Norman Doidge
Encyclopedia
Norman Doidge MD
, FRCP(C) is a Canadian-born psychiatrist
, psychoanalyst, researcher, essayist, poet and author of The Brain That Changes Itself
(2007). The Brain That Changes Itself describes some of the latest developments in neuroscience, and became a New York Times and international bestseller. In it Doidge illustrates and explains neuroplasticity
, the discovery that the brain’s structure and function can be altered, under natural conditions, by mental experience. He presents the case that the discovery of this property represents the most important change in our understanding of the brain in 400 years. The Times has stated, “Doidge has identified a tidal shift in basic science and a potential one in medicine. The implications are monumental.” Doidge demonstrates new treatments for brain, psychiatric and emotional problems, and the implications of the discovery of neuroplasticity for our understanding of culture. Oliver Sacks
described it as “Fascinating...a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain.” The New York Times has written that The Brain That Changes Itself has “implications…not only for individual patients with neurologic disease but for all human beings, not to mention human culture, human learning and human history.” Publisher's Weekly wrote, "Doidge ... slowly turns everything we thought we knew about the brain upside down."
and graduated “With High Distinction.” After winning the E.J. Pratt Prize for Poetry at age 19, and other literary awards for poetry, Doidge was given early recognition by literary critic Northrop Frye
, who wrote that his work was “really remarkable… haunting and memorable.” He obtained his medical degree at the University of Toronto, then moved to New York
, where he did a residency in psychiatry and degree in psychoanalysis at Columbia University
Department of Psychiatry, and the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. This was followed by a two-year Columbia University/National Institute of Mental Health Research Fellowship, training in empirical science techniques.
at the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry
(now part of CAMH
). He is currently on 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. His first psychiatric publication, published while still in his training, integrated neuroscience findings and subjective experience, and was entitled "Appetitive pleasure states: A bio-psychoanalytic model of the pleasure threshold, mental representation and defense." In : The Role of Affect in Motivation, Development and Adaptation Volume I: Pleasure Beyond the Pleasure Principle ed. by R. Glick MD, and S. Bone, MD, Yale University Press (138-173), 1990. This paper anticipated his integrative approach to psychiatry. Early psychiatric research studies and publications were conducted as part of a Columbia University team investigating the reliability of instruments used in the diagnosis of personality disorders, and demonstrating the problem of psychiatric comorbidity, describing how supposedly different psychiatric disorders often occur together. In the 1990s, Doidge authored empirically based standards and guidelines for the practice of intensive psychotherapy
that have been used in Canada and Australia. These were published in the "Standards and Guidelines for the Psychotherapies" edited by Cameron, Deadman and Ennis. In 1993 he presented research into the effectiveness of intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy and the patients who undergo it at the White House
in Washington, D.C.
. His research from that time, including studies of clinicians and their patients in intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Canada, US, and Australia has been credited with helping to keep intensive psychotherapy as part of the health care systems in Canada and Australia. In the late 1990s, he increasingly turned his attention to how to integrate recent discoveries in neuroscience with existing psychiatric, psychological and psychoanalytic knowledge. He has often been cited as an expert in neuroplasticity, psychiatry and developments in neurscience in the newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, The Times, Telegraph, Scientific American Mind, Newsweek,Psychology Today, Melbourne Age.
and trauma, psychoanalysis
and neuroscience, e.g., a popular article he wrote for Maclean's magazine in which he argues, using empirical studies, that understanding unconscious thought is relevant in modern day psychiatry and psychology.
Doidge was editor of Books in Canada: The Canadian Review of Books from 1995-8, and editor at large for several years after that. From 1998-2001, he wrote a column, “On Human Nature,” in the National Post. His series of literary portraits of exceptional people at moments of transformation appeared in Saturday Night Magazine, and he won four National Magazine Awards, including the President’s Medal for the best article published in Canada in the year 2000. The judges described his account of an intimate conversation with Saul Bellow, called “Love, Friendship and the Art of Dying,” as “brilliantly sustained from beginning to end…[a] multi-levelled piece about writing, friendship, life and death [that] opens a door into the complex lives of two extraordinary literary figures.”
In this book, Doidge demonstrates evidence for, and actual applications of neuroplasticity
, including many case studies of people with previously incurable disorders as they are being helped by neuroplastic interventions. He showed people with learning disorders of many kinds, blindness, balance and sensory disorders, strokes, cerebral palsy, chronic pain, chronic depression and anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, being helped. Doidge coined the term, "neuroplastician" to describe the scientists and clinicians who have extended our understanding of neuroplasticity. He also coined the term "plastic paradox," to describe the fact that plasticity gives rise to both flexible and rigid behaviors, to bring attention to the fact that there are many disorders that are the product of our plasticity. The book gives many examples of recent research in the field, and includes 87 pages of scientific references, uncommon in a book that also has become an international and New York Times Bestseller. Reviews have been positive from academics in the neuroplasticity field, with frequent praise of Doidge's writing style. Neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp stated it is "A rich banquet of brain-mind plasticity, communicated in a brilliantly clear writing style." The Brain That Changes Itself has been translated into 18 languages so far. It was the #1 bestseller in both Canada and Australia. It was one of the top ten bestselling science books of 2008. The book became the all-time bestseller at both the Sydney Writers' Festival, and the Brisbane Writers Festival.
in which he traveled across North America
observing case studies and demonstrating examples of neuroplasticity
in The Brain That Changes Itself. The film was directed by Mike Sheerin
and produced by 90th Parallel Productions. And in 2010, he participated in a follow-up documentary by the same production company called "Changing Your Mind". This documentary looked at how neuroplasticity and the changing brain is used to treat mental disorders like obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress, and schizophrenia
. "Changing Your Mind" aired on CBC's The Nature of Things. A longer version of both films has been co-produced by Arte for distribution in Europe. His work was also featured in, and used as part of the narrative basis for, the PBS special, "The Brain Fitness Program," which became PBS's most successful fundraising program of all time. Doidge's work has been the subject of a number of full length TV programs in the English speaking world. Doidge recently hosted the 25-hour TVO television series, Mysteries of the Mind: From Brilliant to Broken on TVO. He appears on radio and television programs, and has been on PBS, NPR, CBS, CNN, ABC, TVO, CTV, CBC among others.
Norman Doidge TV Interview With Allan Gregg Link label
Norman Doidge Radio Interview With Shelagh Rogers, CBC Radio Link label
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
, FRCP(C) is a Canadian-born psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
, psychoanalyst, researcher, essayist, poet and author of The Brain That Changes Itself
The Brain That Changes Itself
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, M.D. It features studies of several patients suffering from neurological disorders and details how the brain adapts to...
(2007). The Brain That Changes Itself describes some of the latest developments in neuroscience, and became a New York Times and international bestseller. In it Doidge illustrates and explains neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is a non-specific neuroscience term referring to the ability of the brain and nervous system in all species to change structurally and functionally as a result of input from the environment. Plasticity occurs on a variety of levels, ranging from cellular changes involved in...
, the discovery that the brain’s structure and function can be altered, under natural conditions, by mental experience. He presents the case that the discovery of this property represents the most important change in our understanding of the brain in 400 years. The Times has stated, “Doidge has identified a tidal shift in basic science and a potential one in medicine. The implications are monumental.” Doidge demonstrates new treatments for brain, psychiatric and emotional problems, and the implications of the discovery of neuroplasticity for our understanding of culture. Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks
Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE , is a British neurologist and psychologist residing in New York City. He is a professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University, where he also holds the position of Columbia Artist...
described it as “Fascinating...a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain.” The New York Times has written that The Brain That Changes Itself has “implications…not only for individual patients with neurologic disease but for all human beings, not to mention human culture, human learning and human history.” Publisher's Weekly wrote, "Doidge ... slowly turns everything we thought we knew about the brain upside down."
Education
Doidge studied literary classics and philosophy at the University of TorontoUniversity of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
and graduated “With High Distinction.” After winning the E.J. Pratt Prize for Poetry at age 19, and other literary awards for poetry, Doidge was given early recognition by literary critic Northrop Frye
Northrop Frye
Herman Northrop Frye, was a Canadian literary critic and literary theorist, considered one of the most influential of the 20th century....
, who wrote that his work was “really remarkable… haunting and memorable.” He obtained his medical degree at the University of Toronto, then moved to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, where he did a residency in psychiatry and degree in psychoanalysis at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
Department of Psychiatry, and the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. This was followed by a two-year Columbia University/National Institute of Mental Health Research Fellowship, training in empirical science techniques.
Medical and Academic Career
Returning to his native Toronto, Doidge served as Head of the Psychotherapy Centre and the Assessment Clinicat the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry
Clarke Institute of Psychiatry
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health is a psychiatric hospital in Toronto, Ontario. Much of their work focuses on forensic psychology, sex addiction, drug addiction, and research designed to shape public policy....
(now part of CAMH
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health is a consortium of mental health clinics at several sites in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its name in French is Centre de toxicomanie et de santé mentale...
). He is currently on 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. His first psychiatric publication, published while still in his training, integrated neuroscience findings and subjective experience, and was entitled "Appetitive pleasure states: A bio-psychoanalytic model of the pleasure threshold, mental representation and defense." In : The Role of Affect in Motivation, Development and Adaptation Volume I: Pleasure Beyond the Pleasure Principle ed. by R. Glick MD, and S. Bone, MD, Yale University Press (138-173), 1990. This paper anticipated his integrative approach to psychiatry. Early psychiatric research studies and publications were conducted as part of a Columbia University team investigating the reliability of instruments used in the diagnosis of personality disorders, and demonstrating the problem of psychiatric comorbidity, describing how supposedly different psychiatric disorders often occur together. In the 1990s, Doidge authored empirically based standards and guidelines for the practice of intensive psychotherapy
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a general term referring to any form of therapeutic interaction or treatment contracted between a trained professional and a client or patient; family, couple or group...
that have been used in Canada and Australia. These were published in the "Standards and Guidelines for the Psychotherapies" edited by Cameron, Deadman and Ennis. In 1993 he presented research into the effectiveness of intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy and the patients who undergo it at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
. His research from that time, including studies of clinicians and their patients in intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy in Canada, US, and Australia has been credited with helping to keep intensive psychotherapy as part of the health care systems in Canada and Australia. In the late 1990s, he increasingly turned his attention to how to integrate recent discoveries in neuroscience with existing psychiatric, psychological and psychoanalytic knowledge. He has often been cited as an expert in neuroplasticity, psychiatry and developments in neurscience in the newspapers such as the New York Times, Washington Post, The Times, Telegraph, Scientific American Mind, Newsweek,Psychology Today, Melbourne Age.
Literary, Academic and Popular Writing
Doidge has written over 170 articles, a combination of academic, scientific and popular pieces. Early in his career he published poetry. Doidge has been sole author of academic papers on neuroplasticity, human limitations and notions of perfectibility, psychotherapy treatment outcomes, dreams about animals, Schizoid personality disorderSchizoid personality disorder
Schizoid personality disorder is a personality disorder characterized by a lack of interest in social relationships, a tendency towards a solitary lifestyle, secretiveness, emotional coldness, and sometimes apathy, with a simultaneous rich, elaborate, and exclusively internal fantasy world...
and trauma, psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
and neuroscience, e.g., a popular article he wrote for Maclean's magazine in which he argues, using empirical studies, that understanding unconscious thought is relevant in modern day psychiatry and psychology.
Doidge was editor of Books in Canada: The Canadian Review of Books from 1995-8, and editor at large for several years after that. From 1998-2001, he wrote a column, “On Human Nature,” in the National Post. His series of literary portraits of exceptional people at moments of transformation appeared in Saturday Night Magazine, and he won four National Magazine Awards, including the President’s Medal for the best article published in Canada in the year 2000. The judges described his account of an intimate conversation with Saul Bellow, called “Love, Friendship and the Art of Dying,” as “brilliantly sustained from beginning to end…[a] multi-levelled piece about writing, friendship, life and death [that] opens a door into the complex lives of two extraordinary literary figures.”
Works
- The Brain That Changes ItselfThe Brain That Changes ItselfThe 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, M.D. It features studies of several patients suffering from neurological disorders and details how the brain adapts to...
In this book, Doidge demonstrates evidence for, and actual applications of neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is a non-specific neuroscience term referring to the ability of the brain and nervous system in all species to change structurally and functionally as a result of input from the environment. Plasticity occurs on a variety of levels, ranging from cellular changes involved in...
, including many case studies of people with previously incurable disorders as they are being helped by neuroplastic interventions. He showed people with learning disorders of many kinds, blindness, balance and sensory disorders, strokes, cerebral palsy, chronic pain, chronic depression and anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, being helped. Doidge coined the term, "neuroplastician" to describe the scientists and clinicians who have extended our understanding of neuroplasticity. He also coined the term "plastic paradox," to describe the fact that plasticity gives rise to both flexible and rigid behaviors, to bring attention to the fact that there are many disorders that are the product of our plasticity. The book gives many examples of recent research in the field, and includes 87 pages of scientific references, uncommon in a book that also has become an international and New York Times Bestseller. Reviews have been positive from academics in the neuroplasticity field, with frequent praise of Doidge's writing style. Neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp stated it is "A rich banquet of brain-mind plasticity, communicated in a brilliantly clear writing style." The Brain That Changes Itself has been translated into 18 languages so far. It was the #1 bestseller in both Canada and Australia. It was one of the top ten bestselling science books of 2008. The book became the all-time bestseller at both the Sydney Writers' Festival, and the Brisbane Writers Festival.
Documentary Film and Television
In July 2009, Doidge co-wrote and appeared in an award winning documentary television program for the Canadian Broadcasting CorporationCanadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
in which he traveled across North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
observing case studies and demonstrating examples of neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity is a non-specific neuroscience term referring to the ability of the brain and nervous system in all species to change structurally and functionally as a result of input from the environment. Plasticity occurs on a variety of levels, ranging from cellular changes involved in...
in The Brain That Changes Itself. The film was directed by Mike Sheerin
Mike Sheerin
Mike Sheerin is a Canadian, Toronto-based documentary director and producer. His documentaries include: Hunting Arrows , The Biographer's Voice , The Degrassi Story , The Secret Mulroney Tapes , Encounters with Moses , Welcome to Canadaville...
and produced by 90th Parallel Productions. And in 2010, he participated in a follow-up documentary by the same production company called "Changing Your Mind". This documentary looked at how neuroplasticity and the changing brain is used to treat mental disorders like obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress, and schizophrenia
Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterized by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness. It most commonly manifests itself as auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganized speech and thinking, and it is accompanied by significant social...
. "Changing Your Mind" aired on CBC's The Nature of Things. A longer version of both films has been co-produced by Arte for distribution in Europe. His work was also featured in, and used as part of the narrative basis for, the PBS special, "The Brain Fitness Program," which became PBS's most successful fundraising program of all time. Doidge's work has been the subject of a number of full length TV programs in the English speaking world. Doidge recently hosted the 25-hour TVO television series, Mysteries of the Mind: From Brilliant to Broken on TVO. He appears on radio and television programs, and has been on PBS, NPR, CBS, CNN, ABC, TVO, CTV, CBC among others.
Recent Keynotes
The Gairdner Foundation/Graham Boeckh Foundation Public Lecture, Montreal, 2011; McLuhan Galaxy Celebrations: Tracce Del Futuro “Traces of the Future” Keynote Address: Cambiano i media, cambiano il cervello Universita La Splenza, Via Salaria, Rome, Italy, 2011; Plenary Presentation, Neuroscience Research Institute, Peking University East West Conference, Beijing, 2010; Brisbane Writers Festival, 2010 Brisbane Australia; Keynote, Goethe University, Frankfurt, 2009; International Society for Neurofeedback Research, Denver, 2010; United Nations, New York, 2009; Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Dublin, Ireland 2009; London School of Economics, 2009; Royal Society of the Arts, London England 2009; Sydney Writers' Festival, Sydney Australia, 2009; Mind Science Foundation Distinguished Speakers Series, San Antonio Texas, 2008; Genoa Science Festival, Genoa Italy, 2008; Harvard-MIT sponsored conference Learning & the Brain, Cambridge, MA 2008.Honors
2008 The Ken Book Award, of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, for an “outstanding literary work contributing to better understanding of mental illness as a neurobiological disease.”; 2008 Mary S. Sigourney Award Trust, in International Psychoanalysis, “recognizing significant contributions to the field of psychoanalysis.”; 2007, The Brain That Changes Itself chosen as one of the "Guardian" (UK) best books of the year; 2007,The Brain That Changes Itself chosen one of the top ten science books by amazon.com; 2007, chosen one of the top books of the year by "Slate Magazine" (Internet, U.S.); 2007, one of the best books of the year by The "Globe and Mail"; 2007, top books of the year by the "National Post"; 2007, one of the top books of the year, by amazon.ca; 2007, chosen by Scientific American as a Main Selection; 2002 Winner of the National Magazine Award, Gold Award, for the Best Profile published in Canada; 2001 Winner of the Canadian National Magazine Award President’s Medal, for the best non-fiction article published in Canada in the year 2000, “Love, Friendship and the Art of Dying- A conversation with Saul Bellow.”; 2000, National Magazine Award, Gold Award, for the Best Profile published in Canada in the year; 1998 Winner of the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Committee on Research and Special Training (CORST) Essay Prize in Psychoanalysis and Culture; 2008 Elected to Membership of the American College of Psychoanalysts for “many outstanding achievements in psychiatry and psychoanalysis.”; 1997–present "Canadian Who’s Who"; 1995 Gold Award, Prix du Magazine Canadien-National Magazine Awards, Personal Journalism; 1994 First Place Winner, Personal Essay, C.B.C./Saturday Night Literary Award now called the “Canadian Literary Award.” This award has been considered the most important literary competition in Canada for an unpublished literary work.External links
Norman Doidge Official Website Link labelNorman Doidge TV Interview With Allan Gregg Link label
Norman Doidge Radio Interview With Shelagh Rogers, CBC Radio Link label