Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Phantoms in the Brain

By: Sandra Blakeslee, V. S. Ramachandran
Narrated by: Neil Shah
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £23.99

Buy Now for £23.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran is internationally renowned for uncovering answers to the deep and quirky questions of human nature that few scientists have dared to address. His bold insights about the brain are matched only by the stunning simplicity of his experiments - using such low-tech tools such as cotton swabs, glasses of water, and dime-store mirrors.

In Phantoms in the Brain, Dr. Ramachandran recounts how his work with patients who have bizarre neurological disorders has shed new light on the deep architecture of the brain, and what these findings tell us about who we are, how we construct our body image, why we laugh or become depressed, why we may believe in God, and how we make decisions, deceive ourselves, and dream.

Some of his most notable cases: A woman paralyzed on the left side of her body who believes she is lifting a tray of drinks with both hands offers a unique opportunity to test Freud's theory of denial. A man who insists he is talking with God challenges us to ask: Could we be "wired" for religious experience? A woman who hallucinates cartoon characters illustrates how, in a sense, we are all hallucinating, all the time.

Dr. Ramachandran's inspired medical detective work pushes the boundaries of medicine's last great frontier-the human mind-yielding new and provocative insights into the "big questions" about consciousness and the self.

©1998 V.S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee (P)2013 Tantor
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Lost in a Good Game cover art
How Emotions Are Made cover art
The Memory Illusion cover art
Social cover art
Consciousness and the Brain cover art
What It's Like to Be a Dog cover art
Modern Man in Search of a Soul cover art
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers cover art
How the Mind Works cover art
Brain Bugs cover art
Moral Animal cover art
The Mind and the Brain cover art
You Are Not So Smart cover art
From Bacteria to Bach and Back cover art
The Believing Brain cover art
The Mind Club cover art

Critic reviews

"Enthralling . . . eloquent." ( The New York Times Book Review)

What listeners say about Phantoms in the Brain

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    86
  • 4 Stars
    18
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    73
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    72
  • 4 Stars
    14
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

amazing book

this book discovered so many mistic behaviours of human beings and stunning ways of how our brain functuons

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Deep insights into the mysteries and workings of the mind

Fascinating. The range of disorders of the mind is astonishing. Keeps you interested and listening to the end.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

This was a great book

This was great for an recovering alcoholic like my self. it's giving me the drive to keep seeking into neuroscience

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A must for anyone who enjoyed 'the man who mistook his wife for a hat'

Well written, wide ranging, clever and entertaining without being pompous (Sacks). Shame his other books aren't on here.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

This book is excellent in it's presentation of the subject. And as a bonus it's funny too in parts. Loved it :)

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

next best thing to Oliver Sacks

Someone on goodreads called this book 'best popular neuroscience book written by someone not named Oliver Sacks' (paraphrasing).
I might be inclined to agree.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Insightful!

The narration is great. found it more natural sounding @1.2x. Seems it may have been slowed down.

Really liked the part about Multiple Personality Disorder / Disassociative Disorder being under studied.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Redefining self

This book weaves between the practical and theoretical seamlessly. The book reaches an emphatic crescendo with the final chapter which beautifully ties the previous together with deep considerations of self.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

5 Stars

loved it! explains so many things in a different perspective. would like to read your further works.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!