Customer Reviews

Brain Damage: Overcoming Cognitive Deficit and Creating the New You

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Dick Schmeltzof's very personal book, Brain Damage, is both heartwarming and informative. He treats a very serious subject with humor, wit and compassion. It is difficult to imagine the drastic changes that have occurred in Dick's life since the emergency surgery to remove a tumor on his pituitary gland. But through his carefully constructed narrative, we can "feel" his frustrations and also revel in the incremental -- yet moving forward -- progress that he makes. His is a story of great courage, hope and love; a lesson for Humanity. Thanks to Dick for sharing this moving and insightful story of life after brain surgery. Readers will laugh. They will weep. And finally, they will applaud this incredible human being. Dick demonstrates a real gift for storytelling through this book. Let's hope he delights us with "Brain Damage II".

Brain Damaged is a facinating read of one man's winning struggle to come back from a dibilitating injury. After a unique and successful early life of adventure and business, the author learns the real value of life, wife and friends while in recovery from major brain surgery. His setbacks and achievemnts are many during rehabilitation, culminating in his new career as an author. This book chronicles the road into and beyond brain damage. Well worth while reading.

This is not a boring review of a medical rehabilitation process. Rather, it is a collection of humorous anecdotes from the life of a person who has lived brain injury recovery and is willing to tell on himself, his loved ones and the professionals that worked with him. I laughed all the way through the book and was given a peek into what must be anything but a laughable situation. He has such a colorful way of describing his difficulties with recovery from his brain tumor surgery and invites you to laugh (and learn) along with him. If you know someone that has suffered a brain tumor, a stroke, or a car accident that has left them with serious brain functioning problems this is required reading.

This book offers a view into one man's ability to overcome major adversity in his life. However, after reading it I found myself inspired to examine the challenges I face as a relaitvely healthy person. With the love of those closest to you and by appreciating the people who make up our close circles we find inspiration to endure and go beyond what once may have seemed unattainable. I am excited to see where Dick will take his new life and look forward to reading his next book.

Mr. Schmelzkopf offers up wit, humor, and optimism to an otherwise serious and debilitating condition that is brain damage. His anecdotes throughout the book are down to earth and proves that it is indeed possible for a person who has had brain surgery to get through the difficult days of therapy and once again lead a normal life. This book is a must read for all patients recovering from brain surgery and their families.

The author shows us in this book, with humor and a positive attitude, ways to cope with and overcome the effects of a brain injury. Anyone reading this book will appreciate the challenges faced by Dick Schmelzkopf. I know I did. He's a real inspiration!

Brain injury is a serious subject but this author covers it with humor from his own personal experience. Anyone who reads this book will enjoy and appreciate this true experience from Dick Schmelzkopf.

As a psychologist for 30 years I have read many professional texts and self-help books. This is a valuable book for people entering the healing professions as well as for patients and their caretakers because, throughout, it touches on a man's path to recovering from brain damage. It touches on his creating a personal philosophy to see him through, skills he learned along the way, including self-assertion, and finally the love he's learned along the way.
Dick Schmelzkopf's book, Brain Damage: Overcoming adversity with wit and humor, challenges us to observe what is, to most of us, the mundane choices of life, what to wear, doing chores, and handling finances through his brain-damaged mind. This book is a practical, no-nonsense, road map outlining the rehabilitation process of a brain-damaged man ... and more. In addition, the author describes what one can expect to experience along the way and shares his views that will help people understand what tools one needs on such a journey. It will make the trip easier for all who make this journey and those who accompany them. Reading this book illuminates our lives and can only make us more tolerant, compassionate, and caring. I'm a better psychologist for having read it.
Philosophy
From his first thoughts after surgery, Dick Schmelzkopf psychologically reframes how he sees life. Dick's advice to "Add Quality of Life to your personal credo" will shake the whininess out of anyone's "pity party." Many who have died on the operating table and are brought back to life also make this shift in their thinking through the transformational experience.
Dick avoids sliding into non-productive funks when he admonishes us, "Don't beat yourself up ... Remember it and learn by it." Combine Dick's advice to us all that we "... need challenges and interests. If you don't have one, get one," with his personal stance, "I will never, never give up," which explains much of his success. Dick's dogged determination to master whatever functions his brain surgery left him is a model to everyone, with or without brain damage. Dick's prior work as a salesman has, I believe, contributed to his use of affirmations like, "I have a positive attitude that guarantees success." Dick adapted the adage, "If life gives you lemons, make lemonade," into his personal mantra, "If you're given brain damage, write about it." In addition to being great rehabilitation therapy for him, it gives his life meaning and purpose that this book "... will give somebody an idea of how to help themselves or someone they love."
Skills
This book has many techniques for the brain-damaged person to use to enhance the quality of their life and the lives of their caregivers. His recitation of his abilities, pre and post- surgery, can be an instruction manual, both for the patient and for caregivers. Whether discussing the impact on his decision-making or judgment, Dick lays out the roadmap of how a brain-damaged person can regain control of whatever is left by the surgeon's scalpel. Dick constantly reminds us of the need for the acceptance of the "slow and arduous task" of rehabilitation by patients, caregivers and health care professionals.
Dick teaches us by example. His strategy of linking his interests in darts to solving a math problem clearly shows how a brain-damaged person can learn how to cope. He serves up the problems he's had, like pattern recognition, then follows up with helpful hints for dealing with his "broken recognizer." Dick's rituals, for rebuilding his vocabulary, are his menu for finding and using what works for him. Dick's "Rule number one" for the cognitively challenged (and their caregivers) is proof that his "... pen is mightier that the surgeon's sword." Dick's comment about his re-learned poker skills are a warning to us all, should we ever find ourselves across a poker table from him.
His determination to define himself in his new life is a triumphant assertion of the human spirit and will. Dick's response to people who treat him as less than equal is a prime example of a psychologically healthy outlook, succinctly put, that others see him as a person of worth and dignity, handicap be damned. Dick's admonition that "Brain-damaged means we may be a little slower in some areas, but don't count us out," works as well for those with an aging brain as it is instructive to caregivers and health care professionals alike.
Love
This book is as much a love story of two people committed to each other in ways only a few lucky people will ever experience. It emphatically says, "Take heart, caregivers," when Dick tells caregivers, "You are important," and you feel it when he says throughout the book, "Ain't love grand?" You will find this book is full of heart, love, compassion, humor and common sense that prove that to overcome a handicap, the wisdom of the heart trumps intelligence. Every time. The two pages discussing Grief is worth the price of the book alone. Its lesson is the power of compassion, love and illuminates the author's humanity, or, as his wife says, "ECCE HOMO," which translates as "Behold, A Man."
Dick's rehabilitation journey is not complete, nor will it ever be. After a year of rehab work he has found, however, the best path for himself. He's currently busy on many writing projects. We wish him God-speed and Dragon's Luck.

This is one story that will inspire many people and give them hope for recovery from brain injuries. The author uses humor and wit and weaves his story of how he over came and coped with his "brain damge". It is a positive message about a serious concern. The book is a great read even if you do not have anyone in your lfie with brain damage - it really is about attitude and how you can cope with whatever happens to you in your life.

I totally recomend this book to all readers. It will add something to your life in a positive way. It is uplifting!

Richard Schmelzkopf's spare book provides touching communiques from the front in the battle to overcome cognitive deficits resulting from brain damage. His first hand accounting of the struggle to deal with creating a new life are vivid, and draw pictures that give the reader an intimate sense of his journey through a world requiring, above all else, coping. After a tumor suddenly left him without many of the facultative resources he once possessed, Schmelzkopf apparently charged into his rehabilitative program with the same zeal and energy that he used in living a life that was, by his own accounting, quite interesting. The book was written, I would imagine, as a support manual for others affected, either directly or indirectly, by the same or similar circumstances. As such, it puts forth not only helpful and practical advice, but also a strong message of hope and encouragement. However, it also makes compelling reading for those who enjoy human-interest narratives. And, interestingly human it is.