Gary SmallRecensioner

case studies

El neurocientífico Small nos confronta con temas del manejo de datos y la avalancha de ellos en nuestro cerebro. ¿Estamos preparados?

Have you ever lost your keys? Have you ever parked in a parking lot and exited the building only to realize that you forgot where you parked? Do you have problems recalling names and faces? If any of this describes you, and chances are that it does, this book could be for you. While I do say that, this comes with a caveat. This book is for people that are older than I am at the moment, but I figured it is never too early to start. To illustrate this, the author begins in one section by asking where you were when Kennedy was assassinated and follows it up by asking the same question pertaining to John Lennon.

The Memory Bible offers a comprehensive approach to keeping your brain fit enough to stave off Alzheimer’s Disease and other forms of dementia. Dr. Gary Small is or was the Director of the UCLA Center on Aging and has advice on all sorts of different things. He presents to us the Memory Tricks popularized by Harry Lorayne along with a number of other things that you can do. The book contains a number of testimonials and stories that are meant to illustrate how insidious memory loss actually is. He gives out the standards of what constitutes memory loss and other disorders while telling us that it is merely a way to sort it categorically.

Keep in mind, just because you have some memory loss doesn’t mean that you automatically have Alzheimer’s disease or some form of dementia. Dr. Small assures us that the only way to tell is to have a complete physical examination and some form of Brain Imaging Scan. The preferred one is the PET or Positron Emission Tomography scan. Going back to what I said, a number of factors can contribute to memory loss or generally poor memory with Stress being a massive culprit. In our interconnected world of Smartphones and worldwide Wi-Fi access, it comes as no surprise that people are stressed more easily. The same thing goes for lack of sleep. People say it all the time, but I will say it again, sleep is important.

If you read this book, you should understand that it was published in 2002. As of this review, that is 17 years ago. I don’t know what advances have been made in the Alzheimer’s field, but I believe they have a more capable understanding now then they did back then. I mean, for some of us seventeen years is a long time. In any case, this book is still useful for prevention and for general health issues. I will probably never eat a totally vegan diet, but this book has plenty of good advice.

The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her Head is a collection of short essays by psychiatrist Gary Small describing the "most bizarre cases" he dealt with over decades of practice. The first essays are from encounters at Massachusetts General during Small's days as a resident. From there, we follow Small back to his native California where he continues to treat patients, conducts research, and settles in as a geriatric specialist.

If judged by its subtitle alone ("a psychiatrist's stories of his most bizarre cases"), readers may be disappointed. Any casual student of psychology will not be impressed by stories about shopping addicts, psychopathic husbands with second families, and stress-induced sudden blindness. The subtitle draws in the reader by promising shock value (it happened to me!) and just doesn't deliver.

The value of his book is beyond Small's "craziest" patients. I think this book would have been better if it was framed as a personal memoir, or of a physician's reflections as he looks back on his career. The patient stories are framed by conversations with Small's colleagues, friends, and family, where he gives us context of where he was in his career at the time and how he has grown as a physician since then. He recognizes several times that his response as a young psychiatrist would be vastly different from his response today, as a professional with years of experience. It was fascinating to read about how how Small worked through challenging diagnoses, and how his professional interactions with his patients shaped his personal interactions with friends and family, and vice versa: how his personal life affected the way he treated his patients. Those passages were what I liked best about this book - self-reflection.

Dr. Small is a brilliant physician, and I would have liked to read more about his method as a psychiatrist and less about his house calls to wealthy patients. Hopefully in the future he will give us that book!

I really enjoyed reading about all these unusual psychiatric cases, told with sensitivity and empathy, and explaining how the patients were helped in each case.

This book consists of psychiatrist's most bizarre cases distributed from 1970s to today. It is a great book that keeps you guessing till the diagnosis is revealed. And for the most cases it surprises you.

It is also interesting to see how Dr. Gary's life evolved around his job too. From young, excited intern to director of UCLA longevity center was quite a journey.

Do not expect to find something from yourself. Most of these cases are uniquely bizarre :)

Gerçek hikâyeler kurgudan çok daha tuhaftır, Dr. Gary Small da bunu gayet iyi biliyor. Psikiyatriyle ve insan beyni üstüne çığır açıcı araştırmalarla geçen otuz yıl içinde Dr. Small pek çok şey görmüş. Şimdi ofisinin kapılarını açmaya ve kariyerinin en gizemli, ilginç ve tuhaf hastalarını anlatmaya hazır. Bu kitap bir psikiyatristin zihnine ve onun giderek gelişim gösteren mesleki yaşamına yapılan aydınlatıcı bir yolculuk. Aynı zamanda bu branşın ve daha önce görülmemiş, tanısı koyulmamış çeşitli akıl hastalıklarının perde arkasına da bir bakış… Kitabı okurken kendinizi, bizi insan yapan şaşırtıcı tuhaflıklar üstüne düşünürken bulacaksınız. Sıkça komik, kimi zaman trajik ve daima etkileyici Dr. Small, sizleri kariyeri içinde Boston’un kalabalık acil servis koridorlarından başlayıp ülke elitlerinin multimilyon dolarlık kayak localarına dek uzayan bir geziye çıkarıyor. Bu gezi sırasında birbirinden tuhaf gerçek karakterleri anlatırken, bir yandan da esrarengiz histerik körlükle, penisinin küçüldüğüne inanan bir adamla, gizli sürdürülen çifte hayatlarla ve ürkütücü derecede psikotik romantik arzularla baş ediyor. Akıl hocası kendi hastası olduğunda Dr. Small’un kariyeri ve kişisel hayatı tam bir döngüyü tamamlıyor ve Small’un kimsenin zihinsel araştırmanın ötesinde olmadığını anlamasını sağlıyor; kendisinin bile…

Presents the "look, snap, connect" process to a better memory. Also covers how physical health, medicine, diet, and stress can improve or worsen one's memory.

This ain't no Oliver Sacks. Holy fuck the writing was bad. Just...abysmal. I'm so sorry. I just couldn't stand it. The author tried way, way too hard to dumb down the information--it was dumbed down to the point that the author sounded incredibly stupid (although he really likes to tell you how smart he is directly). It might be just me, but the book seemed pretentious and just a tiny bit sexist. The funny part is he talks about collective hysteria and how women are more prone to it. Yes, that makes sense to me. And his explanation of it makes sense to me. But then the way he talks about women is often flippant, and he uses the word housewife over and over again. Honestly, it's not just women. There was a lot of simplistic labeling going on, and none of it was helping him seem relatable. Needless to say, I pretty much despised this book. Having to listen to his incredibly inane descriptions on audiobook was like sticking an ice pick through my eye. The dialogue....oh, the humanity!...the dialogue....no one has ever spoken to each other like that.

"Hi honey, what are you up to today?" Christ.½

Psychiatrist Gary Small shares stories of some of the oddest and most memorable cases he has encountered in his career, including people suffering from such problems as false pregnancy, weird nightmares, complicated addictions, and mass hysteria.

It's interesting to get a look into the practice of psychiatry that goes beyond the cliches of "Tell me about your mother" or "Here, have some antidepressants" (although there are certainly enough examples of both of those things). And many of these cases are indeed interesting. As a human, myself, I'm always interested in what goes on in -- and what can go wrong with -- the human mind.

But, I don't know. There's just something about Small, or about his writing (or about the writing of his wife/co-author, perhaps) that rubs me the wrong way. I think it's partly that he can't seem to quite decide whether this is a collection of interesting cases or a personal memoir, and keeps including extraneous, uninteresting information about his personal life. Partly it's the way he includes lots of dialog that cannot possibly be verbatim, which often feels really stilted and simplified. (Admittedly, in a book like this, that sort of thing is probably inevitable, but it can certainly be done more smoothly. And the fact that he never explicitly discusses the fact that that's what he's doing doesn't thrill me, either.) He includes lots of conversations with his co-workers, too, which often have a hearty "ha-ha, look at us guys all having a laugh together!" tone, where the people and the jokes in question tend to come across as more obnoxious than anything. Also, while he's often self-deprecating and is willing to discuss his own uncertainties and false assumptions as he attempts to figure out his patients' problems, I can't help noticing the fact that all these cases ultimately make him look good, sometimes by showing up other doctors whom he portrays as hidebound idiots. Now, maybe it's a false impression, but all of this together combines to make the whole thing feel a little off to me. A little self-absorbed, maybe. A little artificial.

But that's not even what really bugs me the most. Because, all right, it comes as absolutely no surprise that therapists sometimes find their patients boring, or annoying, or unpleasant. And, in general, I am all for honesty and openness in this kind of account. But I cannot help feeling that it's deeply unprofessional for a therapist to talk publicly about finding his patients boring or annoying or unpleasant, no matter how many personal details he's changed. And Small does this kind of a lot. I think I reached the height of my discomfort with him when he quotes a patient as saying, "This is completely confidential, right?" and his reply of "Of course" left me exclaiming, "Except it's clearly not, because you put it in your book!" In other contexts, maybe that would have bothered me less, but with this book, I just can't quite get past it.½

I would really like to rate this 3 1/2 stars. I did enjoy this book but would not count it among my personal favorites. The cases are bizarre and entertaining while also being serious and somewhat educational. The author is a psychiatrist who recounts his experiences with some of his most unusual cases. The saying that real life is better than fiction applies here. The author's writing is entertaining while also giving interesting insight into the field of psychiatry that is easy enough for a layperson to understand.

I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone interested in psychiatry or just really strange mental issues in people.

Meh. He's no Oliver Sacks.

Also a tiny but ill-hidden bit of misogyny.

Of course the title of this attracted me, and it started out good with some unique cases, some of these illnesses I'd learned about in psychology. But some I didn't feel were horribly extraordinary. But it was an ok book. Didn't care for the endings to the chapters - I'm not sure how I would have ended them, but it sounded a little too fairy-tale happy-ending to me.

I bought this book because I read a great article by Gary Small in the Scientific American Magazine. But after reading iBrain, I'm extremely disappointed.

This is the typical book written by an adult who does not really understand neither young people nor technology. And adult who remembers the good old days and all new things are bad, dangerous or corrupted.

All the big arguments presented by the authors are more their adult-centric points of view than actual scientific proved facts. Sure, they cite a lot of scientific literature, but not to support their main suppositions.

Nobody deny that technology must have and effect in us (because it implies activities we perform over and over); but we are far from really understand how it is affecting us...

This was a great read. Dr. Small tells about some of his most interesting and challenging clients from his time as a young doctor in 1979 to his seasoned Psychiatrist days in 2008. Each chapter is another case and all are told with a balance of mystery solving with his genuine care for his patients and often, respectful humor. He shares his mysteries with his wife Gigi Vorgan who co-wrote the book and who had good insight in many cases.
My only complaint is that I wish it was much longer.

The importance of an active mind!: For everyone who cares about their health, this book is the ultimate guide to self-improvement and longevity! Small is an expert in his field and he offers great advice on how to maximize health as you age.

I thoroughly enjoyed the chapters on memory. Small provides excellent information on memory loss - from facts to prevention - and he even includes exercises that stimulate the brain. Mental fitness is essential to sustaining an active, clear mind. Many people do not realize that working out your brain is just as beneficial as going to the gym. This book really highlights the importance of mental fitness and has led me to look for other ways to stimulate my brain. I joined a service called Agogus.com, which provides fun brain exercises and interesting articles. And, my mental clarity and sharpness continues to get better each day. The key to longevity is mental fitness, and if you ask me - we all need to put our brain on the treadmill!

Really fascinating. I enjoyed reading about this man's career. I hadn't realized that the field has changed so much since the late 70's-early 80's. The psychotherapy was really interesting too. It is not laden down with medical terms, it is written so that a layperson can understand.

An interesting collection of psychiatric stories. Nothing extreme, but still worth reading.

All about him, him, him.

I'm a big fan of non-fiction books about things so crazy and unbelievable, they make you forget that they're non-fiction in the first place. Which is why when I first cracked open my copy of The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her Head: A Psychiatrist's Stories of His Most Bizarre Cases, co-written by Dr. Gary Small and wife Gigi Vorgan, it took so much willpower to put it down just so I could quickly finish my chores and run my errands fast enough to get back to reading. Both entertaining and informative, it even made me question my own sanity after reading.

Written in chronological order following Dr. Small's career from psychiatric trainee at Harvard Medical School to research head at UCLA, The Naked Lady details some of his most eclectic psychiatric cases. And by eclectic, I do mean crazy weird: from the guy who purposely injured his arm because he wants to get it amputated; the lawyer with a shrinking penis; the worried mother who's read every single medical textbook and has started diagnosing herself and everyone else around her; and yes, even the naked lady who stood on her head.

Full of humor at every turn of the page, The Naked Lady reads like a hilariously bizarre short story collection that I often tend to forget that these accounts actually happened to real people. And while extremely funny and often times thought-provoking, it also gives us an inside look at the world of psychotherapy and how crazy things can sometimes get, even for the most well-trained psychiatrist. The medical jargon, though only few, are so well-explained; I've actually learned a thing or two about psychology that might come in handy if I ever consider taking an Introduction to Psychology class myself. Dr. Small is not only a really good doctor, he's a gifted storyteller as well.

My favorite would be "Gaslight," where a middle-aged couple, whose kids have all left for college, goes into couple therapy with Dr. Small for what was initially diagnosed as an empty-nest syndrome. But then things take a twist, and the husband, who turns out to be a sociopath, not fools one, but two psychiatrists into thinking that he's perfectly sane.

Perfect for those who are curious as to how our minds work, or if you're into the bizarre or amusingly strange, The Naked Lady Who Stood on Her Head is a definite must-read for everyone, crazy or otherwise.

Originally posted here.

Smart’s book is technical enough for someone with a background in biological studies to find detailed analysis of the modern brain while accessible enough for someone whose curiosity stems from cultural and anthropological side of things. It’s central questions are important—it seems as although our brains give us tendencies for certain lifestyle patterns, they are also amiable enough to become so adapted to our technology that we not only physically crave it, we go through physical withdrawal without it. In short, this book is about the development of habits and their physical existence in our brains. Though the book concludes with a scant resource guide on how to better cope with our modern world, it does not much raise the big question: Are our brains evolving or devolving?½

Don't bother with this book unless: 1. you are a Baby Boomer who is feeling overwhelmed with the web, and would like to commiserate with one of your own. 2. If you are internet addicted and in turn socially inept (there are a few pages of self-help advice). Interspersed in all of this split personality pages are a few references to fMRI studies of which areas of the brain light up when we are completing internet tasks. You won't be able to pinpoint the studies, though, because the author doesn't use notations. No footnotes, no endnotes, just a list of references in the back of the book. He lists his references but we have no idea which studies go to which fleeting mention.The book is ok, but it can't decide which way it wants to go. As someone who is under 40 (Generation X) and considers herself a digital native (I had a computer in my house in the late 70's), I found this book at times to be downright offensive. The anecdotal examples were inane and sensationalistic with fear. It's the typical refrain we hear from the stereotypically selfish and self-focused "me" generation of Baby Boomers.Unless you are in said state of panic about the internet and its implications, skip this book. The small self-help parts aren't going to help you. Dr. Smalls probably meant for you to read them to your WoW addicted daughter.

What Small and Company have to say about the brain and digital technology enters the little explored realm where our understanding of the interaction of digital technology and contemporary culture is shaped without the influnece of marketing and product placement. I love this book. It is clearly written to be accesible to the layperson.

How do adults work with the new tech generation whose minds are quite different than ours?