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About this book
A fascinating exploration of the science and psychology behind fear, madness, and the haunting stories that linger in our minds
Scientists throughout centuries have mined the depths of humanity looking for—and finding—answers to life’s most mysterious questions, but perhaps the most memorable accounts of hidden dimensions have been left to us by science fiction writers like Philip K. Dick and Octavia Butler. When science discovers, science fiction writers ask “what’s next?” Horror on the Brain reveals the real science and psychology behind science fiction’s most iconic characters, from Mary Shelley’s Dr. Frankenstein to the doctors of H.P. Lovecraft and even today’s horror blockbusters like Get Out and The Last of Us.
In this fascinating exploration of fear and madness, neuroscientist Dr. Austin Lim recounts psychology’s most bizarre and haunting real-life cases alongside famous speculative fiction that stretched that science to the edge. In 1924, Hans Berger invented the EEG, a commonly used brain imaging device, as a means to telepathically communicate with his sister, eerily similar to the protagonist in H.P. Lovecraft’s Beyond the Wall of Sleep, while Nobel Prize-winning research on marine animals in the 1960s reflects his tentacled creations. Phineas Gage, the 19th century man who experienced a dramatic personality shift following a traumatic brain injury, shares similarities to Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll. Investigate the neurological causes of schizophrenia and how characters in Sheridan Le Fanu’s story “In a Glass Darkly” manifest the diagnosis.
Neurological conditions from sleepwalking to the Cotard delusion—which leads patients to believe they are dead, even going to such extremes as burying themselves alive—have provided the basis for horror stories since their discovery, and, likewise, the wildly imaginative minds of writers have even prompted scientific research. Horror on the Brain uses illuminating analogies to connect science fact and science fiction, showing how spooky stories contain insights into the dark corners of the human mind and why we can’t stop looking into the abyss.
Scientists throughout centuries have mined the depths of humanity looking for—and finding—answers to life’s most mysterious questions, but perhaps the most memorable accounts of hidden dimensions have been left to us by science fiction writers like Philip K. Dick and Octavia Butler. When science discovers, science fiction writers ask “what’s next?” Horror on the Brain reveals the real science and psychology behind science fiction’s most iconic characters, from Mary Shelley’s Dr. Frankenstein to the doctors of H.P. Lovecraft and even today’s horror blockbusters like Get Out and The Last of Us.
In this fascinating exploration of fear and madness, neuroscientist Dr. Austin Lim recounts psychology’s most bizarre and haunting real-life cases alongside famous speculative fiction that stretched that science to the edge. In 1924, Hans Berger invented the EEG, a commonly used brain imaging device, as a means to telepathically communicate with his sister, eerily similar to the protagonist in H.P. Lovecraft’s Beyond the Wall of Sleep, while Nobel Prize-winning research on marine animals in the 1960s reflects his tentacled creations. Phineas Gage, the 19th century man who experienced a dramatic personality shift following a traumatic brain injury, shares similarities to Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll. Investigate the neurological causes of schizophrenia and how characters in Sheridan Le Fanu’s story “In a Glass Darkly” manifest the diagnosis.
Neurological conditions from sleepwalking to the Cotard delusion—which leads patients to believe they are dead, even going to such extremes as burying themselves alive—have provided the basis for horror stories since their discovery, and, likewise, the wildly imaginative minds of writers have even prompted scientific research. Horror on the Brain uses illuminating analogies to connect science fact and science fiction, showing how spooky stories contain insights into the dark corners of the human mind and why we can’t stop looking into the abyss.
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Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app.
Yes, you can access Horror on the Brain by Austin Lim in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Biological Sciences & Gothic, Romance, & Horror Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
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Table of contents
- Introduction
- Chapter 1: The Oldest and Strongest Emotion: Neural Substrates of Fear
- Chapter 2: āThe Spark of Beingā: Life, Death, and Reanimation
- Chapter 3: Peering through the Wall of Sleep: The Secrets of Slumber
- Chapter 4: āHappiness Is Knowing You Got Some Pillsā: Food, Drugs, and Other Things That Make Us Happy
- Chapter 5: The Bene Gesserit Test: The Story of Pain
- Chapter 6: Remember to Forget: Memory and Amnesia
- Chapter 7: āBorn after the Silenceā: Language and Our Two Brains
- Chapter 8: āBelieve Only Half of What You Seeā: Illusions and Delusions
- Chapter 9: No Longer Dr. Jekyll: The Changing Nature of Personality
- Chapter 10: āAre We Not Men?ā: Who Is an Us, and Who Is a Them?
- Chapter 11: Dial 56 to Smell Burnt Toast: What Brain Stimulation Tells Us about Free Will
- Closing Comments
- Acknowledgments
- Notes