Neuropsychology, Neuropsychiatry, and Behavioral Neurology

Book excerpt: This book is written for the clinician, students, and practitioners of neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry, and behavioral neurology. It has been my intent throughout to present a synthesis of ideas and research findings. I have reviewed thousands of articles and research reports and have drawn extensively from diverse sources in philosophy, psychol ogy, neurology, neurosurgery, neuropsychiatry, physiology, and neuroanatomy in order to produce this text. Of course I have also drawn from my own experience as a clinician and research scientist in preparing this work and in this regard some of my own biases and interests are represented. I have long sought to understand the human mind and the phenomena we experience as conscious awareness. After many years of studying a variety of Western and Eastern psychologists and philosophers, including the Buddhist, Taoist, and Hindu philosophical systems, I began, while still an undergraduate student, to formulate my own theory of the mind. I felt, though, that what I had come upon were only pieces of half the puzzle. What I knew of the brain was minimal. Indeed, it came as quite a surprise when one day I came across the journal Brain as I was browsing through the periodicals section of the library. I was awed. An entire journal devoted to the brain was quite a revelation. Nevertheless, although intrigued by the possibilities, I resisted.