'[Eric Kandel is] one of the preeminent neuroscientists in the world' - Sue Halpern The New
York Review of Books The Disordered Mind is the definitive statement on all we know about
the brain and its associated disorders by the eminent Nobel Prize-winning scientist and
professor Eric R. Kandel. Neurological and psychiatric disorders have long been regarded as
fundamentally different depending on whether they appear to affect the brain or the mind. In
reality the brain and the mind are inseparable. Both types of disorder can affect every aspect
of brain function: from perception action memory and emotion to empathy social interaction
attention and consciousness. It is easy to view brain disorders as simply tragic or
frightening. However studying where these functions go wrong provides a window on the workings
of the healthy brain and makes it more likely that scientists and clinicians will be able to
develop effective treatments or preventative strategies. As individuals and as a society we
are also able to better empathise with people with disorders of the mind. Building on his
pioneering research Eric R. Kandel illustrates how breakthrough studies of brain disruptions
can deepen our understanding of thought feeling behaviour memory and creativity and perhaps
in the future will transform medical care and lead to the development of a unified theory of
mind. Eric R. Kandel M.D. is University Professor and Fred Kavli Professor at Columbia
University and a Senior Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has received 23
honorary degrees and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences as well as a Foreign
Member of the Royal Society of London. He has been recognized with the Albert Lasker Award the
National Medal of Science and the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2000 for his
studies of learning and memory. He is the author of the award-winning books In Search of Memory
and The Age of Insight. He is also the co-author of Principles of Neural Science the standard
textbook in the field.
