Norman Doidge, MD, 2008

Psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, writer, and researcher, Dr. Doidge delivered a revolutionary message in his book The Brain that Changes Itself. Dr. Doidge takes the reader by the hand and carefully explains that the brain can and does change throughout life. Contrary to commonly held beliefs that after childhood the brain begins a long process of decline, he demonstrated that our brains have remarkable power to grow, change, overcome disabilities, learn, recover, and alter the very culture that has the potential to deeply affect human nature. The recognition that the brain is plastic and can actually change itself with exercise and understanding is a great step forward and is of vital interest for the practice of psychoanalysis.

Dr. Doidge is on the Research Faculty at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, in New York, and the University of Toronto’s Department of Psychiatry. A native of Toronto, he divides his time between Toronto and New York. “The Brain That Changes Itself” is being translated in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, German, French, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Norwegian.

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I am completely humbled and honored and delighted to receive this extraordinary recognition from respected colleagues, in this field which is so close to my heart! My attempts to contribute to psychoanalysis, the patients, the ideas, and the scientific research base, have often taken me along paths and put me in situations that I could not have predicted, and now I happily find one of those paths has led to this glorious unanticipated surprise. I am deeply moved, and very excited. – Norman Doidge