Good overview of neuroplasticity for the lay audience, but not up to date to recent research.

Nonwithstanding my lapse of attention ironically induced by this book at page 323 at the precise chapter entitled "Attention Must Be Paid" I have decided to give this book a 5 star rating. Once I mustered up the willpower and attended to the rest of the book using the power of Mental Force I was able to induce a change in the plasticity of my brain, and my boredom dissipated in the same way a photon's momentum would, should a person decide to try and pin down its position. Many controversial subjects dealing with the relationship between mind and matter as well as quantum physics are examined. Not only are these subjects examined, but Jeffrey backs up his statements with actual scientific experiments which give his proposal a sturdy backbone, and a sturdy backbone is definitely needed in order to withstand the sure barrage of materialistic sciences proponents blows. Some of the experimentation that had to go down in order for these findings to become known are of a very animal offensive nature, and a big part of the book is dedicated to explaining the details of the rise of PETA. The trial of the man responsible as well as his justifications are all treated in an objective manner showing both sides of the story. Long story short, I'm so glad I wasn't one of those Silver Spring Monkeys and I'm glad that even though the experimentation yielded positive results, there is an organization dedicated to protecting the rights of these creatures. Many people of the scientific community will probably dismiss this book as "hokey" "new age" stuff, and Jeffrey doesn't necessarily care as is evidenced by his constant quoting of the Buddah. However, being a person who loves to entertain different ideas no matter how "hokey" they may seem, I found this book to be very well researched and backed by substantial scientific evidence especially in the subject of Quantum Physics and OCD studies. I highly recommend it to all of my friends and would encourage anyone who has experienced a lack of will lately or the intrusion of unwanted thoughts to give it a read. Knowing that there is a problem is the first step and then willfully attending to that problem by the techniques elaborated upon in this book could help many people suffering from some of the diseases written about in this book.

I quite enjoyed this book and its exploration of the relationship between mind, brain and quantum mechanics. It highlights the importance of attention and concentration in, for instance, acquiring a new skill or remapping faulty brain patterns. I would recommend this book as a sequel to "The Brain that Changes Itself"; it is more technical than the former book and delves deeper into brain structure.

I wish that the author had dwelled more on how meditation and buddhism can help in overcoming mental health issues and how it can help rewire our plastic brains. Though in the beginning it sounded as though it would focus more on meditation, there was only a brief overview of this near the end. At times, I also found the book to be a little long winded and repetitive; the author, obviously trying to revolutionize a field and make his argument as strong as possible, quotes supporting data and findings at great length. As a reader, this can get a little tedious. What I did enjoy was the history the author provides of past scientific discoveries and the worldview of materialism that has dominated science -- until now, that is, when mind-brain discoveries are shifting our understanding of the world.

For anyone interested in the brain, and more particularly in mind-brain issues, this is a great read.

The first half of this book is very good. It contains a well developed analysis of the history of OCD, and stroke therapy and its relation to neuroplasticity. It could be written and understood very well with or without invoking a discussion of free will.

The author then enters the realm of quantum mechanics. His ignorance in the field could be disregarded if he did not misrepresent the field so wildly. He tries to use quantum mechanics to propose the existence of a mind force which he has invented. It lacks any scientific rigor, he grasps at straws.

I was disappointed because much of this book is well worth reading. I would have likely given the book 5 stars if he did not make such uneducated references to quantum theory.

Review in Sep 2020:

I read The Mind and the Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force a few years ago. The book gives insight to patients with OCD and the subsequent treatment. In the second half of the book, the author sets out to use quantum physics to explain brain and mind, or how brain "creates" mind and mind "influences" brain, which is mind blowing to a layperson like me. In recently years I've read more about quantum physics and quantum computing. Although I am still very much a layperson, I know now that the brain can not be a quantum computer, because the physical conditions required for quantum computing can not be found in our biological brain, therefore there is no physical basis for speculating brain as a quantum machine.

Wow, where do I begin?

I have mixed feelings with this book, as it started off as one of those which has potential to be a good book, but ended up being the one which I had to stop before the last chapter.

The science what the authors present is questionable, and the counterarguments what they line up are weak. One example:
"...this intervening thing called 'the feeling of mental effort', they might argue, is mere side effect with no casual power of its own. But this sort of reasoning is inconsistent with evolutionary theory. The felt experience of willful effort would have no survival value if it didn't actually do something..."
Well, that is just simple not true. Consciousness just as easily be a spandrel (which has no value but as a consequence of the evolution of different things. Fx.: chin types)

Bringing quantum physics in sounds fancy, but as the Copenhagen Interpretation says, it is just ONE interpretation of the phenomenon. Using it as a solid fact is false.

Supposing that the 'mind' or 'soul' has anything to do with the physical world also sounds a bit spooky and unproven. The OCD example what they discuss in the book just as well can be explained with behaviorism or neuroplasticity induced by other brain areas being active. Why? Because they are told to do so. No mentioning that anyone has ever done it without instruction or anything like that.

I also look at the content with a suspicion eye, as the authors are mentioned as being religious and somehow the conclusion tries to brings back a non material soul into the neuroscience.

On the other hand though, I learnt a lot about OCD and Tourette's and their clinical treatment, and I personally liked the detour to the Silver Spring Monkeys (even though it didn't fit as much as the authors might have thought).

Unfortunately, I had to put down this book with disappointment.

This book really seems like a well proportioned mixture of an excellent book and a mediocre retelling of new age science ideas.
The bits which deal with neuroplasticity, a field where author seems to command respect, are well worth the read. Author, however, intermittently goes off in tangents like legal battles which led to creation of PETA which reduces the impact of the book. And then there is the very new age science-y focus on mental forces and oriental meditations which seem very controversial and pretty out of date in the field of neuroscience.
If the books was split in two I would highly recommend one of them will probably avoid the second altogether.

"Sitting somewhere between purely mental events and purely sensory ones is this vast sea of life called experience." (p. 250) And somewhere between the worst of bad popular science writing and New Age pseudo-philosophy lies this horrendous mess. Where to begin?

I have so many problems with this book that it's a challenge to put them together in a meaningful and organized fashion. Here's my best shot.

First, this book is supposedly intended to be a science book. However, there is not a single footnote in the entire text. There are notes at the end of the book (endnotes), but they are detached from the exact references, only listing the page to which they refer. What is the sense of this? I've never seen a book that does that before. It makes no sense. It's inefficient, inexact, and serves no one.

Second, the book varies between third person and first person descriptions. Furthermore, the authors use the first person singular, despite the fact that both Schwartz and Begley are clearly listed as coauthors. Poor taste. I assume Schwartz is the lead author because he references his own work on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and because Begley's book Train Your Mind Change Your Brain has a different tone and style. Scientific writers, in good taste, generally refrain from the first person when writing, unless they can pull it off effectively. Schwartz (and Begley) cannot and should not try.

Third, the topics and the style of writing are all over the map. Schwartz can't seem to make up his mind what should be the subject of his book, or for that matter even what kind of book he's trying to write. He wanders between trivial anecdotes of his attempts to be recognized by the medical community, blunt criticisms of the dogmatic medical community marginalizing important research on neuroplasticity, long winded explanations of research and legal battles over the Silver Spring monkeys, philosophical perspectives on free will and determinism haphazardly tossed in (without being clearly or meaningfully applied to the issues of the book), and, of course, some quantum physics for good measure. You would think it would be rather difficult to clearly and succinctly tie all these topics together under a single heading; apparently it is, and the task was well beyond the skills of the author. Schwartz doesn't commit himself to exploring any of these issues, and settles for literary name-dropping.


Finally, the cover. The title is The Mind & The Brain: Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force. The name sounds impressive, and the cover art looks like a medical illustration of the brain (the scalp with the skin peeled back. This looks like an illustration of the meninges, not the "brain" proper (not cortex or brain stem), which makes an odd choice for the cover art. Jeffrey M. Schwartz, M.D., and Sharon Begley are listed as the authors; however, the book is written mostly in the first person singular ("I") not the first person plural ("we"), which leads me to believe that Schwartz wrote this mostly himself and Begley was tacked on. What exactly was Begley's contribution? Maybe not important, but certainly not clear and certainly poor taste; the first person is generally discouraged from scientific writing, and this book is fine example why. George Gilder provides a one-line review for the cover: "Stirring... a daring rescue of the concept of the free human will." This is, of course, to attract attention to the book as an argument for the concept of free will, written in casual pop science language. I bring up all these points because together they all suggest that this is a book aimed at a general audience without much familiarity with neuropsychology or philosophy, but who are concerned and probably anxious about their own freedom and inner conflicts. Basically it's good marketing.

A moderately interesting book about the neurophysiological changes that accompany psychiatric treatment for OCD, combined with a ghastly and absolutely illogical appeal to quantum physics for the existence of free will.
I read this shortly after having read. 'The Brain that Changes Itself'. In some ways, I preferred parts of this book because rather than being based on single case studies, this book seemed to present summaries of results from larger studies. Thus, I expect the more evidence-supported claims in this book will hold up better than those in Doige'a book. Changes in activity in the frontal regions of the brain through successful treatment of OCD is really interesting. However, to claim from "successful psychiatric treatment changes brain function" that "free will exists" is logically flawed (at least in the way the arguments are made in this book, such as they are).
Any successful treatment of any psychiatric disorder necessarily entails change to brain function: that is where behavior comes from (even if you include secondary effects of hormonal systems elsewhere in the body).

Update of desCartes mind body dichotomy. Is the mind the brain or vice versa? Can the mind change the brain. Briefly, yes. As we think and direct our thoughts we can change the brain, thus plasticity.
A lot of physics as well and neurology. Briefly and in my feeble reaction as the brain is falling into its wonted custom of chasing compulsions to therapeutically wash hands many times to satisfy our thoughts we can redirect our thinking to do gardening (his example) so that the brain nerve network
redirects and changes neural connections (with more thoughts of doing A the brain gets tuned to the thought and the wiring in favor of doing A so doing A thoughts are reinforced.), i. e with more use those nerves get more emphatically wired.

The brain . . . the organ through which the ind finds expression and through which it acts in the world. p. 365
Mind we now see, has the power to alter biological matter significantly; that three pound lump of gelatinous ooze within our skull is truly the mind's brain. p 369
. . . Wm. James recognized the array of things we can attend to (so if we are thinking about how nice it would be to wash our hands compulsively, we aren't [can't attend] thinking about gardening. . . p. 369
Volitional effort is effort of attention per James. p 370
It is the life we lead that creates the brain we have. p.373

Jason Shawartz does an amazing job at walking the reader through what is happening in the brain when we are paying attention and apply focus to something. He details the Neuroscience behind what takes place as we create new habits in how we think and shows what free will really is. Controlling what we choose to think about and focus on. ... Its the proof behind James Allen's classic As a Man Thinketh.

a really weirdly written book. on the one hand it tries so hard to present itself as a serious scientific work, but the New Agey zealous and anecdotal tone doesn't really help in taking it seriously. also, it could have really used some editing, I mean I UNDERSTOOD YOUR ACHIEVEMENT IN OCD THERAPY THE FIRST TIME YOU EXPLAINED IT, YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO REPEAT IT ON EVERY SECOND PAGE OF THE DAMN BOOK. still, the quantum mechanics introduction is alright, as well as the summary of different schools of thought on the mind/brain problem, and I'll always cherish argumented attempts at salvaging the concept of free will.