The title says it pretty well: this book explains the physical aspects of the brain and how they are formed and changed by what the person experiences, starting from birth. While not set in stone, aspects of our personalities are actually set in the shapes and activity of our brains. It’s a circular effect: what happens to us shapes our brains, and then the shape of our brains sets how we react to things. But thankfully, our brains can and do continue to change throughout our lives.

There are actual differences in the brain structures of people with OCD, ADHD, borderline personality disorder and many more psychological disorders. These physical differences can frequently be traced to how the person was treated by its parents as a baby- being nurtured results in a brain shaped one way; being ignored shapes it in another way. PTSD changes the brain. We know that some of these differences are from environment rather than genetics because of animal testing. What this tells us is that depression, PTSD, and other mental disorders are actual physical illness, not the result of having a weak character, and that people with these disorders should not be looked down on and should not be ashamed to seek help.

The shape of our brains comes from evolution; our brains have evolved through the primitive lower brain and added on the midbrain and the upper ‘thinking’ part through the millennia. All our reactions must go through all these layers, and the amygdala, which is constantly on the alert for danger, reacts much faster than the upper, logical part of the brain- no matter how fast you can consciously think about something, your lizard brain has already reacted. Your lizard brain has already spewed out adrenaline many, many milliseconds before your upper brain can say “That’s just a backfire down the street, not gunfire aiming towards me” From this comes fears that seem irrational, and ‘fight or flight’ reactions to mental stress. This is but a small part of what our brain structure does to and for us.

Psychotherapy can change the brain. By allowing the person to explore stressors in a safe environment, the lower brain can be lulled and reshaped into something that doesn’t react with adrenaline to non-threatening situations. This doesn’t just apply to PTSD, but to many disorders where the person learned as a baby, a child, to react in certain ways to save themselves- even if it’s a case of a child learning to always be pleasant and accommodating to a parent or they’d be punished, thus setting them up for an adult life of being a doormat.

This is a very technical book. It’s mostly neurology and neuroanatomy, with psychotherapy laid over it. It’s not neurology vignettes a la Oliver Sacks. It’s very clearly written and all terms are well explained, but it is slow going if you aren’t at least somewhat knowledgeable about neuroanatomy. It wasn’t until near the end of the book that I discovered it was actually written for the therapist-in-training; that made me feel better about how long it took me to read it! But even as a layman who had to digest all the anatomy, I still found it very interesting and worth the read. ( )