Sublime

“The only thing different about neuroscience,” according to Morse, “is that we have prettier pictures and it appears more scientific.”

Studies that suggest a “brain spot for X” are typically misleading because mental functions are rarely localized to one place in the brain.

Case histories do demonstrate more what’s wrong with psychology than with its cases. The clinical stories show how usual psychology—and we are each affected by its style of thought—draws its conclusions by working backward from the ordinary to the extraordinary, taking the “extra” right out of it.

A good mood can deceive your thinking just as much as a bad one.

1. Some therapists have an overly reductive understanding of psychiatric diagnosis. They seem to think a diagnosis of mental disorder necessarily implies there is some intrinsic brain abnormality. They think if someone’s symptoms can be explained with reference to a history of abuse or trauma, then a diagnosis doesn’t apply to them. The logic is so in

Contrary to many claims, there is an ongoing diminution of mental and perceptual capabilities rather than their expansion or modulation.