After frequently hearing patients wonder, "Why do I behave this way?" throughout his 30-year psychiatric practice, D. Theodore George applied his background in internal medicine, psychiatry and neuroscience to finding an answer. Untangling the Mind begins with his investigation into how emotion is produced in the brain, revealing the link between emotion and survival, as well as the difference between a legitimate emotion and a pathological one.
George's research leads to the PAG (periaqueductal grey) neurological model, which he describes as a panel of on-off buttons in the brain that generate behaviors to handle survival situations based on a specific stimulus (anger = fight, for example, while depression = shutdown). The brain possesses neurological switches that can be flipped at the right--or wrong--time. Individuals often lose control over these switches.
George's use of diagrams and neurological terms (the survival-driven amygdala and rational cortex are key players) are accessible and easily understood, and his case studies illuminate how genetics, environment, upbringing and biology contribute to how an individual reacts to certain situations. Although the focus of Untangling the Mind is on the neurological reasons for why people behave as they do, George concludes by affirming the personal responsibility we all have for our actions--especially once armed with neurological knowledge. He believes that treatment is possible in most cases and provides helpful direction in how to get the right type of help. --Kristen Galles, blogger at Book Club Classics