Book Review: OUT OF YOUR MIND by Jorge Cham and Dwayne Godwin
Humberto SaabedraWhat if there was a book that attempted to demystify the inner workings of the brain and human mind, not by writing a book full of dry prose that typically doesn’t work for the average reader, but by using the power and possibility of comic illustration to visually explain concepts that would otherwise bore the average person.
OUT OF YOUR MIND The Biggest Mysteries Of The Human Brain by illustrator/scientist Jorge Cham and neuroscientist Dwayne Godwin not only manages to demystify the workings of the human mind in a concise, yet information-dense manner, the illustrations provided by Cham (of PHD Comics and the Scientific American Mind Magazine’s “Mind in Pictures” series) provide the most useful visual guide to Godwin’s mission to demystify the brain and the human mind, without getting bogged down in esoteric details.
I’ve been lucky enough to read a final version of the book ahead of its release later this month, and this is the book I would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone that wants to learn about how the brain and mind works, but were put off by previous books that were either far too dense and verbose, or worse, relied far too much on jargon without any context.
OUT OF YOUR MIND The Biggest Mysteries Of The Human Brain starts at the most basic level by explaining elementary concepts such as synapses, neurons and the physical composition of the vital organ, along with a condensed history of humanity’s first attempts to study the brain.
The added bonus with this book are entertaining visual illustrations to add much needed context. I think my favorite part about this perspective is that it starts at the physical level first, before diving deeper into the larger philosophical questions presented as short, but information dense chapters in the book, such as:
- Where Is the Mind?
- Why Do We Love?
- Why Do We Hate?
- Will an AI Take My Job?
Even with it’s intention to bring clarity to the often weighty subject, OUT OF YOUR MIND The Biggest Mysteries Of The Human Brain is not intended to be the definitive reference on the physical and neurological workings of the brain and mind and how they interplay in order to develop what ends up being an individual’s personality.
It’s meant to be a convenient reference taking into account the most updated knowledge on the human brain and human mind currently available, including a very appreciated comic chapter on Alzheimer’s that genuinely changed my previously limited perception and knowledge of the disease, while elaborating on some of the most common assumptions.
The book’s length of 326 pages might seem short for a book tackling such subject matter, but compared to the most popular and celebrated books on the subject, this one will actually fit on a shelf and your nightstand. If you’re anything like me, you’ll get through it in less than a week and come out with a much better sense of how much progress has been made in understanding how the human brain leads into the mind, emotions and memory that all come together to explain why humans act or don’t act the way they do.
Next to the comic on Alzheimer’s, my favorite chapters of the book and the ones that seem the most timely were Will an AI Take My Job? and the chapter and separate comic on the topic of addiction. The entire book as a whole does a great job of setting up its intent to really make the human brain and mind less confusing and more interesting as a result.
You’ll want to have your own copy of OUT OF YOUR MIND The Biggest Mysteries Of The Human Brain, because if you’re looking for a book that will help you understand how the human brain works, and dives further to explain the mind with comics and illustrations, why not read one that makes you crack a smile and even laugh a bit, too?
