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐭, 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐬𝐚𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭.
It’s an interesting thing to consider, what sense you would give up. Personally, I would like to keep all of mine. This is a fascinating, intelligent study of the senses. My interest in neurology has been born of neurological disorders in my own family, including my meningioma, which can be a terrifying reality. I know all too well about not being able to function after a severe migraine episode, one that had me behaving as if I was having a stroke. I also have always been drawn to the subject of mental health, how our brains are wired. The most amazing truth I take away from this book is that people are incredible and resilient, some of the patient stories are uplifting and others crushing, devastating. As stated within these pages, “As ever in the world of neurology, it is through understanding the system when it goes wrong that we gain insight into normal functions.” Those of us whose systems have crashed realize how vital every single function is and thank our lucky stars there are people out there looking for answers.
It’s fascinating to me how our nervous system runs much of our lives, how we rely on all of our senses for survival, they keep us safe from danger, give us warnings about our own health. No one wants to feel pain, but what would we do without it? Not feeling pain isn’t quite the superpower one would suppose it to be. We experience the world with our senses and losing even one can upend our lives. The senses are tied up in memories from birth, what we taste, touch, smell, see, hear. Learning, we learn with our senses, don’t we? What about the state of our mind, how our emotions alter our senses? How can that be? There is a reason they say the mind is a powerful thing, that it can change our reality. Why do depressed people often have dampened senses? How can someone taste words or see without eyes? Why do people experience auditory hallucinations, even after hearing loss? How does our brain process certain information and know what to discard? How can we trust our senses when they are often deceptive?
Randomness (like accidents, injuries), genetic mutations, auto-immune diseases, seizures, blindness, strokes, loss of taste, smell, illnesses, trauma-there is no end to causes that can disrupt our senses. How is the attention that we give to them an important factor? This is a provocative read, I was pondering the senses in a different light and learning much more about the brain and the circuitry of our nervous system than I imagined. What a mystery the human body is, despite all our scientific advances. I was engrossed by the patients, the journey each was on and all that they shared with the reader. Many people are unique and present a challenge to doctors. It is through studying these deviations from the ‘norm’ that understanding expands, hope is born that help is on the horizon for so many of us. An intelligently written book.
Publication Date: February 22, 2022
St. Martin’s Press
May 8, 2023
This is a fascinating insight into the senses and how their operation can go wrong. Not only does the author explain the medical details of how the senses work, and fail, but also discusses the impact such failures can have on the quality of life of those affected. The case studies are always fascinating and sometimes moving, where the impact on some of the patients’ lives has been intolerable. Throughout the book the author presents a sensitive balance between medical detail and the heartfelt human interest.
August 27, 2023
Thank you to Net Galley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This was a fascinating read about our senses and through accident, disease, genetics or changes to our nervous system/brain the way we perceive our world is affected or altered, sometimes with strange results. Through these oddities, we are able to learn about how our body senses the world and is processed by our nervous system and brain. The author, a neurologist, provides physiological information of how each sense works or senses work in tandem to create our perceptions of the world. The many interesting cases are people experiencing blindness after seeing perceive people's faces as zombie-like, with hearing loss a man hallucinates hearing voices and songs, synaesthesia such as color being associated with notes of music or tastes associated with words, feeling hotness in the feet but everywhere else is cold, and loss of smell or taste which alters our enjoyment of food. Basically, all our senses help us to create a picture of the world and the author summarizes that this is a type of controlled hallucination as each of us will experience the world differently based on how all our senses interact. Knowing this, we should question absolute truths and know that reality is a wide spectrum of each person's experiences.
July 14, 2022
Books like this one - half memoir, half a showcase of a doctor's strangest cases - have been abundant on nonfiction shelves ever since Oliver Sacks invented the schtick with The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, but this one really stood out to me both through a highly pleasant writing style and through an exceptionally human and humble voice of the author.
June 5, 2023
Interesting case studies but a little to sciencey for me
December 5, 2021
A superb book for anyone who’s interested in how our brains work and how this affects our perception of reality. We’re taught that there’s a real world out there, and our five senses feed information to the brain that tells us what it is. Turns out, that’s all wrong. For a start, there are a lot more than five senses. Second, the senses feed a tiny fraction of the available information to the brain, and the brain just kind of guesses at the rest. And third, the brain doesn’t just passively accept information, it feeds back predictions to the senses on what it expects to see. (And, perhaps most fascinating of all, it calls into question whether there even is such a thing as objective reality - who’s to say one brain’s model of the world is more or less accurate than somebody else’s, or whether they’re actually the same?)
This has some important implications. When the sensory system is damaged, either by genetic mutation, physical injury, neurochemical imbalance, or whatever, the information it sends can be inaccurate, incomplete, or unreliable. So the brain fills in the rest, based on faulty data. And sometimes, it gets it very, very wrong. So you get people whose senses are completely mixed up - they perceive tastes or colors associated with vision or sound (synesthesia), or they can’t perceive objects in part of their field of view but they can tell if they’re moving. If you’ve read The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, you’ll be familiar with this kind of thing.
Leschziner, a consultant neurologist in London, digs into dozens of case histories to illustrate how different people perceive the world differently. His style is very easy to read, and always entertaining, but informative and packed with valuable information.
Highly recommended.
(Note: I received a free pre-release copy from the publisher. Illustrations were not included.)
This has some important implications. When the sensory system is damaged, either by genetic mutation, physical injury, neurochemical imbalance, or whatever, the information it sends can be inaccurate, incomplete, or unreliable. So the brain fills in the rest, based on faulty data. And sometimes, it gets it very, very wrong. So you get people whose senses are completely mixed up - they perceive tastes or colors associated with vision or sound (synesthesia), or they can’t perceive objects in part of their field of view but they can tell if they’re moving. If you’ve read The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, you’ll be familiar with this kind of thing.
Leschziner, a consultant neurologist in London, digs into dozens of case histories to illustrate how different people perceive the world differently. His style is very easy to read, and always entertaining, but informative and packed with valuable information.
Highly recommended.
(Note: I received a free pre-release copy from the publisher. Illustrations were not included.)
March 12, 2024
Bardzo lubię czytać o różnych dziwnych i niespotykanych przypadłościach o podłożu neurologicznym.
I jak to bywa w tego typu publikacjach, znajdziemy tutaj opisy tych bardziej ciekawych dolegliwości oraz tych, które nie będą aż tak budzić naszego entuzjazmu.
Cała książka skupia się na pięciu naszych zmysłach i przypadkach, u których zostały one zaburzone.
Mnie osobiście najbardziej zainteresował rozdział o ludziach, którzy nie odczuwają bólu. W pierwszym odruchu może nam się wydawać, że takie schorzenie to błogosławieństwo, a jak się okazuje jest to wręcz przekleństwo. Sama nie zdawałam sobie sprawy ile strasznych konsekwencji ono niesie.
Bardzo ciekawa była też wzmianka o kobiecie, której odczuwanie ciepła-zimna zwariowało i było zupełnie odwrotne.
Z zainteresowaniem czytałam o swego rodzaju halucynacjach u ludzi tracących wzrok.
Zmysł wzroku i opis jego działania był dla mnie czymś fascynującym. Była nawet wzmianka o ślepowidzeniu, z którym miałam niedawno styczność w książce sci-fi Petera Wattsa.
Bardzo abstrakcyjna i zadziwiająca była również umiejętność czucia smaku czy widzenia koloru dźwięków. Naukowe opisy działań narządów i zmysłów były podane w przystępny sposób, chociaż nie zawsze w takim samym stopniu interesowały.
Najbardziej z lektury wytrącały mnie wstawki z życia autora, w których to często opisywał krajobraz czy budynki mijane w drodze do pacjenta i przytaczał wspomnienia bądź anegdotki z nimi związane. Może dla niektórych będzie to ciekawym dodatkiem i momentem wytchnienia, lecz dla mnie osobiście było zbędne. Na szczęście nie było tego zbyt wiele.
Całościowo lektura mnie usatysfakcjonowała i dała do myślenia. Często nie zdajemy sobie sprawy, jak zwodnicze bywają nasze zmysły, i jak niewiele trzeba żeby doszło do ich zaburzeń; czasem decydują o tym geny, a czasem czysty przypadek, pech. Przytłaczające jest też to, jak bywamy bezradni, gdy któryś ze zmysłów nie działa prawidłowo, oraz jak bezradni bywają lekarze i jak ciężko o diagnozę w tak odosobnionych nietypowych przypadkach.
Czy polecam tę książkę każdemu? Nie wiem, na pewno bardziej odnajdą się w niej osoby chociaż trochę zainteresowane tą tematyką, a jeśli ktoś chciałby pierwszy raz poczytać o tego typu rzeczach, to jako pierwszą polecam książkę "Mężczyzna, który pomylił swoją żonę z kapeluszem".
I jak to bywa w tego typu publikacjach, znajdziemy tutaj opisy tych bardziej ciekawych dolegliwości oraz tych, które nie będą aż tak budzić naszego entuzjazmu.
Cała książka skupia się na pięciu naszych zmysłach i przypadkach, u których zostały one zaburzone.
Mnie osobiście najbardziej zainteresował rozdział o ludziach, którzy nie odczuwają bólu. W pierwszym odruchu może nam się wydawać, że takie schorzenie to błogosławieństwo, a jak się okazuje jest to wręcz przekleństwo. Sama nie zdawałam sobie sprawy ile strasznych konsekwencji ono niesie.
Bardzo ciekawa była też wzmianka o kobiecie, której odczuwanie ciepła-zimna zwariowało i było zupełnie odwrotne.
Z zainteresowaniem czytałam o swego rodzaju halucynacjach u ludzi tracących wzrok.
Zmysł wzroku i opis jego działania był dla mnie czymś fascynującym. Była nawet wzmianka o ślepowidzeniu, z którym miałam niedawno styczność w książce sci-fi Petera Wattsa.
Bardzo abstrakcyjna i zadziwiająca była również umiejętność czucia smaku czy widzenia koloru dźwięków. Naukowe opisy działań narządów i zmysłów były podane w przystępny sposób, chociaż nie zawsze w takim samym stopniu interesowały.
Najbardziej z lektury wytrącały mnie wstawki z życia autora, w których to często opisywał krajobraz czy budynki mijane w drodze do pacjenta i przytaczał wspomnienia bądź anegdotki z nimi związane. Może dla niektórych będzie to ciekawym dodatkiem i momentem wytchnienia, lecz dla mnie osobiście było zbędne. Na szczęście nie było tego zbyt wiele.
Całościowo lektura mnie usatysfakcjonowała i dała do myślenia. Często nie zdajemy sobie sprawy, jak zwodnicze bywają nasze zmysły, i jak niewiele trzeba żeby doszło do ich zaburzeń; czasem decydują o tym geny, a czasem czysty przypadek, pech. Przytłaczające jest też to, jak bywamy bezradni, gdy któryś ze zmysłów nie działa prawidłowo, oraz jak bezradni bywają lekarze i jak ciężko o diagnozę w tak odosobnionych nietypowych przypadkach.
Czy polecam tę książkę każdemu? Nie wiem, na pewno bardziej odnajdą się w niej osoby chociaż trochę zainteresowane tą tematyką, a jeśli ktoś chciałby pierwszy raz poczytać o tego typu rzeczach, to jako pierwszą polecam książkę "Mężczyzna, który pomylił swoją żonę z kapeluszem".
January 20, 2022
Wow, what a fascinating, intriguing, mind-bending book, written by an expert in the field. Definitely gives you a new perspective on the five senses. A must-read by anyone who is remotely interested in how our senses work and how it can go wrong.
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for providing a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. #TheManWhoTastedWords #NetGalley
Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martins Press for providing a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. #TheManWhoTastedWords #NetGalley
January 11, 2023
The author explores how our senses work by looking at people who have disorders that disrupt a sense. There's an almost-blind woman who has cartoon-like hallucinations (which she doesn't mind so much, because at least she can see them), a man whose hearing has expanded so that background noise is so loud that he's almost lost his ability to hear normally, a man who grew up unable to feel pain (and is horribly scarred from it), a girl who has no sense of smell or taste, and more.
Like Oliver Sacks, Leschziner above all values the humanity of his patients, many of whom have been treated poorly and impersonally by the medical system. The book tells about the physical mechanisms that cause the problems, but puts as much attention into the effects on the people involved. This works well.
He also takes a broader view. While we tend to say there are five senses, he identifies a number of other perceptual paths that could be considered senses. Among others, he goes into proprioception, the perception of where the body is in space and where parts of it are in relation to each other.
In the last chapter, he goes into how our senses create a limited and stylized perception of what is around us. For example, our eyes only see (and ears only hear, etc.) certain wavelengths, but others are all around us too. And the systems our eyes, ears, etc. use are indirect; they are run through various pathways in the brain; what we experience is highly processed.
I enjoyed the book. It has the right amount of patient stories, scientific explanations, and open-minded, informed speculation. I hope the author keeps writing medical books for the layperson.
Like Oliver Sacks, Leschziner above all values the humanity of his patients, many of whom have been treated poorly and impersonally by the medical system. The book tells about the physical mechanisms that cause the problems, but puts as much attention into the effects on the people involved. This works well.
He also takes a broader view. While we tend to say there are five senses, he identifies a number of other perceptual paths that could be considered senses. Among others, he goes into proprioception, the perception of where the body is in space and where parts of it are in relation to each other.
In the last chapter, he goes into how our senses create a limited and stylized perception of what is around us. For example, our eyes only see (and ears only hear, etc.) certain wavelengths, but others are all around us too. And the systems our eyes, ears, etc. use are indirect; they are run through various pathways in the brain; what we experience is highly processed.
I enjoyed the book. It has the right amount of patient stories, scientific explanations, and open-minded, informed speculation. I hope the author keeps writing medical books for the layperson.
December 29, 2021
The Man Who Tasted Words is an absolutely fascinating exploration of our senses. Neurologist Guy Leschziner expertly weaves his own experiences and observations with his patient's stories and uses clear easy-to-understand language, to explain complex medical conditions.
We believe that our senses—what we rely on to perceive the reality of our world—are incredibly accurate. But Dr. Leschziner shows that our senses aren't really all that reliable and are defined by the complexities of our nervous system. Our senses can be deceived by everything from genetic mutations and tumours to the brain lacking input and filling in those gaps by inventing images (hallucinations) and sensations of touch (phantom limb pain).
The book raised some philosophical issues, that even days after finishing the last chapter, I am still reflecting on. Reality, whatever your experience, is constructed by the brain. My reality is most likely different than your reality and the truth is not necessarily what we perceive it to be.
Each chapter of this book leads the reader through a new sense and explores, through engaging storytelling, how the brain understands (or misunderstands) the world around us. Honestly, this book was amazing and I had a hard time putting it down. I highly recommend it, just make sure to clear your schedule as you won't want to stop reading!
My review was based on the Advance Reader Copy I won through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
We believe that our senses—what we rely on to perceive the reality of our world—are incredibly accurate. But Dr. Leschziner shows that our senses aren't really all that reliable and are defined by the complexities of our nervous system. Our senses can be deceived by everything from genetic mutations and tumours to the brain lacking input and filling in those gaps by inventing images (hallucinations) and sensations of touch (phantom limb pain).
The book raised some philosophical issues, that even days after finishing the last chapter, I am still reflecting on. Reality, whatever your experience, is constructed by the brain. My reality is most likely different than your reality and the truth is not necessarily what we perceive it to be.
Each chapter of this book leads the reader through a new sense and explores, through engaging storytelling, how the brain understands (or misunderstands) the world around us. Honestly, this book was amazing and I had a hard time putting it down. I highly recommend it, just make sure to clear your schedule as you won't want to stop reading!
My review was based on the Advance Reader Copy I won through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway.
May 5, 2022
FASCINATING! As a recently diagnosed migraneur, I've been educating myself on various neurological issues. I was really glad that migraines were even mentioned several times in this book. These stories of neurological abnormalities are so interesting. Guy Leschziner is refreshingly humble, even admitting what no doctor dares to admit: they tend to see themselves as the "gold standard" of "normal", and anyone else experiencing the world differently is "abnormal". His self-awareness, intelligence, and obvious empathy combined with fascination make this a riveting read. I listened to the audiobook read by the author, and his voice is so soothing. I can only imagine what it would smell and taste like if I were a synesthete.
This is a remarkable look at neurology that is accessible to the average non-neurologist. Hey Guy, can you please be my neurologist?!
This is a remarkable look at neurology that is accessible to the average non-neurologist. Hey Guy, can you please be my neurologist?!
April 1, 2024
Dr. Guy Leschziner's book, The Man Who Tasted Words, features not only synesthesia as indicated in the title, but also other neurological conditions. Leschziner relates medical cases he has encountered over his career as a consultant neurologist in England. With anecdotes and medical histories he recounts the journey to diagnosing and treating unusual ailments. Senses that most of us take for granted such as smell or taste, or the ability to feel pain bring patients without those senses in for a consultation.
This book reminds me of several I've read by Oliver Sacks. It's fascinating and written in a way that's easy to understand.
This book reminds me of several I've read by Oliver Sacks. It's fascinating and written in a way that's easy to understand.
April 25, 2022
This was cool and exceeded my expectations!
I had forgotten about the subtitle before I borrowed this audiobook, so the wide breadth of neurological stories (instead of just synesthesia) that this covered was a welcome surprise.
Human brains are so weird but fascinating to learn about. 4.5
I had forgotten about the subtitle before I borrowed this audiobook, so the wide breadth of neurological stories (instead of just synesthesia) that this covered was a welcome surprise.
Human brains are so weird but fascinating to learn about. 4.5
November 20, 2022
I wasn't all that interested in the neurological explanations, but the sense of experience and peering into the worlds of others and the implications of changes in perception to our lived realities was entralling.
April 7, 2024
być może dla kogoś z bardziej zaawansowaną wiedzą będzie mało odkrywcza, ale ja dużo z niej wyniosłam
December 29, 2021
A very good book for those that want to know more about how we experience the world but still simply enough for those with out a degree
January 3, 2023
a stunning beautiful lyrical read
February 26, 2022
I appreciated the modern examples. Neuroscience is definitely a hit science right now. I initially picked up the book because synesthesia is fascinating to me.
I did get lost in a lot of the medical jargon. I found some of the stories heart wrenching in a way I didn't expect from the title.
**Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!*****
I did get lost in a lot of the medical jargon. I found some of the stories heart wrenching in a way I didn't expect from the title.
**Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!*****
January 10, 2023
A well written exploration of the senses.
The case studies are empathetically reported with a well balanced amount of scientific background and personnal sensitivity towards the lives of the people being discussed. Dr Leschiziber writes humbly and honestly, he clearly states his personnal views, at times I found these views leaning towards that of a materialist, not an outlook I share but not agreeing with every part of the authors reality does not detract from the brilliance of his book, so 5 stars from me....I enjoyed every chapter.
There is a discussion in the epilogue about the work of Donald D. Hoffman during which Dr Leschziner describes Hoffman's ideas as "bonkers" , I smiled as I read it, I disagree, Hoffmans ideas however could have been omitted from the book but for completeness they are not.
As I finish this reveiw my left hand is resting upon the front cover of The Case Against Reality by Donald D.Hoffman, should I too consider myself Bonkers? 😊
The case studies are empathetically reported with a well balanced amount of scientific background and personnal sensitivity towards the lives of the people being discussed. Dr Leschiziber writes humbly and honestly, he clearly states his personnal views, at times I found these views leaning towards that of a materialist, not an outlook I share but not agreeing with every part of the authors reality does not detract from the brilliance of his book, so 5 stars from me....I enjoyed every chapter.
There is a discussion in the epilogue about the work of Donald D. Hoffman during which Dr Leschziner describes Hoffman's ideas as "bonkers" , I smiled as I read it, I disagree, Hoffmans ideas however could have been omitted from the book but for completeness they are not.
As I finish this reveiw my left hand is resting upon the front cover of The Case Against Reality by Donald D.Hoffman, should I too consider myself Bonkers? 😊
Displaying 1 - 30 of 109 reviews