Arpan K. Banerjee
Solihull, England
The world of popular science publishing is replete with neurologists who have been fascinated by the workings of the brain gleaned from the study of neurological disorders in their patients. Famous recent writers of this genre include Oliver Sacks, whose books have provided the public with insights into aspects of disordered brain function. In this new book, Masud Husain, a professor of neurology and cognitive science researcher at Oxford University, provides a reflective insight into what constitutes “self.” Through a discussion of the stories of seven patients with neurological conditions that resulted in a debilitating loss of identity, we are introduced to different anatomical areas of the brain, how information is processed, and the cognitive impairment that results when a specific area of the brain is damaged.
The seven patients described in the book have conditions that include Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and traumatic brain injury. Through careful history taking, clinical examination, and modern imaging techniques, Husain sets about solving the puzzle of his patients’ complex symptoms. These include a patient with apathy and loss of motivation caused by infarcts in the ventral pallidum of the basal ganglia, and another with challenges processing language and humor due to semantic dementia caused by a lesion in the pole of the left temporal lobe.
The author peppers the text with personal anecdotes and references to characters in neurological history who first described these conditions and affected areas of the brain. These include some of the neurological giants of yesteryear such as Marcel Proust’s neurologist, Joseph Babinski, in Paris; Wilder Penfield, the Canadian neurosurgeon; Alois Alzheimer and the disease named after him; and pioneers from the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in Queen Square, London, such as Gordon Holmes and Henry Head.
The final chapter is an interesting and succinct summary of the philosophical and psychological concepts of self and identity. We are introduced to the French philosopher Rene Descartes, who believed the mind was separate from the body and brain. John Locke held that the mind might have a physical form. David Hulme, the eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, thought the self to be an illusion. Modern thinkers like American philosopher and cognitive scientist Daniel Dennett argued that the “self” was fiction and was simply comprised of an individual’s experiences. Karl Popper and John Eccles, however, preferred the ideas of Descartes in their 1977 book The Self and Its Brain.
Masud Husain brilliantly weaves discussions about the self and identity into narratives about his patients’ neurological presentations and diseases. The result is a fascinating book with useful accompanying references, both historical and modern, which provide important insights into the workings of the human brain and mind.
Our Brains, Our Selves: What a Neurologist’s Patients Taught Him About the Brain
Masud Husain, Canongate Books Ltd, Edinburgh, 2025
ISBN 9781805301059
DR. ARPAN K. BANERJEE qualified in medicine at St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School. London. He was a consultant radiologist in Birmingham 1995–2019. He was President of the radiology section of the RSM 2005–2007 and on the scientific committee of the Royal College of Radiologists 2012–2016. He was Chairman of the British Society for the History of Radiology 2012–2017. He is Chairman of ISHRAD. He is author/co-author of papers on a variety of clinical, radiological, and medical historical topics and eight books, including Classic Papers in Modern Diagnostic Radiology (2005) and The History of Radiology (OUP 2013).