The Oxford Companion to the Mind

Book Overview

With 1001 A-Z entries, ranging from brief statements to substantial essays on major topics, The Oxford Companion to the Mind takes the reader on a lively tour of this endlessly fascinating subject, spanning questions and answers within the broad compass of philosophy, psychology, and the physiology of the brain. This hugely-popular reference work offers an explanatory guide to everyday mysteries--deja vu, jet-lag, humor, and optical illusions--as...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198602243
• ISBN13: 9780198602248
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 880 Pages
• Weight: 2.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.2" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A rich source for learning about the Mind

Over one -hundred experts write on various areas of study of the Mind. There is a great richness of material here. Gregory himself an expert on visual perception provides articles on this subject. The breadth and range of material is very great. So there is a tremendous amount to be learned and studied from here. Still I do have a few reservations about the work. There are important subjects which are very sparsely covered. For instance so far as I understand it the major treatment for the most severe form of Depression is Electro- convulsive Therapy, commonly called Shock Treatment. The article on this is skimpy and not at all up- to- date. I too found the much longer article on 'Depression' far from satisfactory. Some claim that more has been discovered in the past five years in the area of brain research than in all previous time taken together. That material is naturally not in this book. I suspect that anyone who wished to research any of the topics discussed in this book would today do it online. They would easily gather together a number of articles on this subject. This Internet change in the way we do things makes a work like this present one however rich in material, somewhat less vital than it might have been thought of previously.

Outstanding Reference! Just About Perfect!

This 800-page classic reference, on a difficult and hugely multi-faceted subject, appears to cover just about every possible area in this huge category! Not only is it a stupendous browser, but one can practically read it from start to finish without getting too difficult or scientific, for an interested amateur like myself. And there are drawings, diagrams ,sketches covering children's art, illusions, on and on. Plus short bios of the greats (like Newton,Hegel,Rosseau, Sartre, Kant,,etc, etc),plus many lessor known ,but perhaps of equal distinction..Subjects like religion, magic, medicine, out of body experiences, hallucinations, are given active note, not to mention some less known, but still interesting subjects. So if you have a chance, pick this one up. It's also guaranteed to initiate an interest in lots of things you may know absolutely nothing about beforehand! Definitely one of those desert island books that will never go out of style!

Be Amazed

Richard Gregory arguably knows more about the human brain than any man alive. This second edition of the Oxford Companion to the Mind has over 200 contributors, over a thousand entries and a million words and in it is much that is new since the first edition (1987.) Out goes Freud (well, not quite; he is still there, but much more strictly edited; ditto Jung et al.) and in comes a huge amount of new and riveting brain research. This is still a philosophical and historical as well as a scientific work of immense learning that will divert and entertain as well as explain: it will expand your mind and change the physical interconnections of your brain. There are short pithy entries, sometimes delightfully quirky, often witty; there are longer, more complex contributions on a myriad of wide-ranging subjects, sometimes technical but always understandable, accessible even for the non-scientist reader. It ranges from mirror cells, face recognition, and drama to how we see art; from Aristotle to puzzles; from the hippocampus to shellshock. It covers language, memory, imagination and intelligence: are all clearly explained. There are three mini-symposia on consciousness, brain imaging and artificial intelligence. This is not just a dazzling reference book but also a diverting bed-side book for artist and scientist alike.

Very thorough and still timely

This one-volume reference book deals, after all, with a subject that is constantly subject to change. Who knows how many new neurological discoveries may make some statement or another within these pages moot tomorrow, or may have done so already in the decade and more since its publication?Despite such concerns, this book holds up well. I'd like to praise in particular a brief but pointed discussion of the work of the French philosopher Maine de Biran (1766-1824), written by F.C.T. Moore. De Biran explained that my intention to raise my arm is never an "object" to be grasped by an "inner sense" -- it is, rather, a fact or a relation, the connection of the active self with the arm.This was an important break with earlier thought, and a step toward Jamesian pragmatism on the one hand, continental phenomenology on the other.

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_The Oxford Companion to the Mind_ is an excellent reference source of information on various mental phenomena. It was relevant to my essays because several entries dealt with the current state of the parapsychological evidence and how that related to the question of survival of bodily death