Eric Kandel: Errors of the mind

Ernest Hemingway and Winston Churchill, who were beloved by the public after winning the Nobel Prize in Literature, suffered from severe depression throughout their lives. Van Gogh painted his most outstanding works in his later years while suffering from bipolar disorder. Mathematician John Nash, known from the movie *A Beautiful Mind*, displayed tremendous mathematical talent as a schizophrenic patient. How on earth is this possible? In *Errors of the Mind*, brain scientist Eric Kandel, who won the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work in elucidating the neurological mechanisms of learning and memory, answers all these questions. A world-renowned scholar and great biologist who has studied the human brain for nearly 70 years, he reveals that autism, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder—conditions previously treated solely as mental issues—are actually related to a malfunctioning brain. Above all, by examining these errors that occur during the process of the brain generating the mind, he unravels the mysteries of human nature, such as sociality, creativity, memory, behavior, and consciousness. When the brain's neural circuits malfunction or fail to form properly, their functions become clearly apparent. For example, damage to a brain region known as Wernicke's area leads to deficits in language comprehension; if the prefrontal cortex does not function properly, moral judgment is lost; and reduced activity in the brain's reward system makes one vulnerable to addiction. In other words, every mental illness has a corresponding brain disorder, and every mental process—such as cognition, memory, social interaction, and creativity—has a corresponding brain function. If our brain changes, our mental processes change as well. We can also utilize this.

Korean title: 마음의 오류들

Korean author: 에릭 캔델

Korean publisher: 알에이치코리아

ISBN-13: 9788925536934