BOOK REVIEW: THE MAN WHO COULDN'T STOP

Wednesday, June 25, 2014 SPORK! 0 Comments

Early on in this book David Adam claims that most of us have around 4,000 thoughts a day. These mind wanderings are, for the most part, inconsequential: thoughts of what to have for lunch, what to buy, what to do at the weekend. Others are more intrusive. ‘Do I look fat?’ ‘I’m never going to pass that exam.’ ‘People don’t like me.’ These hard-to-shake intrusions are the bread and butter of the whirlwind of negativity that captivates the depressive mind.

But, as illustrated beautifully in this book, nothing tops the insidious and vicious inventiveness of the mind taken over by obsessive-compulsive disorder: OCD. This is the human mind in all its complexity turning in on itself and wreaking havoc, surreptitiously convincing its prey that its obsession is bound to happen.

In David Adam’s case, the obsession was his conviction that he would catch AIDS. He knew it was irrational, he knew it was highly unlikely – but there’s the rub: ‘highly unlikely’ not ‘impossible’. That was the crack through which OCD could squeeze. And so began – in 1991 – an escalating obsession that led to a multitude of compulsions in an equally irrational attempt to quell the disturbing and intrusive thoughts that stormed through his head.

Since his obsession began, he tells us, life went on autopilot. While he was ‘up-front and central’, his mind was now elsewhere. ‘I looked the part and smiled at the passengers, but something else was flying the plane.’ The Man Who Couldn’t Stop is a captivating first-person account of how a blizzard of unwanted thoughts can become a personal nightmare. At times shocking, at times tragic, at times unbelievably funny, it is a wonderful read.

A science writer, Adam has an eye for a good study, bringing even the driest of experiments to life. He takes us on a journey through the history of OCD, providing an up-to-date and accurate account of the current scientific understanding of this devastating condition. As a psychologist, I am familiar with much of the science he discusses. But he describes studies, old and new, in a fresh way, invigorating them with personal tales and haunting anecdotes.

This book will appeal to all those who are fascinated by the human mind and its unending ability to delight and to torment.

Rating: 5/5

Elaine Fox is Professor of Cognitive & Affective Psychology at Oxford University and the author of Rainy Brain Sunny Brain

Read more at Science Focus

http://sciencefocus.com/feature/books/book-review-man-who-couldnt-stop