The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind [Hardcover]

Elkhonon Goldberg (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195140222 | ISBN-13: 978-0195140224 | Publication Date: January 15, 2001 | Edition: 1st

The Executive Brain is the first popular but rigorous book to explore the most 'human' region of the brain, the frontal lobes. Writing in a lively and accessible style, the author shows how the frontal lobes enable us to engage in complex mental processes, how they control our judgment and our social and ethical behavior, how vulnerable they are to injury, and how devastating the effects of damage often are, leading to chaotic, disorganized, asocial, and even criminal behavior. Replete with fascinating case histories and anecdotes, Goldberg's book offers a panorama of state-of-the-art ideas and advances in cognitive neuroscience. It is also an intellectual memoir, filled with vignettes about the author's early training with Luria, his escape from the Soviet Union, and later interactions with patients and professionals around the world.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Goldberg's] book is especially relevant for educators, who should both understand the executive brain functions that are maturing in their students and think creatively about how best to nurture such functions." --Contemporary Psychology

From the foreword by Oliver Sacks: "...a brilliant exposition of the complex functions of the frontal lobes, this most recently evolved and especially human part of the brain...a highly engaging and intimate memoir, a sort of intellectual autobiography, no less than a grand piece of scientific reporting and 'popular' science...It is only now, at the dawn of the 21st century, that we are beginning to get the full measure of [the living body's] complexity, to see how nature and culture interact, and how brain and mind produce each other. There are a handful, a small handful, of remarkable books which address these central problems with great force--those of Gerald Edelman and Antonio Damasio at once come to mind--and to this select number, Elkhonon Goldberg's book The Executive Brain should surely be added."

"Finally, here is a world-renowned neuropsychologist who valiantly defies the fashionable new phrenologies of the frontal lobe. His book is a highly welcome product of erudition, love of history and phenomenological insight. Alexandr Luria, that great humanist and master scientist of the human brain, would undoubtedly have been proud of his pupil and this timely scholarly work."--Joaquin M. Fuster, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute

"...a masterful review of Elkhonon (Nick) Goldberg's decades-long investigation of the frontal lobes, weaving this personal and professional experiences into the account...I recommend this book to all students of brain and behavior, from neophyte to expert. Professor Goldberg is clearly the modern successor to his mentor, Professor Alexandr Luria, who would have been proud to have seen this work."--Allan F. Mirsky, Ph.D., Chief, Section on Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH

"Students of the brain are usually brainy, but they are not always human. Elkhonon Goldberg has lived probingly and researched passionately. He looks at our frontal lobes with thought and feeling, opening important new vistas. So precise and rigorous is his mind, he can even dare to be romantic!"--Peter Brook, Theatre and Film Director

"A deeply humane book on a subject that is usually treated as if it were only technical--what processes make it possible for us to rise above present exigencies, to hope and to plan, to live in a symbolic world of culture. Goldberg's subtle and powerful approach to understanding how the frontal lobes equip us to achieve our humanity is not only fresh and original, but is a bracing antidote to the kind of 'mini-phrenology' that has become so fashionable these days. A superb blend of clinical insight and scientific acumen."--Jerome Bruner, University Professor, New York University

About the Author

Elkhonon Goldberg, Clinical Professor of Neurology, New York University School of Medicine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 251 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1st edition (January 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195140222
• ISBN-13: 978-0195140224
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,558,806 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

77 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In appreciation of the frontal lobes, May 1, 2001

By 

Margo True (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind (Hardcover)

Most of us wander through our days without any conscious thought about the very organ that's directing our routine. But anyone who reads Dr. Goldberg's compelling, lively account of the brain's frontal lobes will come away with a newfound appreciation for their own gray matter. As Goldberg tells it, not only do the frontal lobes help us prioritize tasks and give us our awareness of ourselves and others, they also play a crucial role in creativity and talent, and are the reason they're as civilized as we are. (Next time I see someone toss their trash on the street, I'll think, Weak Frontal Lobes!) Although the book was written with both a general and a scientifically adept readership in mind, it's never so technical that the layperson can't follow the discussion. I found this book stimulating, witty, and illuminating.

67 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Selected Memoirs of a Neuropsychologist, February 24, 2006

By 

Rick (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind (Paperback)

Sorry, but I found the book disappointing. The author notes in the first few pages the book is "an idiosyncratic account of my own understanding of several central issues of cognitive neuroscience and of the personal context that let me to write about it" and that's an understatement. Highly personal and very idiosyncratic are the watchwords. If you are looking to gain an understanding of the frontal lobes and executive functions you will find this book comes up short. Zero attempt is made to provide even highlights of the most necessary topics, or even a cursory and minimally sufficient survey of well-accepted research in this area. At best you have a few good points raised. Even those however are difficult to distinguish from personal bias and preference.

Chapter one is a sales pitch for the rest of the book with virtually no information presented. Chapter two is an odd account of the author's career, again with no information presented. The end few chapters are likewise completely tangential. Having excised the filler, what's left is very thin. References are likewise scant and the index is an embarrassment.

The coup de grace however was the patently offensive entire chapter advertising the author's private clinical services. Aimed at attracting aging but otherwise high functioning, bright people, who presumably make clinical work more palatable, the service offered is to rejuvenate or improve aging mental horsepower. I hope the idiosyncratic and highly personal techniques employed in clinical practice are more effective than the content delivered in this book. None of the cognitive techniques are actually discussed, even superficially. One can only hope they carry the same warnings as the herbal supplements - "these treatments have not been tested, and are not approved to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease." Likewise perhaps the title of the book could be changed to "Selected Memoirs of a Neuropsychologist."

49 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Executive Treat!, March 18, 2001

By 

"lewybodies" (NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind (Hardcover)

This book explores not just the frontal lobes but the brain from every angle.....from how we engage in complex mental operations to our social behavior. It's full of the latest discoveries in neuroscience and provides clinical vignettes to illustrate the author's vast experience with patients worldwide. The chapter on Social Maturity, Morality, Law, and the Frontal Lobes is exceptionally well-done and provides a keen insight into the behavior that has captured national headlines in recent times. This book should be required reading for all students of social science. Highly readable for every type of audience. The reader learns something new on each page. Very hard to put down....an excellent read!