Customer Reviews
How It Works 
2007-03-23
The author explains how what we think programs our brain and how learning to think differently changes our brain: he explains the psyiology that underlies psychotherapy. He tells us what happens in the brain as we change our thoughts and feelings. (His thesis even explains why prayer and meditation work.)
Shows How Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Works 
2007-03-19
This book is a great source for all cognitive behavioral therapists. One of the main things I got from this book is that we can see how the architecture of the brain is set up for us to manage things from the top down--that is, to manage our emotions from the seat of our cognitive faculties. There are almost 10 times more nerve fibers carrying sensory information from the top down rather than from the bottom up; TO the subcortex FROM the neocortex rather than the other way around. This gives us some idea of the amount of power available to us, once we learn how to access it, to get the cognitive part of our brain to manage the emotional part. The other important part of the book is how our thinking and behavior continue to make physical changes in our brain as long as we live. The book certainly supports the idea of "brainswitching" to the neocortex when the subcortex is agitated with anxiety or depression, which is what all cognitive behavorial therapists try to teach people to do. As the book shows, you can do that by thinking particular thoughts that stimulate neural activity in the part of the brain from which you wish to function. Then, thanks to the neuroplasticity of the brain, if you do this often enough you can actually re-wire your brain to get out of depression and anxiety at will. A. B. Curtiss, author of BRAINSWITCH OUT OF DEPRESSION
The Neuroscience of Psychotherapy 2007-01-11
An excellent book combining the fields of neuroscience and psychotherapy and explaining the effects of emotional trauma on brain development.
Excellent Review and Exploration 2006-07-21
Cozolino's text presents a very complicated topic in an extremely accessible manner, owing to a straightforward writing style and a penchant for perfectly applicable example case studies. He breaks down the functioning of the brain into "digestible" chunks and builds throughout the text on earlier learning. If you work in the field of counseling or psychotherapy, you simply cannot go wrong by reading this book and supplementing your knowledge of neuroscience-psychotherapy connection.
An outstanding piece of synthesis. Buy it. 2005-11-21
This book is simply a masterpiece in presenting neuroscience relevant to the both researchers in braod areas of psychological science and therapists. The presentation of brain specific information is assured, clear and reasonably well referenced. The book always connects brain regions with manifested behaviours and psychological symptoms. There is so much clarity in the text that it really deserves a very wide audience way beyond what its title suggests. The book embraces aspects of affective and evolutionary neuroscience, ties them to human consciousness development and identifies specific brain developments that cause us to be who we are. The piece of the development of the parietal lobes is one of the best I have ever read. The author has a gift for communication, and this is so rare in neuroscience books that the stands proud of the rest. The tripartite brian, psychology and psycotherapeutic connections are presented with out propagandising one at the expense of the other. There is a degree of good quality speculation in the book from time to time which could set its own research agenda. I will conclude by saying that do give a longer review would runs the risk of spoiling the lively and surprising erudition of the author. Definitely a book worth reading, worth keeping and certainly if you loan it out, you may have trouble getting it back.
Metaphors of the Mind 2004-04-27
Proposing a reconciliation between neuroscience and psychotherapy. Many forms of psychotherapy, developed in the absence of any understanding of the brain, are now supported by neuroscientific findings. This book argues that the brain is an organ of adaptation, built by interpersonal experiences and capable of change during one's life. Written for anyone interested in the relationship between brain and behavior, it encourages us to consider the brain when attempting to understand others and ourselves.
Excellent insightful and integrative book 2003-06-20
As a psychotherapist opposed to the dominance of the medical model of human problems, yet intrigued by the developments in neuroscience, I welcome this book as an enlighted integration which traces causation in both directions, detailing what Roger Sperry called "top-down" as well as "bottom-up" causation.
Important now - more important in 5 years 2003-01-01
"The neuroscience of psychotherapy" will probably be cited for years to come. It is a groundbreaking, good piece of work trying to integrate two traditionally opposing views: psychotherapy and neuroscience. The book is clearly written - mostly. There is also, as Cozolino himself points out, some speculations entangled with the research references. I would personally have wished that Cozolino would use more space to discuss more of the conflicting results in the neuroscientific field. Some places I was stuck with the feeling that this book presented the crosspoints of these fields to simple. However; this does not take ANY credit from Cozolino in writing a solid piece about an extremely important subject, a subject that will be more and more important in the coming years - hand in hand with the neusro-research.
Merging Neuroscience and Psychotherapy 2002-12-20
Dr. Cozolino has effectively addressed the fragmentation of physiological and psychological approaches to clinical disorders, laying a groundwork for the inevitable meshing of these two broad approaches to dealing with human problems. Increasingly our growing understanding of brain physiology provides opportunities to look for psychological correlates to various brain states. Covering the spectrum of psychological disciplines and relating them to physiological research, he demonstrates cases where a two-pronged therapy makes sense. His book is interspersed with actual case history examples from his practice, and fascinating contemporary neuroscience research. Whereas there is an interesting summary of brain physiology and a broad view of research, the book is clearly written, nicely organized and absorbing in its coverage. Recommended for those who want a view of where treatment of psychopathology is headed, balancing and integrating the psyche and soma.
explains neuroscience and why it matters to you 2002-10-03
I've been interested in the many books that have been published
recently about consciousness and the brain but until now
I haven't found one that is as comprehensive and well written as this one. The basic neuroscience is explained but the author's
focus on the relationship of neuroscience to what people experience in therapy, and in their own lives, makes this
book different than others out there. The book personalized
the scientific information in such a way that I feel I really
learned a lot about how psychotherapy works, and how the
brain works, and the relationship between the two.
