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Bizarre: The Most Peculiar Cases of Human Behavior and What They Tell Us about How the Brain Works Paperback – February 7, 2023

by Marc Dingman PhD (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 39 ratings
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The human brain is an impossibly complex and delicate instrument - capable of extraordinary calculations, abundant creativity and linguistic dexterity. But the brain is not just the most brilliant of evolutionary wonders. It's also one of the most bizarre.

This book shows a whole other side of how brains work - from the patient who is afraid to take a shower because she fears her body will slip down the drain to a man who is convinced he is a cat and a woman who compulsively snacks on cigarette ashes.

As fascinating as they are, the cases discussed in this book are more than just oddities. In attempting to understand them, neuroscientists have uncovered important details about how the brain works. You'll be intrigued and amazed by some of the weird things your brain does on a daily basis, seemingly without your awareness or consent, and maybe you'll even gain an increased appreciation for the stability of the reality you experience. This book is ideal both for readers seeking a better appreciation of the inner workings of the brain and those who simply want some extraordinary topics for dinner-party conversation.
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Previous page
  1. Print length
    288 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Nicholas Brealey
  4. Publication date
    February 7, 2023
  5. Dimensions
    5.45 x 0.85 x 8.4 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1399801201
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1399801201
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marc Dingman received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 2013 from The Pennsylvania State University. Since then, he has been a faculty member in the Biobehavioral Health Department at Penn State, where teaches courses in neuroscience and the health sciences. He also spends much of his free time teaching people about neuroscience through his website (neurochallenged.com) and his popular YouTube series, 2-Minute Neuroscience.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Nicholas Brealey (February 7, 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1399801201
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1399801201
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.4 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.45 x 0.85 x 8.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 39 ratings

About the author

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Marc Dingman

Marc Dingman

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My fascination with the brain began when I was an undergraduate, and since has grown into an insatiable curiosity about all things neuroscience. Today my main job is teaching courses in the health sciences at The Pennsylvania State University, but I spend much of my free time trying to find ways to help make neuroscience understandable to those who share my enthusiasm for learning about it. I mostly do this through my writing and a series of videos I’ve created (and regularly add to) called 2-Minute Neuroscience, which can be found on my YouTube channel and website (neurochallenged.com).

Photo credit: Paul Hazi Photography

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
39 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

diducky
5.0 out of 5 stars I think the brain is the final frontier…
Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2023
Forget space – let’s figure out the human mind first! I really enjoyed this fact-filled but entertaining bird walk through the human psyche. Lycanthropy is really a thing – yes, it is. This could have been a book to actually hurt my brain but instead, rather than too-technical, it walked me easily through some really wild but interesting concepts. From people insisting they were dead to thinking they were werewolves, the real-life cases described ran the gamut from borderline horrifying to honestly, touching. Spanning decades, the stories were taken from case studies and doctor’s files, all the more intriguing because they were true. Adding the diagnosis or analysis of the patient’s symptoms or behaviours, meant a first-hand (or bed-side) view of observations and (hopefully) care…

Highly entertaining!

*I happily read this book
**Thank you to Nicholas Brealey Publishing & NetGalley
2 people found this helpful
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Schizanthus Nerd
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating
Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2023
I’m fascinated by why humans do the strange things we do. This book answered some of the questions I’ve had, as well as some I didn’t have until I started reading.

While I have an interest in neuroscience, I don’t have a scientific background so am usually hesitant to dive into books that explore it. The blurb made this one sound like it would be accessible without a bunch of prior knowledge so I took a chance. I loved it so much that I practically inhaled it.

I have so much more appreciation for the complexities of the brain and how much we still don’t know about how it works. Given how many of its parts are involved in tasks that we often do without a second thought, it’s astounding that we function at all.

“Just speaking a simple sentence, for example, requires the successful execution of operations such as word retrieval, the application of syntax (i.e., the rules used to properly arrange words in a sentence), coordinating the activity of the muscles involved in speech, sprinkling in appropriate changes in tone and pitch, and so on. Each of these tasks might require the contribution of different parts of the brain, causing language to be reliant on a large number of functioning brain regions for it to be fully operational.”

This book explains how the different parts of the brain work but I’m also much more aware now of the many ways that things can go wrong. Illness, trauma and other unexpected bumps in the road that affect even one part of the brain can have life changing consequences.

Each chapter covers a different area of behaviour: identification, physicality, obsessions, exceptionalism, intimacy, personality, belief, communication, suggestibility, absence, disconnection and reality.

There are so many disorders and syndromes covered in this book, some I’d already heard of but others that were new to me. There’s Cotard’s syndrome, where you’re convinced you’re dead or have lost organs, blood or body parts, and Capgras syndrome, where you believe people close to you have been replaced by imposters. There’s clinical lycanthropy/zoanthropy, pica, hoarding, objectophilia, dissociative identity disorder, the placebo effect, folie à deux, agnosia, alien hand syndrome, Alice in Wonderland syndrome and more.

“Despite how strange some of them may seem, they often just represent the extremes of the spectrum of normal human tendencies - and they are not completely foreign to us.”

A lot of the stories will stay with me but probably none more so than that of Kim Peek, who had a condition called an encephalocele, “where an incompletely developed cranium allows part of the brain to bulge outside the skull - potentially twisting, distorting, and damaging brain tissue in the process.” Despite considerable brain damage, Kim was able to do something extraordinary.

“He eventually could read a page in 8 to 10 seconds while memorizing all the information on it. He even began reading and comprehending the right and left pages of a book simultaneously (with his right and left eyes).
By the time he died in 2009 at the age of 58, Kim had read - and memorized - more than 12,000 books.”

Morbid curiosity may make you want to read this book but, thanks to the author’s approach, you never lose sight of the fact that these are real people you’re reading about, people who have often suffered greatly as a result of what’s happening in their brain.

This book did what I’m always looking for in non-fiction. I learned plenty of interesting new things. It held my attention. It made me think. It made me want to learn more.

Content warnings are included on my blog.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Nicholas Brealey Publishing, an imprint of John Murray Press, for the opportunity to read this book.
4 people found this helpful
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AndreaRomance
5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining from start to finish
Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2023
The human brain is an exquisite organ, but when things go wrong, the results can be terrifying, disturbing, or just plain strange. For anyone interested in neuroscience or human behavior, this book is fascinating, sometimes horrifying, and sometimes emotional. Written in an easy-to-read narrative style, the book is entertaining from start to finish.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.
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Steve G
5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and fascinating
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2023
I loved this book. The writing style is entertaining and conversational, while respectful to the individuals discussed. Dingman writes with some humor and gives great, clear explanations of this fascinating subject. The illustrations of brain anatomy were also very helpful. This is great science writing. Thank you to Netgalley and Nicholas Brealey Publishing for the advance reader copy.
One person found this helpful
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Andrea R.
5.0 out of 5 stars Neuroscience for All!
Reviewed in the United States on April 27, 2023
Bizarre is a great example of a book about neuroscience that's made for the everyday person vs the scientist! With everyday language, easy to understand explanations of anything scientific, and real case studies, Bizarre explains various topics on brain blurps and how they affect people. The "blurps" discussed are fascinating and all left me wanting to use the related footnotes to read more. I wish for more books like this!
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