Norman Doidge

Last updated

Norman Doidge
Born Toronto, Ontario
Occupation Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst, Author
NationalityCanadian
CitizenshipCanada
Alma mater
Website
normandoidge.com

Norman Doidge, FRCPC , is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and author of The Brain that Changes Itself and The Brain's Way of Healing.

Contents

Education

Doidge studied literary classics and philosophy at the University of Toronto and graduated "with high distinction". [1] After winning the E. J. Pratt Prize for Poetry at age 19, Doidge was given early recognition by literary critic Northrop Frye, who wrote that his work was "really remarkable... haunting and memorable." [2] He obtained his medical degree at the University of Toronto, then moved to New York, where he had a residency in psychiatry and obtained a degree in psychoanalysis at Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, [3] and the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. [1] This was followed by a two-year Columbia University/National Institute of Mental Health Research Fellowship, training in empirical science techniques.

Career

Returning to his native Toronto, Doidge served as Head of the Psychotherapy Centre and the Assessment Clinic at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry (now part of CAMH). [1] He was Faculty at the University of Toronto's Department of Psychiatry and Research Faculty at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, Columbia University, New York for 30 years. [1] He is a training and supervising analyst at the Toronto Institute of Psychoanalysis. [4]

In the 1990s, Doidge authored empirically based standards and guidelines for the practice of intensive psychotherapy that have been used in Canada and America. These were published in the "Standards and Guidelines for the Psychotherapies" edited by Cameron, Deadman and Ennis. [5]

In 2008, he was awarded the Mary S. Sigourney Prize for his scientific writing on neuroplasticity and research in psychoanalysis. [6]

More recently, Doidge published an important and critical article discussing and examining the impact the COVID-19 narrative has had on scientific development of COVID treatments and management in addition to policy. [7]

Writing

Doidge has written over 170 articles, a combination of academic, scientific and popular pieces. He has been sole author of academic papers on neuroplasticity, human limitations and notions of perfectibility, psychotherapy treatment outcomes, dreams about animals, Schizoid personality disorder and trauma, [8] psychoanalysis, and neuroscience, such as a popular article he wrote in 2006 for Maclean's magazine in which he argues, using empirical studies, that understanding unconscious thought is important in modern-day psychiatry and psychology. [9]

Doidge was editor of Books in Canada: The Canadian Review of Books from 1995 to 1998, and editor at large for several years after that. His series of literary portraits of exceptional people at moments of transformation appeared in Saturday Night Magazine; he won four National Magazine Awards, including the President's medal for his Saturday Night interview with Saul Bellow (Love, Friendship and the Art of Dying) in 2000. [10]

Doidge's first book, The Brain that Changes Itself (2007), was an international bestseller and is widely recognized to have introduced the concept of neuroplasticity to broader scientific and lay audiences alike. [11] [12] [13] It showed people with learning disorders, blindness, balance and sensory disorders, strokes, cerebral palsy, chronic pain, chronic depression and anxiety, and obsessive compulsive disorder being helped by neuroplastic interventions.

The book was acclaimed by many well-known scholars and researchers in the brain sciences, including neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran and neurologist Oliver Sacks. [14] The prominent psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist praised it as “An utterly wonderful book—without question one of the most important books about the brain you will ever read.” [14] Writing in the journal Neuropsychoanalysis, psychology professor Eric Fertuck wrote, “Doidge… has written a book that accurately conveys cutting-edge scientific discoveries while simultaneously engaging both scientific and popular audiences." [15] Jeanette Winterson (CBE) chose it as one of her books of the year in 2008, calling it “Brilliant…This book is a wonderful and engaging way or re-imagining what kind of creatures we are.” [16]

In 2010, the Dana Foundation's journal Cerebrum chose The Brain That Changes Itself as “the best general book on the brain". [17] In 2016, the Literary Review of Canada ranked it among the 25 most influential books published in Canada since 1991. [18]

Doidge's second book, The Brain's Way of Healing (2015), describes an expanding number of clinical conditions that may be treated by neuroplastic interventions. It was a New York Times bestseller and also received praise from both lay and specialized readership, with Ramachandran stating that it is “a treasure trove of the author's own deep insights and a clear bright light of optimism shines through every page.” [19] The psychiatrist Stephen Porges wrote that it was “paradigm challenging. The Brain's Way of Healing is brilliantly organized, scientifically documented, and a beautifully written narrative that captivates the reader, who is left with the profound message that the brain, similar to other organs, can heal." [19] This book received the 2015 Gold Nautilus Book Award in the Science category. [20]

In 2018, Doidge wrote the foreword to Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos . [21]

Criticism

Developmental psychologist Diana Divecha (of Yale University) criticizes Doidge and The Brain's Way of Healing for promoting unsupported ideas about neuroplasticity and for promoting discredited auditory treatments for autism. She says that "Doidge relies mainly upon near-miraculous anecdotes of recovery to support his claims", and that he cites outdated psychoanalysts. She argues that Doidge's mechanisms of change in his book are "vague" and do not meet scientific standards, writing: "Most of the treatments he describes rely on the brain's capacity to rewire and reorganize, activating 'dormant' areas here, quieting 'noise' there, building new connections through repeated micro-practices, sometimes in combination with traditional rehab. That terminology is too nonspecific to convince me." [22]

Film and television

Doidge has appeared in numerous interviews on television programs in several countries. In 2008, Doidge co-wrote an award-winning documentary based on The Brain That Changes Itself for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in which he presents case studies and examples of neuroplasticity described in the book. [23] [24] In 2010, he participated in a follow-up documentary, "Changing Your Mind", [25] aired on CBC's The Nature of Things. Both films were directed by Mike Sheerin and produced by 90th Parallel Productions, with ARTE co-producing and distributing them in Europe. The Brain's Way of Healing was also made into a documentary. [26] In addition, he has appeared in several documentaries including Seeking Happiness in Germany (2011), [27] Beeban Kidron's InRealLife (2013) [28] in the UK, and the Irish documentary Meetings with Ivor (2017). [29]

Books

Related Research Articles

Psychoanalysis is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques that deal in part with the unconscious mind, and which together form a method of treatment for mental disorders. The discipline was established in the early 1890s by Sigmund Freud, whose work stemmed partly from the clinical work of Josef Breuer and others. Freud developed and refined the theory and practice of psychoanalysis until his death in 1939. In an encyclopedic article, he identified the cornerstones of psychoanalysis as "the assumption that there are unconscious mental processes, the recognition of the theory of repression and resistance, the appreciation of the importance of sexuality and of the Oedipus complex." Freud's colleagues Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung developed offshoots of psychoanalysis which they called individual psychology (Adler) and analytical psychology (Jung), although Freud himself wrote a number of criticisms of them and emphatically denied that they were forms of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis was later developed in different directions by neo-Freudian thinkers, such as Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, and Harry Stack Sullivan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sigmund Freud</span> Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis (1856–1939)

Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in the psyche, through dialogue between patient and psychoanalyst, and the distinctive theory of mind and human agency derived from it.

The Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research was founded in 1945. It is part of the Department of Psychiatry of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Makari</span> Historian, psychiatrist, and psychoanalyst

George Jack Makari is a psychiatrist and historian. He serves as director of the DeWitt Wallace Institute of Psychiatry: History, Policy, and the Arts, which encompasses the Oskar Diethelm Library at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he is also a Professor of Psychiatry. Makari's work has been widely reviewed, and he is well known among historians of the mind sciences, psychiatry, and psychoanalysis for Revolution in Mind, The Creation of Psychoanalysis and Soul Machine: The Invention of the Modern Mind. His recent work, Of Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia, won the 87th annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in the nonfiction category. He was the Director and Attending Psychiatrist of a sliding scale Psychotherapy Clinic at Payne Whitney Clinic from 1991-2016.

Richard A. Isay was an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, author and gay activist. He was a professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and a faculty member of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Isay is considered a pioneer who changed the way that psychoanalysts view homosexuality.

Peter A. Olsson is an American psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and author. He is author of the book, Malignant Pied Pipers of Our Time: A Psychological Study of Destructive Cult Leaders from Rev. Jim Jones to Osama bin Laden.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Austen Riggs Center</span> Psychiatric hospital in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, US

The Austen Riggs Center is a psychiatric treatment facility in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It was founded by Austen Fox Riggs in 1913 as the Stockbridge Institute for the Study and Treatment of Psychoneuroses before being renamed in honor of Austen Riggs on July 21, 1919.

Roy Schafer was an American psychologist and psychoanalyst, who emphasised a psychoanalytic concept of narrative. For Schafer, an important purpose of the analytic process is that the analysand regains agency of her own story and of her own life. Psychoanalyst and analysand each have a role in telling and retelling the analysand's life story: the analyst helps the analysand by elevating subjectivity as awareness of multiple interpretations.

<i>The Brain that Changes Itself</i>

The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science is a book on neuroplasticity by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Fonagy</span> British psychoanalyst & psychologist

Peter Fonagy, is a Hungarian-born British psychoanalyst and clinical psychologist. He studied clinical psychology at University College London. He is a Professor of Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Developmental Science Head of the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at University College London, Chief Executive of the Anna Freud Centre, and a training and supervising analyst in the British Psycho-Analytical Society in child and adult analysis. His clinical interests center on issues of borderline psychopathology, violence, and early attachment relationships. His work attempts to integrate empirical research with psychoanalytic theory. He has published over 500 papers, and 270 chapters and has authored 19 and edited 17 books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arrowsmith School</span> Private school in Toronto, Canada

The Arrowsmith School is a private school in Toronto, Ontario, for children in Grades 1 to 12 with learning disabilities. The original Arrowsmith School was founded in Toronto in 1980 by Barbara Arrowsmith Young. A second location was opened in May 2005 in Peterborough, Ontario. The Eaton Arrowsmith School, which is modelled on the Toronto school and founded by Howard Eaton, was opened in 2005 in Vancouver, British Columbia with two further branches established in Canada and one in the United States between 2009 and 2014.

Richard C. Friedman was an academic psychiatrist, the Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, and a faculty member at Columbia University. He has conducted research in the endocrinology and the psychodynamics of homosexuality, especially within the context of psychoanalysis. Friedman was born in The Bronx, New York.

Supportive psychotherapy is a psychotherapeutic approach that integrates various therapeutic schools such as psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral, as well as interpersonal conceptual models and techniques.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman N. Holland</span> American literary critic

Norman N. Holland was an American literary critic and Marston-Milbauer Eminent Scholar Emeritus at the University of Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barnaby B. Barratt</span>

Barnaby B. Barratt is a radical psychoanalyst, specialist in human sexuality, somatic psychologist, human rights activist and practitioner of meditation in the Dharmic traditions of tantra. He has lived in England, India, USA and Thailand and he currently lives and practices in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is Director of Studies at the Parkmore Institute.

Barbara Arrowsmith Young is a Canadian author, entrepreneur and lecturer. She is the founder of the Arrowsmith School in Toronto and the controversial Arrowsmith Program which forms the basis of the school's teaching method. In 2012 she published The Woman Who Changed Her Brain which combines an autobiographical account of her own severe learning disabilities and the method she developed to overcome them with case studies of learning disabled children who she claims overcame similar problems by using her method.

Jon Mills is a Canadian philosopher, psychoanalyst, and clinical psychologist. His principle theoretical contributions have been in the philosophy of the unconscious, a critique of psychoanalysis, philosophical psychology, value inquiry, and the philosophy of culture. His clinical contributions are in the areas of attachment pathology, trauma, psychosis, and psychic structure.

The Goethe Award for Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Scholarship is given annually by the Section on Psychoanalytic and Psychodynamic Psychology of the Canadian Psychological Association. The award is given for the best psychoanalytic book published within the past two years and is juried by a peer review process and awards committee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew J. Gerber</span>

Andrew J. Gerber is an American psychoanalyst and the current president and medical director of Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Connecticut. His principal interests and research lie in studying the neurobiological bases of social cognition, particularly in relation to autism spectrum disorders and change in response to psychotherapy. He is a member of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychoanalytic Association and the Psychoanalytic Psychodynamic Research Society.

Diana Foșha is a Romanian-American psychologist, known for developing accelerated experiential dynamic psychotherapy (AEDP), and for her work on the psychotherapy of adults suffering the effects of childhood attachment trauma and abuse.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Biography". Norman Doidge. Retrieved March 10, 2015.
  2. ↑ "| University College U of T". www.uc.utoronto.ca. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Alumni News". Columbia University Department of Psychiatry. May 20, 2015. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  4. ↑ "Roster | Toronto Psychoanalytic Society & Institute" . Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  5. ↑ Jon Ennis; Paul M. Cameron; John Deadman (1998). Standards and Guidelines for the Psychotherapies. University of Toronto Press. ISBN   978-0-8020-7166-8.
  6. ↑ "Recipients". The Sigourney Awards. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  7. ↑ Doidge, Norman (January 22, 2022). "Opinion: Vaccines are a tool, not a silver bullet. If we'd allowed more scientific debate, we would have realized this earlier". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
  8. ↑ "Diagnosing the English Patient: Schizoid Fantasies of Being Skinless and of Being Buried Alive". Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. 49 (1). 2001.
  9. ↑ "Sigmund Freud: The doctor is back in". Archived from the original on May 27, 2012. Retrieved June 15, 2011.
  10. ↑ "Magazine Awards Archive". archive.magazine-awards.com. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  11. ↑ Zuger, Abigail; M.D (May 29, 2007). "The Brain: Malleable, Capable, Vulnerable". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  12. ↑ "The brain man". The Sydney Morning Herald. September 9, 2008. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  13. ↑ "Norman Doidge: the man teaching us to change our minds". the Guardian. February 8, 2015. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  14. 1 2 Doidge, Norman (March 1, 2010). The Brain That Changes Itself | Book | Scribe Publications. Scribe Publications. ISBN   978-1-921372-74-2.
  15. ↑ Fertuck, Eric A. (January 1, 2008). "Book Review". Neuropsychoanalysis. 10 (1): 99–100. doi:10.1080/15294145.2008.10773574. ISSN   1529-4145. S2CID   220314955.
  16. ↑ "Jonathan Raban to Jeanette Winterson: writers and politicians pick the best reads of 2008". the Guardian. November 29, 2008. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  17. ↑ "The Great Brain Books, Revisited". Dana Foundation. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  18. ↑ "The LRC 25 | The Literary Review of Canada". Literary Review of Canada. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  19. 1 2 "The Brain's Way of Healing by Norman Doidge: 9780143128373 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books". PenguinRandomhouse.com. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  20. ↑ "Winners Archive – Nautilus Book Awards" . Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  21. ↑ Peterson, Jordan B. (2018). 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. Foreword by Norman Doidge. Toronto: Random House Canada. ISBN   978-0-345-81602-3. (See the library record BJ1589 .P48 2018 of the Falvey Memorial Library at Villanova University.)
  22. ↑ Divecha, Diana (June 2, 2015). "Can Wishful Thinking Heal Your Brain?". Greater Good Magazine. UC Berkeley. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
  23. ↑ Sheerin, Mike (November 15, 2009), The Brain That Changes Itself (Documentary), Norman Doidge, 90th Parallel Film and Television Productions, ARTE, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), retrieved September 11, 2020
  24. ↑ "The Brain That Changes Itself". 90th Parallel. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  25. ↑ "Changing Your Mind". curio.ca. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  26. ↑ "The Brain's Way of Healing". 90th Parallel. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
  27. ↑ Trüby, Larissa (April 14, 2011), Glücksformeln (Documentary), Luis Boschmann, Ed Diener, Norman Doidge, Michael Eid, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Creado Film, Devifilm, retrieved September 11, 2020
  28. ↑ Kidron, Beeban (September 20, 2013), InRealLife (Documentary, News), Ryan, Ben, Sherry Turkle, Nicholas Negroponte, Studio Lambert, retrieved September 11, 2020
  29. ↑ "Meetings With Ivor official website". www.meetingswithivor.com. Retrieved September 11, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.