Popular science writer Anil Ananthaswamy discusses philosophy as much as science in this survey of disorders of the brain. He is interested in different theories of the self and how neuropsychological conditions such as Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, autism, profound amnesia, Cotard’s syndrome, body identity integrity disorder, ecstatic epilepsy, and more. He interviews and quotes from the work of many scientists and philosophers, and some people with these problems. Oddly, he manages to find several philosophers who have some of the problems he is discussing. Ananthaswamy is not himself a philosopher and sometimes his use of philosophical theory is a bit mixed up, but he has a great ability to put ideas into accessible language. His accounts of people’s lives and how their conditions have changed their ability to do their work or maintain relationships are gripping. He uses some of the ideas from theory to conceptualize the disorders that people have, which are often very difficult for people to understand. The Man Who Wasn’t There will be a useful resource for philosophy students wanting an introduction to such disorders, and it will show psychologists how philosophy can help understand these kinds of cases. But probably the main intended audience is the general reader who is just curious about how these kinds of cases represent a lack of self. The physical book has 20 pages of notes to the main text, which will also provide a useful resource. What is lacking from the book is a sense of the debate among philosophers and scientists about which are the best theories, and the speculative nature of many of their claims.

© 2017 Christian Perring

Christian Perring is Vice President of the Association for the Advancement of Philosophy and Psychiatry.