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The Man Who Tasted Shapes, revised edition / Edition 2

The Man Who Tasted Shapes, revised edition / Edition 2

by Richard E. Cytowic, Jonathan Cole
The Man Who Tasted Shapes, revised edition / Edition 2
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ISBN-10:
0262532557
ISBN-13:
9780262532556
Pub. Date:
08/11/2003
Publisher:
MIT Press
ISBN-10:
0262532557
ISBN-13:
9780262532556
Pub. Date:
08/11/2003
Publisher:
MIT Press
The Man Who Tasted Shapes, revised edition / Edition 2

The Man Who Tasted Shapes, revised edition / Edition 2

by Richard E. Cytowic, Jonathan Cole

Overview

In this medical detective adventure, Cytowic shows how synesthesia, or "joined sensation," illuminates a wide swath of mental life and leads to a new view of what it means to be human.

Richard Cytowic's dinner host apologized, "There aren't enough points on the chicken!" He felt flavor also as a physical shape in his hands, and the chicken had come out "too round." This offbeat comment in 1980 launched Cytowic's exploration into the oddity called synesthesia. He is one of the few world authorities on the subject. Sharing a root with anesthesia ("no sensation"), synesthesia means "joined sensation," whereby a voice, for example, is not only heard but also seen, felt, or tasted. The trait is involuntary, hereditary, and fairly common. It stayed a scientific mystery for two centuries until Cytowic's original experiments led to a neurological explanation--and to a new concept of brain organization that accentuates emotion over reason. That chicken dinner two decades ago led Cytowic to explore a deeper reality that, he argues, exists in everyone but is often just below the surface of awareness (which is why finding meaning in our lives can be elusive). In this medical detective adventure, Cytowic shows how synesthesia, far from being a mere curiosity, illuminates a wide swath of mental life and leads to a new view of what is means to be human--a view that turns upside down conventional ideas about reason, emotional knowledge, and self-understanding. This 2003 edition features a new afterword.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780262532556
Publisher: MIT Press
Publication date: 08/11/2003
Series: A Bradford Book
Edition description: revised edition
Pages: 296
Sales rank: 345,525
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.69(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Richard E. Cytowic, M.D., MFA, a pioneering researcher in synesthesia, is Professor of Neurology at George Washington University. He is the author of Synesthesia: A Union of the Senses, The Man Who Tasted Shapes, The Neurological Side of Neuropsychology and (with David M. Eagleman) the Montaigne Medal-winner Wednesday Is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia, all published by the MIT Press.

Jonathan Cole, D.M., F.R.C.P., is Consultant in Clinical Neurophysiology, Poole Hospital, and at Salisbury Hospital (with its Spinal Centre), a Professor at Bournemouth University and a visiting Senior Lecturer, Southampton University.

What People are Saying About This

The New Scientist

Space constraints prevent me from giving more than a mere flavour of the richness of Cytowic's thinking. With broad sweeps, he outlines anew landscape.... Read this book—and the more objective you think you are, the more open-minded you will need to be to appreciate it.

Endorsement

Phenomena that are robust and repeatable but don't fit the 'big picture' of accepted Science are often regarded as anomalies and unfairly ignored by the establishment. Synesthesia—the mingling of senses—is one such topic. In this reprint of his classic work, Dr. Cytowic has once again revived interest in this fascinating topic.—V. S. Ramachandran, Director, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego

From the Publisher

Space constraints prevent me from giving more than a mere flavour of the richness of Cytowic's thinking. With broad sweeps, he outlines anew landscape.... Read this book—and the more objective you think you are, the more open-minded you will need to be to appreciate it.

—The New Scientist

Phenomena that are robust and repeatable but don't fit the 'big picture' of accepted Science are often regarded as anomalies and unfairly ignored by the establishment. Synesthesia—the mingling of senses—is one such topic. In this reprint of his classic work, Dr. Cytowic has once again revived interest in this fascinating topic.

—V. S. Ramachandran, Director, Center for Brain and Cognition, University of California, San Diego

V. S. Ramachandran

Phenomena that are robust and repeatable but don't fit the 'big picture' of accepted Science are often regarded as anomalies and unfairly ignored by the establishment. Synesthesia—the mingling of senses—is one such topic. In this reprint of his classic work, Dr. Cytowic has once again revived interest in this fascinating topic.

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