The Well-Tuned Brain: Neuroscience and the Life Well-lived
In this optimistic and inspiring book, Peter Whybrow, the prize-winning author of American Mania, returns to offer a prescription for genuine human progress.
The Well-Tuned Brain is a call to action. Swept along by the cascading advances of today’s technology, most of us take for granted that progress brings improvement. Despite spectacular material advance, however, the evidence grows that we are failing to create a sustainable future for humanity. We are out of tune with the planet that nurtures us.
Technology itself is not the problem, as Whybrow explains, but rather our behavior. Throughout its evolution the ancient brain that guides us each day has been focused on short-term survival. But fortunately we are intensely social creatures. Without the caring behaviors that flow from intimate attachments to others, we would be relying on a brain that is only marginally adapted to the complexity of the problems we must now face together. Today we must grapple with survival, not in its immediacy but over the long term.
The first step in finding our way forward is to reexamine who we are as creatures of this planet. To this end, Whybrow takes us on a fascinating tour of self-discovery, drawing extensively upon his decades of experience as a psychiatrist and his broad knowledge of neuroscience and human behavior.
Illustrated throughout with engaging personal stories, the book’s trove of cutting-edge science is enriched by philosophical, historical, and cultural perspectives. What emerges is a summons to rediscover the essential virtues of earlier nurturing, of mentored education, and an engagement with the natural world through curiosity and imagination.
Neuroscience can open the search for a better future. But technology alone will not save us. To achieve success we will need the strength and wisdom of our better nature as humane social beings.
The Well-Tuned Brain is a call to action. Swept along by the cascading advances of today’s technology, most of us take for granted that progress brings improvement. Despite spectacular material advance, however, the evidence grows that we are failing to create a sustainable future for humanity. We are out of tune with the planet that nurtures us.
Technology itself is not the problem, as Whybrow explains, but rather our behavior. Throughout its evolution the ancient brain that guides us each day has been focused on short-term survival. But fortunately we are intensely social creatures. Without the caring behaviors that flow from intimate attachments to others, we would be relying on a brain that is only marginally adapted to the complexity of the problems we must now face together. Today we must grapple with survival, not in its immediacy but over the long term.
The first step in finding our way forward is to reexamine who we are as creatures of this planet. To this end, Whybrow takes us on a fascinating tour of self-discovery, drawing extensively upon his decades of experience as a psychiatrist and his broad knowledge of neuroscience and human behavior.
Illustrated throughout with engaging personal stories, the book’s trove of cutting-edge science is enriched by philosophical, historical, and cultural perspectives. What emerges is a summons to rediscover the essential virtues of earlier nurturing, of mentored education, and an engagement with the natural world through curiosity and imagination.
Neuroscience can open the search for a better future. But technology alone will not save us. To achieve success we will need the strength and wisdom of our better nature as humane social beings.
From the Reviews...“Though The Well-Tuned Brain is packed with powerful recent research, its punch comes from the philosophical meditation at its core. Peter Whybrow ponders how living our best lives can make the best world. This book is a courageous manifesto about human frailty that delineates the care with which we need to treat ourselves and those around us. We ignore its message at terrible personal and social cost.” — Andrew Solomon, National Book Award–winning author of The Noonday Demonand Far from the Tree
“In The Well-Tuned Brain Peter Whybrow combines gripping big themes with an abundance of fascinating stories. The big themes revolve around the collision between our ancient human habits, our human brains often operating on autopilot, and the seductive material success of our modern market economy. You’ll find this book as rich and as thought-provoking as it is enjoyable.” -- Jared Diamond, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel and The World Until Yesterday “As we face the biggest problems civilizations have ever confronted—climate change above all—it’s crucial that we understand why our brains are being hijacked in the wrong direction. Peter Whybrow’s book does exactly that, making it possible for us to summon the grace and will necessary to do the right thing.” — Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet “Whybrow's crisp neuroscience reporting is important, as it helps us understand why parts of the brain are at war, some busy offering rewards and reinforcement others cross-talking, all the while being stressed and pulled by the environment.” — Kirkus Reviews |
JS Bach and the Book's Title: The Well-Tuned Brain is a play on Johann Sebastian Bach’s collection of keyboard music entitled The Well-Tempered Clavier. In 1722, when he was 37 years old, JS Bach applied for the prestigious position of cantor to the Thomaskirche in Leipzig, a post that he was to hold for 27 years, until his death. Among the cantor’s responsibilities was the teaching of music to a gaggle of students: The Well-Tempered Clavier is essentially the textbook that Bach assembled to fulfill that duty. So what is the meaning of “well-tempered?” To temper, the verb, is to moderate, to blend, to free from excess: in today’s language, to tune. Thus to be well-tempered is to find optimum balance, as in tuning the strings of a keyboard instrument to achieve harmony across the different keys. This was a big problem in Bach’s time, for the clavier -- the early harpsichord -- was notoriously “temperamental” and in constant need of adjustment. A change in room temperature, the shifting humidity provoked by a passing rain, each perturbed the instrument’s delicate balance. To achieve fine performance the musician and the keyboard needed to be one. Thus Bach, in his consummate skill, taught not only the art of expression at the keyboard, but also the care and tuning of the harpsichord as an instrument to be respected and loved for its subtle sensitivity. That’s what Bach’s workbook The Well-Tempered Clavier is about. For today’s world consider it a metaphor, one equally well aplied to the brain: The nurturing of a Brain "Well-Tuned" offers harmony and hope – for each of us as individuals, and for our collective enterprise. PCW |
