The Ceiling Outside: The Science and Experience of the Disrupted Mind - Softcover

Arikha, Noga

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1529385482 ISBN 13: 9781529385489

Publisher: Basic Books, 2023

Synopsis

'Astute, compassionate, and brilliant' Siri Hustvedt

Vanessa wakes from a coma having forgotten ten years of her life.

Toussaint is haunted by voices.

Claire loses the use of her hand because of an inexplicable pain.

Noga Arikha began studying these patients to explore how our physical experiences inform our identities. The question took on unexpected urgency when Arikha's own mother began to show signs of Alzheimer's disease. Weaving together stories of her subjects' troubles and her mother's decline, Arikha searches for meaning in the science she set out to study. The result is an unforgettable journey across the ever-shifting boundaries between ourselves and each other.

As her mother slips into the fog of dementia, philosopher Noga Arikha grapples with the unbreakable links between our bodies and our sense of self.

'Fascinates on every page' Lisa Appignanesi, author of Mad, Bad and Sad

'Will leave you humanly richer and, wonder of wonders, at peace with yourself' Antonio Damasio, author of Descartes' Error

About this title

About the Author

Noga Arikha is a philosopher and historian of ideas. The author of Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humours, she is associate fellow of the Warburg Institute and honorary fellow of the Centre for the Politics of Feelings, London, and research associate at the Institut Jean Nicod, Paris. She is based in Florence, Italy.

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1529385482
• ISBN 13: 9781529385489
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304