- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Free Press (1 Aug 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0743264010
- ISBN-13: 978-0743264013
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16 x 3.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 931,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
In THE WISDOM PARADOX, world-renowned neuropsychologist Elkhonon Goldberg argues that although some mental abilities (such as recent-memory recall) decline as the mind enters the autumn season of our lifespan and we increasingly experience 'senior moments', the brain actually becomes more powerful in its ability to recognize patterns. As a result, we are able to make decisions at more intuitive and effective levels -- a late-emerging mental strength he terms 'wisdom'. In lively, accessible prose, Goldberg delves into the mechanisms of the mind, outlining how the elegant structures of the brain develop and change over the course of a lifetime. Drawing on recent and historical examples of leaders and artists who achieved their greatest successes late in life -- from Goethe to Ronald Reagan -- Goldberg illustrates the effects of an emerging scientific understanding of the biology of wisdom. Most provocatively, he outlines how a 'cognitive fitness' programme can both curtail the negative mental effects of ageing and enhance our decision-making powers. Insightful and inspiring, THE WISDOM PARADOX is a groundbreaking look into our mental machinery that will change the way you think about ageing -- and about thinking.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Enjoyable Read,
By Zadius Sky (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger as Your Brain Grows Older (Paperback)
I came across this book after I read Joe DeLoux's "Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are," and it proved to be an enjoyable read. Elkhonon Goldberg has written quite complex information into a very comprehensible direction for the reader in his "The Wisdom Paradox."
There are fifteen chapters in this book, with an addition of an epilogue. With each chapter, it is more like a personal journey than a simple or dry work. It is both personal and informative. I personally like this book because it adds to my understanding of neuropsychology and neurobiology as it would be a good resourceful book. After reading this book, I find myself feeling compelled to exercise my mind and get those synapse of mine firing. My current skills are limited and useless. However, I can increase my skills by doing what I never done before. Knowledge is indeed unlimited and so is our brain power. In my opinion, I recommend this book.
3.0 out of 5 stars
SharpBrains is much better,
By Hector "Hector" (England) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Wisdom Paradox (Paperback)
In my opinion this book has a thin premise; that ageing brains lose various powers, but do get better at seeing patterns (being 'wise'). However his SharpBrains joint authored book is excellent; a great current survey of 'brain training going mainstream' developments and interviews. I hope Goldberg really focuses now on developing his brain training, and produces a book with exercises for each aspect of keeping brains well trained and in tip-top form as they age - veyr best wishes to him.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.9 out of 5 stars (18 customer reviews) 35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting, but a bit of a tease at the end,
By D. S. Bornus - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger as Your Brain Grows Older (Hardcover)
This is a very well-written, readable, and interesting book that incorporates some of the latest information about brain neurology, consciousness, and memory. Goldberg presents complex information in an easy to understand way. His thesis is that early in life, our brains have a greater ability to analyze and assimilate new information, developing neural "patterns." As we age, our analytical ability degrades due to physical aging of the brain, but we continue to thrive because the many "patterns" accreted over our lifetime help us to quickly recognize new data and categorize it. The adult brain's extensively-developed repertoire of patterns/data funnels is an analogy for "wisdom" which intuitively reaches insightful conclusions without much analysis.
As a result, Goldberg suggests that if we consciously cultivate our mental activity, building up neural connections and "patterns," we will insulate ourselves against any potential cognitive erosion due to aging. In the final chapters, Goldberg goes on to describe his facility that provides computer-mediated mental "workouts" to those who desire such therapy. I felt that this part of the book was a bit of a tease, or advertisement. Goldberg doesn't tell us what mental exercises to undertake, the implication is that we need to seek the services of his facility, or devise our own mental exercise program. I found this part a bit disappointing. (For those seeking such practical advice/exercises for brain development I recommend "Mozart's Brain and the Fighter Pilot" by Richard Restak.) 23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Opinionated , original, and independent,
By N N Taleb "Nassim N Taleb" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger as Your Brain Grows Older (Hardcover)
If you like the thinker's prose, the so-called "romantic science",a style attributed to the Russian neuroscientist A. R. Luria,which consists in publishing original research in literary form, you would love this book. Clearly intellectual scientists are vanishing under the weight of the commoditization of the discipline. But once in a while someone emerges to reverse such setbacks.
Goldberg, who was the great Luria's student and collaborator, is even more colorful and fun to read than the master. He is egocentric, abrasive, opinionated, and colorful. He is also disdainful of the conventional beliefs in neurosciences --for instance he is suspicious of the assignment of specific functions, such as language, to anatomical regions. He is also skeptical of the journalistic "triune" brain. His theory is that the hemispheric specialization is principally along pattern matching and information processing lines:the left side stores patterns, while the right one processes novel tasks. It is convincing to see that children suffer more from a right brain injury, while adults have the opposite effect. There is a little bit of open plugging of Goldberg's for-profit institute;he would have gotten better results by being subtle. A fre minor points. I did not understand why Goldberg discusses "modularity", of which he is critical, as if it were the same thing in both neurobiology and in cognitive science. In neurobiology, modularity implies regional localization, while cognitive scientists (Marr, Fodor, etc.) make no such assumption: for them it is entirely functional and they would be in great agreement with Goldberg. Also I did not understand why he attributes the language instinct to Pinker, not Chomsky, and why he makes snide remarks about behavioral scientists like Kahneman and Tversky. But these are very minor details that do not weaken the message (I still gave the book 5 stars). I am now spoiled; I need more essays by opinionated, original,and intellectual, contemporary scientists. 15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
There is a wealth of wisdom to be had here!,
By R. Steiner "Books for the ages" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger as Your Brain Grows Older (Hardcover)
Elkhonon Goldberg has once again created a book that blends his extensive knowledge of neuropsychology and neuroscience, modestly including his own very large (and probably still underestimated) contribution to the cutting edge of the field, and his own introspective experience as a living, breathing brain-owner, into a highly accessible, often playful, yet profoundly elegant treatise on the fate of the brain and cognition over the course of "normal aging."
Similar to his equally excellent and well-received earlier book "The Executive Brain," he writes with warmth and genuine affection for his reader and his material. As a clinical neuropsychologist myself, I generally prefer the more "textbook" type of presentation to those that are created for popular consumption, but in Goldberg's case, I make a strong exception. His gift seems to be his ability to "connect" hard science to life experience using accessible language that captures what might otherwise be arcane discourse, instead providing cogent explanation of complex ideas in a lively and inviting fashion. Goldberg, as a deep and heuristic thinker, has contributed several highly promising and potentially advancing observations to the field of neuropsychology. Each of these ideas is incorporated into a forward-looking path toward understanding the complex changes in brain function and cognition that take place over the lifespan, culminating for those who are fortunate (and have worked hard for it) into a "style" of cognitive processing that, in more poetic terms, has been referred to through the ages as "wisdom." One of the more elegant aspects of Goldberg's writing is that while resorting to science to explain what has otherwise required the "poetic," he manages to hold on to the poetry, perhaps even creating some in the process. |
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