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In Search of Memory
Eric R. Kandel - In Search of Memory (2006)
Eric R. Kandel is an Austrian-born Jewish-American neurologist and Nobel laureate. This books is his sort of an autobiography and memoir of research he has taken part of. His interest in psychoanalysis lead to research in neurological basis of memory.
This book is not only Kandel's autobiography - his childhood in pre-WW2 Vienna, his studies in France and the USA and his part of neurological research. It also describes the advancement of neurology in general, its partial allying with psychology and biology - and finally, commercialization of neurological research for pharmaceutical business. Kandel was part of that.
That includes the insistence of psychoanalysts that mind cannot be understood by biology and neurology (territorial much?). Of course, that would cut into their profits.
Kandel also describes his understandable pet peave; the fact that Austrians have primarily ignored their own role in Nazi atrocities, laying all the blame on Germans and regarding themselves only as victims. Including the some of the academia that apparently still holds antisemitic views. Kandel himsel was one of the lucky ones who got away from Europe relatively easy, as he readily admits.
Eric R. Kandel is an Austrian-born Jewish-American neurologist and Nobel laureate. This books is his sort of an autobiography and memoir of research he has taken part of. His interest in psychoanalysis lead to research in neurological basis of memory.
This book is not only Kandel's autobiography - his childhood in pre-WW2 Vienna, his studies in France and the USA and his part of neurological research. It also describes the advancement of neurology in general, its partial allying with psychology and biology - and finally, commercialization of neurological research for pharmaceutical business. Kandel was part of that.
That includes the insistence of psychoanalysts that mind cannot be understood by biology and neurology (territorial much?). Of course, that would cut into their profits.
Kandel also describes his understandable pet peave; the fact that Austrians have primarily ignored their own role in Nazi atrocities, laying all the blame on Germans and regarding themselves only as victims. Including the some of the academia that apparently still holds antisemitic views. Kandel himsel was one of the lucky ones who got away from Europe relatively easy, as he readily admits.