GUIDE TO THE BRAIN
THE HUMAN BRAIN, by John Pfeiffer; Victor Gollencz, English price 16/-. ARTS of this book are first-rate. Into the first ten chapters the author packs a layman’s guide to his brain. The information is accurate, plainly presented and well within the background knowlédge of most folk, By page 147 the reader has come to some understanding, however approximate, of the
most complicated structure in the universe, Perhaps, too, with a certain uneasiness about using his brain to examine his brain. The six chapters which follow are devoted to mental disease with a heavy leaning towards the brain surgery and
spectacular treatments which sometimes make headlines. One wonders if Pfeiffer is pandering to the morbid interest that "operations" have for some people. The book ends with two chapters on "electronic brains" in which these computing devices are simply explained; for, after all, they are simple things. This leads naturally to speculation on the possibility of original thought by
the machine. The point is, I think, disposed of when one considers that, in framing the instructions for what the machine is to do, one practically designs the machine. The possibilities of a machine having control of its own power source do not occur to Pfeiffer. They have not eluded the comic strip purveyors. Nor the physicists, Such a machine is dangerous, If you believe that mind is merely the brain in action this book will broaden your understanding, The chapters on memory are masterly. Those who think that the mind is something more will be in difficulty with Pfeiffer. He finds the experimental data sufficient. Sufficient, that is, to account for the phenomena he-tlescribes.
J.D.
McD.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 873, 27 April 1956, Page 13
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278GUIDE TO THE BRAIN New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 873, 27 April 1956, Page 13
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